Partner selection and what it means to Allbound

Back again, with another bi-weekly blog.

Last week was an exciting one, as we talked about Allbound’s recent acquisition of Channel Mechanics.

This week, we will get back to focussing on building in public and focusing on how we are building out our partner program here at Allbound.

This week's topic is partner recruitment.

Specifically, how we are thinking about recruiting net new partners to our program, and our progress so far.

Admittedly, when we first made the decision to move to an ecosystem first model at Allbound, the initial excitement morphed into a rush to find and recruit as many partners as possible.

However, as we have started to talk and listen to more and more of the potential partners in our ecosystem, we have become highly selective about those we want to engage with.

Our selection criteria is simple, there has to be mutual value opportunities in order for it to make sense. If you do this for a quick referral fee, that might work for one transaction, but there’s no real relationship formed. No long term value generated. That’s not for us.

We’re in this for advocacy, not just ‘transactions’. Sure we have referral and reseller arrangements but we see those as table stakes and a way to just contribute to value. 

We’re looking for all 3 of the “I’s” in these relationships. Is an ‘Introduction’ useful? - hell yeh! But there’s often equal value in Info and Influence. When you have close and long term relationships, you activate all three ‘I’s’ and when this happens, you have a partnership engine that’s firing on all cylinders.

That’s our goal. Advocacy. 

We are focussed on providing as much value to our partners, as we expect our partners to provide to us across all three ‘I’s’.

Give to get is definitely a central underpinning of our entire partner program, and impacts the way we think through new partner recruitment.

This is true regardless of the type of partner we are bringing on.

If you are a technology partner, we want to ensure that on top of providing our customers with value through new features and functionality, we are also providing you a mechanism to win new business.

If you are a channel partner, we are offering up co-marketing opportunities, and other value, in exchange for potential leads.

Operating off this principle has not only given us a natural filter through which to evaluate potential partners, it's also given us a small list of partners that we can provide focus and attention to.

In talking with other partner professionals, and additionally learning from our customers, one of the pieces of advice that we heard time and time again, was that the number of partners recruited was a vanity metric.

I would agree with this.

We are not building a partner program to just have an impressive partner page, with lots of partners listed.

We are building a partner program to offer real and lasting value to our customers, and our partners.

By partnering with companies where there is real mutual value, we hope to keep the partner flywheel turning, and create a truly impactful partner program for everyone involved.

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Until next week.

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