Challenge

Help a mid-sized ERP vendor transition its channel to a cloud business model by educating its own Partner Business Managers on the business and financial benefits of moving to a cloud model for partners.

Results

• All 5 channel partners from the pilot phase signed up to the new terms of engagement.
• 20 further partners signed up within 90 days of program roll out
• Pipeline of $1.5m+ secured by partners in first quarter
  

Approach

Strategy to Revenue invested time in understanding the current GTM Channel model as well as the business’ long-term goals. From here it delivered a three-phase approach. Phase one delivered a best practice roadmap for tackling the internal alignment of process, systems and resource. It identified key blockers and quick-wins and worked with the company to set up work streams to tackle the most critical blockers first to ensure partners were supported and set up for success. The next step looked at customer segmentation and channel deployment. The team identified where existing partners were able to support the long-term goals of the business and where there were gaps that needed to be filled. Effort was then directed at briefing the product marketing and channel enablement teams to develop the necessary messaging and supporting materials for this group. An evolution plan to move the channel to this new model and avoid revenue drop was also initiated. The final phase focused on giving Channel Managers the skills and knowledge to help partners move to the new model. It included online learning on business acumen, accounting, budgeting and business planning. It was supported with workshops where managers were coached on skills such as negotiating contracts and backed up with regular check-in sessions to ensure the work plans and behaviors were being adhered to.