Mary Coxon leads partner marketing at ThinkOn, drawing on a B2B technology marketing career spanning enterprise software, IT distribution and mobility, and CRN named her a 2024 Women of the Channel honoree for strengthening ThinkOn’s partner programs, events and education.
A partner program should help you run your business, not tell you what to sell. Before you sign with any cloud or infrastructure provider, run it through five checks. Each one comes from problems MSPs tell us they hit in programs that looked good on paper.
1. Does it dictate your product mix?
Too many programs steer what you sell: hit this tier, push that SKU, chase this quarter’s incentive. The result is a service shaped around the program instead of the client.
Ask: can I sell what I want, to whoever I want, or are there tiers and targets that decide the mix for me?
At ThinkOn: partners sell what they want, to whoever they want. There is no dictated mix.
2. Does it protect your client relationship?
Your clients are your business. A program that sells direct, or lets a vendor build its own relationship with your client, puts that at risk.
Ask: does the provider sell to my clients directly, and what do I keep: the account, the service, the backup operations?
At ThinkOn: we are channel-only and the platform under your service, never a competing one. You keep the client relationship, the backup operations and the service.
3. Is there a working back office?
A price sheet is not a program. You need tools to run the partnership day to day.
Ask: is there a partner portal, and what does it do? Is there deal registration? Where do my people get trained, and who do they call?
At ThinkOn: a partner portal with deal registration, training resources and dedicated support.
4. Can you verify the credibility?
Anyone can say their program is good. Look for proof from a third party.
Ask: who has recognized this program, and what designations does the provider hold?
At ThinkOn: recognition in the CRN Partner Program Guide and our Broadcom VCSP designation.
5. Will they help you before you commit?
The riskiest moment in a new partnership is the first customer engagement.
Ask: will the provider train and support me on customer engagements before any purchase orders are signed?
At ThinkOn: yes. Our team trains and supports you on customer engagements before any purchase orders are signed, and we usually start small so nothing in production has to change.
Use it as a scorecard
Write the five questions down, put your current provider and any you are considering side by side, and mark each as yes, partly or no. A program that fails the first two should not be a partner at any price.
Let’s talk
Want to walk through the checklist against your own business? Contact us and we’ll set up a call.
