Piloting in the vast partner universe

In order to suc­cess­ful­ly ini­ti­ate a busi­ness rela­tion­ship with promis­ing and renowned chan­nel part­ners for XaaS sales, ven­dors need access to the right lev­els, sec­tions and con­tacts in the Group’s uni­verse. In the case of large com­pa­nies or groups of com­pa­nies as poten­tial part­ners, this presents a not incon­sid­er­able chal­lenge. Every cor­po­rate group, every large com­pa­ny is a uni­verse of its own. No one can Google the rel­e­vant “points of con­tact” or research them on web­sites. Even social net­works such as LinkedIn hard­ly pro­vide reli­able infor­ma­tion here. If you knock on the wrong door at the wrong time, you not only waste time, you may also lose the chance of ever reach­ing your goal.

This is because there are inter­nal sen­si­tiv­i­ties and “red lines” among cor­po­rate part­ners that exter­nal par­ties may not be aware of. XaaS providers need not only a “door open­er” here, but also an accom­pa­ny­ing pilot in the busi­ness ini­ti­a­tion process and beyond. The pilot must know the invis­i­ble hur­dles with­in the group. He must have broad and deep con­tacts in the var­i­ous cor­po­rate units and speak the lan­guage of the poten­tial renowned chan­nel part­ner. He also needs a pro­found back­ground, for exam­ple as an incu­ba­tion sales and busi­ness devel­op­er. This is impor­tant in order to sound out the oppor­tu­ni­ties and medi­um- and long-term prospects of the solu­tion to be offered togeth­er with poten­tial ven­dors in advance of the first con­tact. In case of doubt, it is nec­es­sary for the ven­dors to fur­ther elab­o­rate their solu­tion con­cept, posi­tion­ing and USP with the help of the pilot. The sell­ing strat­e­gy is adapt­ed in such a way that the offer becomes inter­est­ing for the con­tacts in the group.

XaaS sales channel cooperation: An offer that the partners cannot refuse …

Being con­vinced of your­self is one thing. Being able to con­vince XaaS sales part­ners is anoth­er. The most inter­est­ing solu­tion only becomes tru­ly rel­e­vant to poten­tial part­ners when the ven­dor makes an offer that pro­vides tan­gi­ble incen­tives for coop­er­a­tion. These include gen­er­ous mar­gins and coop­er­a­tive sup­port mea­sures, oppor­tu­ni­ties for lead gen­er­a­tion, the involve­ment of the chan­nel part­ner in the fur­ther devel­op­ment of the ven­dor’s solu­tion, and even the prospect of a merg­er or joint com­pa­ny for­ma­tion. The pilot accom­pa­nies these process­es and the nec­es­sary mea­sures with active sup­port on the “doing” and man­age­ment lev­els. He is not only a “door open­er” and “guide” but an active co-cre­ator of the ven­dor’s suc­cess in the part­ner channel.