Strategies For Channel Partner Engagement & Onboarding Success

By: Brian Steele, Strategy Advisor

Ongoing engagement is important to successful partner performance and placing emphasis on the onboarding part of that journey is one of the key elements.

To set the stage, our framework for partner engagement centers around an intentional approach to addressing distinct phases aligned to the partner journey in your channel program—think “purposeful design” or what we refer to as the three As: Attract, Activate and Accelerate.

Let’s dive in. On the next page, find six ways you can maximize channel partner engagement.

Attract The Right People

You’ve successfully recruited partners into the program (which is a topic all on its own!). Now what?

Attract their attention then earn their time. This holds true for joining a partner program and even when launching national incentives, promotions, new products and campaigns.

You can pique partner interest through crossmedia communications, creative branding and theming and using a message tailored just for their role. You'll have to explain the core fundamentals of the program so they know what’s in it for them. In return, you get the right action or behavior.

Like with any amount of learning, you don't want to overwhelm partners with information. Trickle it out to them in smaller chunks. Don’t overload them with all the things they need to get started. Onboard them deliberately and with care for their role, customer interactions and solutions.

To sustain program attraction (those first few steps in the right direction) repeatedly communicating with partners will drive that message home.

MAKE ONBOARDING A SELF-PACED JOURNEY TO ACTIVATE PARTNERS

Each partner will be on their own distinct path and reach different parts of their individual journeys at different times. Some will onboard early and move quickly through activation. Others will join the party later. But all will still need to be nurtured through their individual steps in the journey.

Make sure onboarding for partners doesn’t have a physical date tied to it. Strive for an automated effort that flows with partners whether they join at program launch or six months later. You may also need to use your onboarding with partners who are dormant or signed on years ago.

Successful onboarding gets partners attracted with the right message and gives them enough information to help take that first action you’re looking for (register a deal, make a sale, build a proposal, execute a marketing campaign, use the email tool, onboard a client, etc.).

When planning and figuring out which partners to draw the attention of, keep asking: What will help them simultaneously act quickly and continue to engage throughout the program?

Continually Get To Know Your Partners

The more you know about your partners and program participants, the better you can tailor and personalize program elements. And with greater personalization, comes greater partner investments of time and revenue. We’re actively helping clients grow their collection of data points about their partners to better improve the program experience.

> Send pulse surveys throughout the journey. If one participant is hitting all the goals and milestones, that becomes the optimal point of sending out a survey to get feedback on the program or help fill in a little bit about who you are.

> Complete smaller profile prompts. Instead of having partners fill out an entire profile of all the attributes, we sent smaller prompts to them over a longer period of time. This has resulted in a higher profile completion rate, which gives us more data to individualize the program.

> Drive individual activity. If the participant already worked through the self-paced onboarding, but hasn’t taken the ideal action, serve them an offer that attracts their attention, like an extra fast-start incentive to make their first claim or sale.

Focus on speed of action, generating attention, providing feedback or reinforcement and continually getting to know your partners.

ANTICIPATE DISENGAGEMENT & WANING INTEREST

There's going to be natural high points and then natural lows of disengagement. To maintain engagement after onboarding, be intentional about predicting and anticipating the low points and how to address in program designs.

> Incorporate acceleration tactics like fast-start or sprint initiatives.

> Employ incentive initiatives over a limited period of time, maybe quarterly or over a few weeks that focus on different types of sales efforts, training offers or engagement components.

The goal is to get all participants back into the portal, encouraging them to take action to support goals and stay motivated by your brand. The key is designing and communicating this differently for those highly engaged and those disengaged. Make sure the right communications go to the right people at the right time.

Recognize Behaviors To Accelerate Engagement

Think about the individual and what kind of measures to put in place (particularly in the onboarding and disengagement phases) to make sure you’re attentive to partner needs as they're starting and working their way through the journey.

> Early milestones that trigger a dimensional recognition item act as a reminder of the program.

> A simple recognition from a CAM thanks them for their actions.

> A personalized email shows the progress to goal for that timeframe and compares against peers.

For the disengaged or those often away from their desk, trigger text to encourage behavior if they haven't reached a milestone within a certain time, ideally measured by a mapped journey.

There are many different triggers, but putting a plan in place to activate them at purposeful points of time within the partner journey can help. Make it match the individuals versus everybody getting the same message on the same day. A mixture is better than generic, and personalized is the best of it all.

Also, care for those who enrolled late and want to break out of dormancy. Consider designing catch-up mechanics into promotions (similar to fast starts) to help them catch up in program earnings and help you increase sales and goals.

DON’T OVER-ENGINEER PARTNER JOURNEYS

Using every piece of partner data can be overwhelming. Don’t boil the ocean—having something is better than nothing!

The best recommendation is to identify your core participant roles or types in your program (e.g., sales rep, owner, admin, marketing, support, technician, etc.), and let them work through their journey at their own pace. Each person may come into the program on their own time, take the desired action on different date, and accelerate into ongoing success at their own tempo. Build the partner journey to react to them as an individual vs. a bulk time-stamped single message.

Personalization Enhances The Channel Partner Experience

When you can incorporate personalization, it's going to make partner engagement last much longer and create a better partner experience. And if you're not doing it, then somebody else is going to start and attract their attention.