How do you know if the potential partner being considered is the right partner for your company? The solution: evaluate the partner for “fit” compared to your vision of the partnership.
This graphic should give you a good overview of key areas to consider. I will go into more details on evaluating multiple partners below and also provide a template to enable you to determine the right selection criteria for your company and partnership needs.
When evaluating multiple partners with the goal of selecting the best one you need to look at multiple criteria and rank the potential partners against each other. The criteria is not set in stone as every partnership has different needs.
In determining the right partner for your needs you should consider at least the following:
1. What type of partner program do you already have: referral, reseller, technology, etc.? This will help you give weight to certain components over others in the evaluation.
2. How will your program scale over the next 12 to 24 months?
If you are focused on partners that lead to revenue such as joint sales, then engagement between your team and the partner’s team will be most important. If already have revenue partners then automation of the processes that lead to revenue should be a key focus.
3. Not all features are equal within different partners, check out the key partners you are considering and really do due diligence to confirm that they can provide the right features, revenue etc.. You should ask for references and get their opinion on if the potential partner is a superior partner or not.
