There is a lot to be said about cooperative working relationships and partnerships. Many industries are struggling in the current business world, and the marketing world is in constant motion. To be able to stay on top and remain competitive, we need a little help from our friends. When we talk about friends, that refers to our partner ecosystems. Partnerships, when done right, have enormous power to help partners reach new markets, attract more customers, accelerate growth, expand sales, and solve more problems. When we work together, we accomplish much more than when we work in a vacuum.

You can develop a great channel partner ecosystem with good planning and persistence. It is incredibly important that you implement a strategic approach for how you will recruit, motivate, and engage various partners in your ecosystem. You will need total buy-in from leadership and the time, resources, and patience to nurture those partner relationships.

• Here are the steps you will need in order to build up a partner ecosystem:
• Determine which partners are ideal partner matches with your business
• Figure out how to organize your partners
• Identify which products will be sold directly by each business versus which products and services will be sold through indirect channels.
• Determine the marketing and sales assets you can provide to your partners and how you will manage those assets.
• Implement processes to gather partnership feedback and evaluate partnership effectiveness.
• Define the metrics and measurements you will use to determine the success of your company and your partners.

Once you have your channel strategy and operations strategy in place, you can identify and recruit partners. You can leverage various marketing tactics such as account-based marketing and sales prospecting to recruit specifiers, installers, and retailers into your various partner programs.

To identify potential partners, you will need to research your prospects and their businesses. Understand what they do, how they do it, and if they would be a good partner for your business. Begin by establishing your ideal customer profile, including potential partners’ business models, challenges, purchase processes, competition, and buyer persona to guide your partner recruiting messaging and efforts.