Not long ago I came across an article written way back in 2013—before my beloved Seahawks took me to the top of the mountain then dropped me off a cliff in successive years in the Super Bowl. (But that’s another story for another time.) The article in question, entitled The 3 Competitive Defenses Of Enduring SaaS Companies, spoke to the different types of competitive advantage SaaS companies have, and specifically one which involves creating a strong partnership program, if you will. I happen to wholeheartedly agree with the author.
If we were to look at software/SaaS companies who are the market share leaders in their segments, we would find that the vast majority of these leaders have a thriving partner ecosystem attached to them or even built upon (fully dependent) on them. This is not a new phenomenon by any means, however, for it has been a common theme for years in the tech industry.
These deep partner (SI, Agency, ISV) relationships have extreme value for all parties. For the large software vendor, these partners provide a much broader functional footprint for customers. They also provide access to more customers, buyers, and influencers than we have today. For the smaller partner, it provides their business with reach and scale and helps fund their expansion and innovation, which in turn benefits the large vendor.
ISVs in particular are very open partnerships—as per the findings of a Forrester study which showed that "66% of surveyed companies indicating that channel partners are strategically important to growing revenues from their SaaS products.”
From a practical perspective, when you're in a competitive deal, you need to think of your partner ecosystem NOT as a great group of over X number of innovative partners, but as a proxy for a feature or set of features that your customers are looking for, built on your stack, to solve their marketing and advertising challenges.
Make no mistake about it, partner programs are not for everyone or every SaaS business. What is most important is to use common sense when deciding whom to partner with. Obviously it has to be mutually beneficial relationship. Take the time to develop a strategy, do your due diligence in terms of checking "under the hood” of every potential partner—AKA their reputation and background—and set realistic goals and KPIs. When done right, a partnership can reap benefits for everyone.
Could your Saas business benefit from a partnership program? Gain more insight into developing your own ecosystem with our Guide to Building Your Marketing Technology Stack.
from Oracle Blogs | Oracle Marketing Cloud http://ift.tt/23xHlin
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment