How to Build a Successful Reseller Partner Program in 2023

Experts in business development with proven track records of assisting B2B businesses all have something in common: they leverage Reseller Partner Programs to boost the user base of their customers.

Have you been asking yourself how you'll expand your revenue in 2023? A well-designed and well-executed Reseller Partner Program might just be the answer. Multibillion-dollar IT businesses owe their success to powerful reseller programs. This is why Cisco, Citrix, and Microsoft reseller partner programs are popular among big IT companies.

Effective and beneficial partner programs involve time, effort, and strategic planning, all of which can be summarized in a few steps. Learn how to use a reseller partner network to sell and advertise your product effectively.

This article includes specific steps and ideas for creating your own professional reseller partner program.

A reseller partner program is a popular business strategic plan that vendors use to increase sales, build relationships, and grow their network of users or customers.

Value-added resellers (VARs), managed service providers (MSPs), cloud computing consultants, systems integrators (SIs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), independent software vendors (ISVs), and distributors are examples of channel partners (resellers) who work with a variety of business models.

So, what are the needed steps to create a successful reseller program? Below are our top 7.

Not all resellers are the same. Some companies have greater resources than others, and some can enhance your product by providing add-on services.

Understanding the types of resellers that have the most potential for both your business and theirs is the first step in building a reseller partner program. This should be determined by the nature of your product.

Whatever the condition guiding your selection, ensure you engage with the correct resellers or partners. Even when partners aren’t your workers, they are ambassadors for your company. Prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to partner programs.

Now that you know what kind of resellers you want to attract, it's time to look for them both on and offline. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Are they a member of a specific group or forum?

• Do they go to an industry trade fair every year?

• Is it possible for them to have other types of relationships, and if so, which ones?

• How can you use those networks to spread your message to your target audience?

• What value can I provide to them?

• What can I do now to provide value, even before the pitch meeting?

All of these questions should serve as a roadmap for completing an audit, which should serve as the foundation for your approach.

Resellers are unlikely to approach you on their own; you must go out of your way to show them how they can gain from reselling your goods. This can be accomplished via a combination of inbound and outbound marketing strategies, but first, you must determine which channels to use.

Find and discuss any important mutual goals once you’ve found an ideal possible partner. Clearly define what you and the potential partner bring to the table that you couldn’t do on your own. With this, you’ll be able to establish a partner program that generates the maximum value.

You’ll need material not only to persuade the reseller to offer your product but also to address the end user.

Begin by making a list of all the content you’ll need, such as:

• An overview of partnership benefits

• Cost structure

• FAQs

• Different ways the reseller can profit from your product, also known as benefits and/or rewards

• How your product benefits end-users, and

• How your offer can complement their own objectives

Making a workhorse brochure is a wonderful place to start because it’s a kit that can be quickly changed as needed. Consider it a folder containing inserts (one-pagers) you can add or remove as needed. This system is also popular in Microsoft reseller partner programs.

The workhorse brochure thus becomes a “package offer” that explains the ins and outs of the partner program, but it can also be utilized for other purposes. In addition to a printed version you can bring to face-to-face meetings, you can also build an online version that can be used in online meetings and pitches.

It’s also a good idea to have success stories you can display to other potential resellers to demonstrate your worth. They will take you much more seriously if they can see that other individuals are benefiting from your relationship.

A reseller partner program remains incomplete without the incorporation of periodic measurements of partners’ success. You need to establish clear-cut frameworks and indices upon which the activities and performances of the partners will be measured.

This simple strategy helps you to determine if the partnership is a step in the right direction (or not). It also enables business owners to make conclusive decisions about whether the business partnership should be discontinued or maintained.

It is important to state that setting and tracking measurable partnership goals are inevitable in the course of building an effective and efficient reseller partner program.

This can be done through a business plan, which will help you to define your goals with your partners for a specific period of time and track the results. The objective is to help the partner focus on what’s important and keep both businesses aligned.

One of the strategies that can be adopted in achieving this lofty objective is an acronym titled “SMART" which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, respectively. You can use this guide to build SMART goals for your partner program.

A reseller partner that fulfills all the five criteria captured under SMART is bound to be productive and worthy of partnership.

For your program to work successfully, you’ll also need to figure out how to enable the reseller partners program. Onboarding and educating resellers, giving tools and resources, connecting with and updating them as needed, and providing them with everything else they need for successful channel sales are all part of partner enablement.

Your partners must understand how to effectively advertise and sell your products or services, which makes partner onboarding critical.

You must train resellers on brand and partnership foundations during their partner onboarding. This training content will contain guidelines for how your brand should be portrayed and what critical product information should be discussed during the sales process.

Each partner’s training should be tailored to their specific needs, with a focus on how they can pitch the product to satisfy the demands of your common target.

Most importantly, don’t abandon your partners after they’ve completed their onboarding and training. Rather, schedule regular check-ins with partners at predetermined intervals. Also, make sure they know how to get in touch with you if they have any questions.

The reseller will realize that you are committed to the cause if you help the reseller sell your goods by co-financing marketing outreach programs.

Resellers seek help, which can be provided in the form of partner marketing campaigns. Your resellers can start engaging with promising prospects through co-sponsored events, database development, lead-generating campaigns, and email marketing. This has been useful in the IBM reseller partner programs and other related ones.

You can also provide co-branded material exclusively for your reseller if they are unable to develop it themselves. You assisting them in selling will ensure that the reseller is set up for success.

Remember that it’s never a good idea to pit two partners against one another. This is because, in certain cases, selecting only one or two resellers to serve a specific geographical zone (or vertical activity sector) might be more beneficial to your business than having a large number of resellers who end up stomping on each other’s toes.

Giving your resellers incentives to sell more products by introducing degrees of partnership (silver, gold, and platinum, for example) tied to a reward system can be a wonderful method for them to profit from their success.

Once you’ve built up a large network of resellers, you can arrange events for them, giving them special acknowledgment for their efforts like that of SAP reseller partner program.

You might also consider implementing a mentorship program, which connects new resellers with seasoned ones to learn best practices. Partners are more likely to row in the same direction when they believe they are all in the same boat, rather than affronting one another in direct combat over potential clients.

Reseller Partner Programs are always successful when no strategic stone is left unturned, so to speak. Each of the aforementioned steps has a significant impact on the outcome of the program, which is all about improved marketing, a broad-based customer network, and, eventually, business development.

It's necessary to give residual knowledge to the engaged resellers/partners. Their success output should also be tracked at close intervals. Onboarding of those partners is also necessary for more productivity, as this is the secret behind the success of HPE reseller partner program.

At an advanced stage, sponsoring lead campaigns to aid the assignment of the partners will motivate them and make them give better results. Reward systems will also consolidate the process and give it more effectiveness.

The series of concerted efforts point at making the reseller partner programs successful for the sustainable growth of the business. The Apple reseller partner program has indeed recorded tremendous success for their initiators.

Reseller Partner Programs are beneficial in getting a product or service in front of a wider audience while incentivizing the reseller with monetary incentives. Here are some other reasons why you should have the program:

It allows your product to reach a much larger audience by leveraging your partner network: Simply put, if each of your resellers sells to ten new clients, and you have five resellers, you have 50 sales. You’d need a lot more resources within your company to generate 50 more sales all by yourself.

A reseller program allows you to reach a far larger audience in a shorter amount of time. This is why the Zoom has been a landmark in the technological industry.

It gives you immediate access to a sales force: It provides you with access to several sales forces from various industries and geographic areas, and with a variety of talents and knowledge. 

You may triple your own sales force without spending money on additional sales teams or training by simply collaborating with a few resellers just as it is obtainable in the Salesforce reseller partner program.

This frees up more money and time for you to focus on reaching a larger audience and generating sales more effectively.

It instantly gives you new “warm” clients: You are not only acquiring new consumers, but you are gaining warm, new clients already buying from your reseller. Setting up a reseller partner program helps you to take advantage of the positive relationships that your resellers and their customers already have.  

Though there are a lot of upsides to a reseller partner program, the tasks and data required to manage it are generally too much to handle.

PRM software simplifies the process of launching a channel partner program by supporting businesses with hiring, training, deal registration, and managing relationships with their partners. It automates all of the tasks related to your collaboration, making it essential for any successful partner program.

Kiflo PRM platform can assist in the creation of a smooth-running reseller partner program. It assists businesses at every stage of the process, allowing them to expand and track the performance of their partnership programs.