The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Amazon Consulting 2011

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Thought Leadership Brief The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager: Do The Skills of Today’s

Channel Sales Managers Translate?

Amazon Consulting The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager Page 2

Table of Contents

Page

Your Partners Want More 3

Who is the Partner Development Manager? 4

Leadership for a Faster Start 5

It Takes a Village—and a Seasoned Leader 7

Partner Coverage and Logistics 9

Amazon Recommends 13


Your Partners Want More

Today’s solution provider expects more from the vendor enablement process

than ever before. It's not enough anymore to simply get a welcome letter

from a channel manager and login credentials to the channel partner portal.

Partners want more hands-on support, better guidance during business

planning and faster deployment of resources to achieve a quicker return on

their vendor relationship.

In fact, most partners say that they

expect to start selling in the first six

months of a new vendor relationship and

to achieve an average ROI of 200 percent

in the first 12 months.1

At first blush it might be easy for vendors

to dismiss these expectations as over

demanding. But solution providers are

making a significant investment based

only on faith and financial guesswork. If

those guesses don't pan out the soured

relationship could presumably

inconvenience the vendor. But has the

potential to absolutely sink a partner.

Meanwhile, changing customer habits and

an increasingly competitive IT sales

environment are both putting pressure on

solution providers to adapt with new

service models and build better value on

top of vendor products.

In light of all of this, we at Amazon

Consulting believe that vendors need to

start transitioning partner management

from a program management function to

a true business development function

within the next five to ten years. And the

first order of business for this evolution is building a suitable role for someone

to lead the charge.

We call this position the Partner Development Manager. More than a Channel

Sales Manager, a Partner Development Manager should be a prospect hunter

with senior executive skills and a strong background in building team

relationships.

1 Rookie to Rock Star: Accelerating the Development of Channel Partnerships, Amazon Consulting, 2010

Partner Development Managers and the

Partner Value Equation

Your channel partner prospects aren't willing to risk an investment in a new vendor relationship without some assurances that they'll see meaningful returns. After being burned before by unsupportive vendors and facing increasing pressure from a challenging economy and changing business models, they want to work with vendors who offer a total package that we call the Partner Value Equation. Are you doing everything you can to put your channel support strategy in line with this equation? If you haven't

started talking about establishing a Partner Development Manager role, probably not.


Partner Development Managers are more proactive and more focused in their

recruitment efforts. They've got the intuition and the skills to engineer the

best match between the needs of the vendor and the solution provider.

It's a leadership position that will encourage successful long-term

relationships even in the face of tough economic times and shifting channel

business models. Which is why we think that if you can have only one role in

your channel enablement team, it needs to be the Partner Development

Manager.

Who is the Partner Development Manager?

No matter what you call them – Channel Recruitment Managers, Partner

Recruit Managers or Partner Sales Managers – Partner Development Managers

think differently than traditional Channel Sales Managers.

“We definitely look at a new hiring profile for Partner

Recruit Managers," says Karine Allouche Salanon,

Director of worldwide strategy and compete for Microsoft.

"We are recruiting for a different DNA – more business

savvy, more sales-oriented with an entrepreneurial

spirit.”

It's no knock against Channel Sales Managers, either. Our

recent projects and research has shown that these

traditional channel liaisons are so mired in the day-to-day

upkeep of existing partner accounts and sales tasks that

it would be unfair and unrealistic to pile on the added

responsibility of recruiting and building an enablement

team around a new breed of partner.

By adding Partner Development Managers to the mix, vendors can better

compete for prospective partners' time and attention. It takes a seasoned

business manager to engage the new breed of partner. A Partner

Development Manager should not only have the ability to research, identify,

qualify, sell-to and recruit solution providers, but also to establish a team

relationship where the vendor and the partner can build technology solutions

together.

“It’s a personality or attitude difference between the two roles, not skills:

both need to have strong sales skills, but the PSR will like to hunt, sell, uproot

the competition, and be tech-savvy in order to have new discussions with

partner prospects,” asserts Jane Lowe, Director of Personal Systems Group,

HP.

As vendor technologies and partner business models focus more heavily on

services, this engagement step has become the most crucial in determining

channel relationship success. If it isn't done right, little else matters.

“Since SAP added the Channel Recruiter role our time-to-revenue with partners has

increased. Partner selection has become more thoughtful, and we have brought on

higher quality partners.”

John Scola

VP, Partner Recruitment & Excellence


L

e

a

d

E

Leadership for a Faster Start

Through our many client engagements and recent vendor interviews on this

topic, we believe it has become an imperative to establish and refine partner

management roles to match and support the phases of the partner

development lifecycle, which we identify as a series of four steps:

engagement, activation, ramping up and management. Ideally, organizations

shouldn't be dumping Channel Sales Managers in lieu of Partner Development

Managers. Instead, these two roles should be working in concert for

maximum enablement throughout the partner development lifecycle.

When working in concert with the Channel Sales Managers and other

enablement team members, the new Partner Development Manager role

offers high touch early on in the lifecycle. The Partner Development Manager

takes the facilitator role while passing operational duties off to the Channel

Sales Managers and the rest of the team once the relationship is established

and sales take root.

So in relation to the lifecycle, the Partner Development Manager looks

something like this:

Partner Development Manager

Responsibility Stage 1: Hands-On

Business Development and Recruitment

Partner Development Manager

Responsibility Stage 2: Facilitator for

Day-to-Day Channel Management Team

In the first stage, the partner development manager helps the company grow

its partner ecosystem. Their job is to find the right partners, to match

Case Study: SAP

Increasing demands from partners has spurred some vendors to respond to those needs with dedicated recruitment and enablement managers. For example, software giant SAP

has both Channel Recruitment Managers and is piloting a new role of Channel Incubator Manager in North America. The Incubator role works only with new designated partners passed to them for nurturing by the Channel Recruit Manager. The Channel Incubators sole role is to work with the partner on hands-on sales and onboarding tactical activities for 12-18 months, with the overall goal to make the partner successful in driving revenue and to become self-sufficient.


company goals with partner needs, to explore and define the benefits of

working together. It’s more critical today than ever before for an

entrepreneurial-minded business executive to understand, own and sell the

value the company brings to the prospective partner and how they might

benefit from investing time and resources to become a productive and self-

sufficient partner. Vendors need to actively recruit a new breed of Partner

Development Manager who is a savvy “hunter,” who understands business

and technology, and who is an entrepreneurial team leader.

Moving the partner from initial engagement and recruitment to becoming

activated at the sales, technical and marketing levels is a proverbial cliff many

Channel Sales Managers fall off of as they try to move partners along their

development path. At this “activate” stage, the Partner Development

Manager takes the basic program elements to a higher level. This is where

the partner gets introduced to their functional partner team members (the

safety net) to establish ongoing support relationships and to accelerate the

activation of their partnership.

When Partner Development Managers “ramp” a new partner, the lead

generation and sales development process is high touch and may be a

lengthy step. Once a partner is fully activated and ramped they are likely

transitioned to the Channel Sales Manager to “manage” and own the growth

Phase Channel Sales Manager Partner Development Manager

Engage • Qualify partners from leads

• Execute contracts

• Recruit into vendor program

• Research and identify partner targets

• Qualify fit and interest with execs

• Initial business planning

• Relationship building meetings with local sales teams

• Recruit and manage contracts

Activate

(Onboard) • Program enrollment

• Contract administration

• Initiate on-boarding process

• Program enrollment

• Contract negotiations and administration

• Introduction to virtual team

• Develop business and marketing plan

Activate

(Enable) • Establish path to certification

• Transition to training and

marketing resources

• Establish and manage enablement track with virtual team

• Technical training guidance

• Pre-Sales training

• Synch with Partner Marketing Manager to offer guidance and

support for campaigns

• Linkage with field account managers for mentoring

Ramp • Brokers sales collaboration

with field teams

• Pipeline/forecast tracking

• Order tracking

• Personal co-selling support

• Facilitate partner-to-partner collaboration

• Lead generation--pipeline development

Manage • Sales pipeline and forecast

management

• Revenue monitoring

• Renewing contracts

• Manages multi-region or multi-practice partners until fully

ramped in all regions or disciplines

• Transitions or teams with channel manager on all other

ramped partners


and evolution of the relationship. This handoff point varies from partner to

partner depending on the complexity and depth of the partnership.

In stage two, the Partner Development Manager becomes a coach, teacher,

and facilitator. They show the new partner the path to productivity. They lead

the partner management team which provides sales, marketing, technical and

operational support the partner needs to ramp steadily and achieve ROI

faster, all while keeping functional overlaps and operational complexity to a

minimum for the partner.

It Takes a Village -- and a Seasoned Leader

It might take a village to raise a channel prospect up the right way, but true

prosperity will only follow if that village has a strong seasoned leader. The

division of labor between operational enablement support and strategic

business development work is key to keeping things running smoothly within

the confines of a vendor's organization. But in order to keep the seams from

showing and prevent new partnerships from losing steam early on, channel

teams need a leader to glue everything together. This is where a Partner

Development Manager can play a huge role.

Once a new partner is recruited, the Partner Development Manager acts as

the chief of the partner on-boarding and enablement team. Together with the

Partner Development Manager, the team should consist of a Technical

Solution Specialist, Partner Marketing Manager, Program Support Manager,

and Sales and Technical Trainer.

Partner Development Manager:

Owns overall relationship

Demonstrates path to revenue

Team captain of virtual team

Accountable to objectives

Leads Sales readiness

Manages milestones

Transitions relationship to CM

Technical Solution Specialist:

Develops partner enablement path

Guides in training and certification

Assists in Pre-Sales, Lab, POC

Owns tech contacts relationships

Partner Marketing Manager:

Assists partner with campaigns

Accountable to MDF funds

Joint go-to-market activity plans


“We definitely look at a new hiring profile for Partner Recruit Managers. We are recruiting for a different DNA – more business savvy, more sales-oriented with an entrepreneurial spirit.”

Karine Allouche Salanon Director of Worldwide Strategy and Compete

This division of labor is key. Vendors are more often

discovering how inefficient and costly it is to have their

channel sales managers distracted from higher level

partner development activities. Large technology

vendors have begun to move the day-to-day

administration and program support issues away from

the Partner Development and Channel Sales Managers

and to the role of partner program support and trainers.

The Partner Development Manager serves as the

knowledgeable expert who understands the solution

providers’ business goals and go-to-market initiatives,

and who makes sure the rest of the team does also. It

is his/her responsibility to set the plans and plays of who, when, and how the

other members of the partner team will assist the partner in their path to

revenue and market success. Additional tasks are managing the early

enablement activities, measuring the progress and communication to the

partner about their sales and technical readiness.

The new breed of solution provider expects to be mentored by the vendor’s

team in sales, market positioning, business development and technology

implementation. Face time, sales training sessions, side-by-side on the

customer site, best-practice mentoring sessions, are new expectations of

partners from the vendor’s partner

team.

The well-orchestrated virtual team is

essential for successfully providing

these resources. The winning formula

is a combination of the right resources

that follow a common set of growth and

development objectives and clear

processes for functional handoffs that

are planned and measured. An

increase in resources, planned out thoughtfully without overlap or

unnecessary complexity, is welcomed by the partner community.

35% of vendors are investing in field and

business development

reps for planning and enablement in 2011.

Amazon Consulting 2011 State of

Partnering Study

Case Study: Microsoft Microsoft has long used the field Technical Solution Specialist (TSS) to enable and

support their solution providers in the field. Technical Solutions Specialists provide partner assistance to navigate the resources, sales and marketing support from the Microsoft product solution teams for their respective specialization. TSS staff engage on specific customer deals and support partners during the sales process while helping to

move the partner’s technical staff to self-sufficiency. Microsoft uses its Channel Recruitment Manager to help the partner proactively build its pipeline. The Channel Recruitment Manager aligns the partner with the TSS and the direct sales people to help drive their first 5-7 customer opportunities.


Partner Coverage and Logistics

With so many ways to collaborate and communicate virtually today, vendors

need to design appropriate partner coverage models. Traditionally, large

vendors have designated channel program tiers for aligning resources.

Partner-facing teams, especially those in the field, are typically organized

around partner tier, region or by partner type.

Partner types and tiers are the most common organizing principle today for

determining a partner coverage model. Partners who cannot meet target

revenue goals or higher program qualifications often receive management via

tele-managed resources, from distribution, inside sales, partner resource

desks or self-service partner portals.

Many vendors are reconsidering their coverage strategy today to focus on

quality, not quantity of their partnerships, with an eye toward being more

efficient in the use of partner development resources. Since smaller vendors

don’t have the luxury of granular coverage they may assign partner managers

for large geographic regions and they will share the Technical Solution

Specialist role and inside sales teams to support the partner. This can be

adequate for vendors who have few technology areas and a high-touch

approach to channel management. Some vendors have been “fishing FOR the

partner” versus “teaching the partner how to fish,” but that is changing. More

vendors are trying to be more effective with their managed partners, while

reinforcing their unmanaged partner business with self-service support.

Regardless of their size or channel maturity, vendors are typically not able to

fund enough dedicated channel resources to adequately assist all partner

types and tiers. Channel Managers teamed with Technical Solution Specialists

can usually support and manage 30 to 40 enabled partners in an assigned

region/geography. Technical and Marketing Enablement Managers, since they

are assisting most frequently with purely the training and enabling of new

partners, can support many partners and multiple Channel Sales Managers,

and Partner Development Managers.

Case Study: Sophos

Sophos, a highly focused global security software company, has recently altered its approach to how it assigns partner resources. It has begun to provide new partners

with Partner Development Managers who are field-based sales advocates to help them build their security solutions around Sophos products. In parallel, Field Channel Account Managers (CAM) are teamed with Inside Channel Account Managers at a ratio of 2:1 to manage existing partners. Distribution handles partners with high volume but small deals resources which frees up the CAM team to focus on business building activities with partners.


The challenge lies in determining how many partner prospects and new

recruits a Partner Development Manager can manage. Solution providers will

be at various stages along the development continuum so there is never a

dull moment. When partners pass their first successful year they may

transition to a Channel Sales Manager’s responsibility, while the Partner

Development Manager will continue to find and nurture new partners to

address new markets or technologies. On average, we see vendors with an

established Partner Development Manager role manage about 8-12 partners

in the on-boarding process at any one time.

Performance should be monitored, measured, and analyzed along the way.

Development objectives are not a nice-to-have anymore – they are an

imperative, so that all parties see a strong ROI for the partnership. While

creating and managing these development results can be a challenge, it is

paramount as it defines the appropriate compensation that is required to

attract, retain, and recognize this new key role.

Due to the economic environment, vendors face increasing pressure to

rationalize the unique contribution and ROI from each and every partner-

facing role.

“We have found that we need to have a clear view of unique partner-facing

roles and must be surgical in BI reporting to measure individual impact,"

says Microsoft's Salanon. "It can be tough to show strategic value and

individual sales accountability.”

Vendor

Role

Distribution Inside

Manager

Channel Sales

Manager

Partner Development

Manager

Vendor Role Distribution Inside

Manager

Channel Sales Manager Partner Development

Manager

Primary

Recruitment

Focus

May recruit from

existing

resellers

Inbound recruit

calls

Recruits to fill territory needs Researches, identifies,

qualifies and recruits

Partner Touch

Points

Low-volume,

unmanaged

VARs

Silver and

bronze volume

VARs

Select gold and platinum

VARs

On-boards new partners;

may team-manage national

or multi-practice partners.

# of VARs

Managed

>100 >100 50-60 15-20

Enablement

Duties

Owns

enablement and

management

directly

May assist CSM

in management

tasks

Manages inherited partners

passed from Partner

Development Manager or

teams on key partnerships

Manages enablement team

and acts as a liaison to

direct partners to the right

team members


The concept of the Partner Development manager is a new

challenge because of the critical partner incubation role,

which likely will not result in much revenue in the first year.

Vendor CFO’s and financial management teams cut back

heavily on partner-facing roles in the last couple of years

only to realize it starved their partner quality, decreased

partner satisfaction, and negatively impacted their ramping

process. The Partner Development Manager and the

traditional CSMs should have complementary roles, both

accountable to unique measureable milestones in the

partner development cycle.

The ultimate measure of any new role is how its success is measured by the

vendor and the partner. In order to attract and retain the right talent for the

new Partner Development Manager role, it is imperative to provide a new

compensation plan that recognizes and rewards the efforts to “hunt” for new

partners and the ultimate outcome of those efforts – increased revenue.

Compensation should be tied to the metrics of the value-based partner

program including tracking rewarding for recruiting, on-boarding,

enablement, certifications, industry wins and high customer satisfaction.

How will these value-based metrics affect compensation? The old adage

applies - people do what you pay them to do.

“We really saw increased performance in the Channel Recruiter role once we

started measuring the metric of time-to-revenue vs. quantity of new

partners," says John Scola, vice president of partner recruitment and

excellence for SAP. "Channel Recruiters have also been more effective than

CSMs in partner selection resulting in bringing on higher quality partners.”

Case Study: HP

Channel-centric giant Hewlett Packard organizes its SMB partner coverage like its direct account coverage model. HP puts the partner in the generalist role for most

accounts and supports them with HP specialists. In 2011, the Personal Systems Group (PSG) followed suit for the role of those building and nurturing the channel, as follows:

Partner Sales Reps (PSR) - Outside field sales resources that engage actively in

partner team-selling, face-to-face with end users. PSRs are compensated on a geographical territory sales quota, not based on the performance of individual

partners. Partner Development Reps (PDR) - Inside sales resources responsible for partner

coverage, recruiting and development. Their role is to help “farm” solution providers who are already enabled to ramp their revenue. PDRs are compensated for the growth of individual partners year over year.

“It’s a personality or attitude difference between the two roles, not skills: Both need to have strong sales skills, but the PSR will like to hunt, sell, uproot the competition, and be tech savvy in order to have new

discussions with partner prospects.” Jane Lowe

Director, Personal Systems Group


In order to attract the sales skills, experience, and track record required of a

Partner Development Manager, vendors will find that they should be paying

higher base salaries since there is less opportunity for commission. One

solution is to set up annual and quarterly objectives around the steps in the

partner development cycle. Keep in mind, the partner is investing their first

12-18 months and so is the vendor by providing the right resource for the

job.

Although SAP, Microsoft, HP and Sophos are all instituting new compensation

plans and measurement criteria for new roles like the Partner Development

Manager, it is still appropriate for them and other IT vendors to continue to

compensate the traditional Channel Sales Manager on the fundamental

metrics of revenue and enablement activities.


Amazon Recommends

When partners don't feel well supported by their vendors, don't see signs of

early returns on their relationship investments or don't achieve measurable

milestones, vendor loyalty goes out the window. In this challenging and

dynamic environment, vendors need to keep partners' perceived value on the

top of the priority list throughout the recruitment lifecycle. Amazon believes

that the Partner Development Manager plays a crucial part in keeping

priorities straight.

This burgeoning role will help vendors better ramp new partners during the

critical first 12 to 18 months and help partners navigate the relationship going

forward. Upfront vendor investment with the right combination of resources

and benefits, along with patience and dedication (yes those are still virtues)

will drive measurable success for a new partnership.

We see five partner management imperatives that every technology

vendor should consider:

1. Make sure the partner management team understands and supports

the Partner Value Equation in all partner interactions.

2. Invest in the Partner Development Manager role with a new

entrepreneurial and hunter skill set. If you can only have one role –

let it be the Partner Development Manager.

3. Establish clear role definitions with measureable metrics for each stage

of the partner development cycle – be willing to create a new

compensation plan to reward those development metrics.

4. Clearly link the interdependencies and accountability of the partner

management team to the key elements of partner growth, maturity,

and productivity.

5. Keep it as simple as you can – adding complexity detracts from

partner value.


Key Contributor: Susan Pessemier - Consultant Susan brings many years in channel sales leadership roles with technology companies to this topic. Having been on both sides of the fence – as the vendor channel sales leader for Microsoft, Exodus, Savvis and QlikTech to owning her own IT reseller practice for 9 years. Susan is passionate about the need to evolve the vendor partner

facing roles to better serve the ever-expanding partner community.

For More Information

To find out more information about this paper, please send an email to

[email protected].

Established in 1997, Amazon Consulting, LLC, (Mountain View, CA) increases the impact of partnering by designing, implementing and automating effective partner models. Amazon Consulting’s clients entrust them to formulate growth strategies, build route-to-market models, perform competitive benchmarks, design partner programs, facilitate partner advisory councils, and provide temporary experts for project management and program execution. Drawing on decades of combined experience, Amazon Consulting makes available a vast library of partnering resources, hosts regular informational webcasts, and offers PartnerG2, a comprehensive partner intelligence subscription service. For clients looking to optimize the partner relationships and improve organizational efficiencies, Amazon Consulting also offers a hosted partner automation system called PartnerPath. For more information please visit www.amazonconsulting.com.

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Amazon Consulting 2011

Amazon Consulting Terms of Use

The information in this presentation is produced by Amazon Consulting and may

contain previously unpublished synthesis of materials.

Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute any material from Amazon Consulting

is hereby granted provided that the contents of this "Terms of Use" notice appear with

all copies. In addition, if the material used includes other credit or copyright

information, then this source information should also be included with all copies.

Use of Amazon Consulting content (documents, white papers, articles, research, etc.)

is for informational and non-commercial or personal use only. You may not modify any

content, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license,

create derivative works from, transfer, post on any network, broadcast in any media

or sell any information unless expressly permitted by Amazon Consulting. Content

other than that belonging to Amazon Consulting is licensed or otherwise published by

Amazon Consulting with the permission of the owner of the material. All rights in such

materials are reserved to the respective owners.

For questions and media requests, please contact:

Cathy Sperrazzo

Eye-to-Eye Communications, Inc.

858-565-9800

[email protected]

The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Technology

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