industryopinion


Vendors, stop selling to the channel – listen and build


your relationships first Barry D’Arcy, VP of partners at Storyblok,


explores why partner relationship development is vital for channel success, from a CMS perspective.


T


he headless CMS market has gained a lot of traction and attention in the last few years. This market is currently valued at US$ 328.5 million (c. £262.7m) and it


is expected to grow 22.6% by 2027. This en masse adoption of headless CMS is, in part, due to the enhanced security and performance, flexibility, scalability and improved localisation, but also due to the digital revolution pushed forward by the pandemic. This rise in popularity is of course good news for digital agencies and tech resellers who are looking to share in these profits. However, you can’t just sell a product to the channel and reseller ecosystem and expect the revenues to come. Building and developing your partnerships must come first. One study shows that businesses that


“This rise in popularity is of


course good news for digital agencies and


are a part of at least one ecosystem have witnessed some significant improvements where ecosystems make up, on average, 13.7% of their total annual revenues, drive 12.9% in cost reduction, and generate 13.3% in incremental earnings. When done right, partnerships can enable you to do more


tech resellers who are looking to share in these profits.”


with less, and this can be very helpful during an economic downturn. From our experience, partnerships are like a lever: the more partnerships we grow, the more heavy liſting we can do. Tey allow us to focus on what we do best and rely on our partners for the rest. And this can apply to any business because the main rule of a successful business is that you cannot be everything to everyone. Terefore, we have to focus on our core business and use partnerships to leverage what’s missing. Being in a partnership can help partners get in touch with


the right leads by leveraging each other’s networks. Each partner has a close relationship with their clients, which means their clients will trust them when making a recommendation. Trust doesn’t just happen overnight though – the key here is listening and understanding what clients need. If a prospect didn’t have a problem they were trying to solve, they wouldn’t be in the market for a new product. It sounds obvious, but in


16 | May 2023


order to help the customer understand why your product is the solution to their problem, you have to understand and be able to clearly articulate why your product is the solution to their problem. An added bonus is that being part of a partnership or an ecosystem becomes an invaluable source of feedback on your product. If you are part of a technology partner programme that is focused solely on selling, you are unlikely to get that kind of feedback. Again, this is where listening and relationships come to help and add so much more value. Lots of data in the market points


out an estimated 40-50% increase in customer win rate for deals with partners involved. We have also seen that partnerships tend to lead to bigger deals due to trust and collaboration. When partners approach potential clients together, they tend to drive higher ROI for every deal. In times of a down economy, businesses need


to use most of their resources on riding the storm out


and focusing on their core competencies. When there are great partnerships in place, this can be done much easier. If a need arises, there is likely a partner that can help with it. Tis is mostly true for partners that complement each other’s offerings. Drawing from our experience running our own Partner


Programme, we are noticing that there is decision exhaustion among end-users when it comes to choosing multiple tech solutions. As part of the MACH Alliance, we want to contribute to reducing the friction around product selection. And the best way to do that is to educate, not to recommend and sell. Having all the knowledge in front of them, end-users will be able to make quicker and informed decisions about their tech stack needs. Te key to partner success? Simply put, vendors need to stop


selling to the channel and focus on listening — aſter the hard work has been put into developing partner relationships, the selling will take care of itself !


www.pcr-online.biz


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