Know-How Exchange : Strategy

I developed a Checklist that will help you to define and profile your ideal VAR or consultant partner, including the tasks you want him to do. You will find a copy on https://www.business-tools-templates.com/sales_distributor_channel_Partner_...

You will also find a Excel-based Channel Partner Evaluation & Selection Rating Matrix which will help you to choose between a number of candidates.

When you go international, localisation becomes an issue. It is not just translation of documentation and all user screens, that is taken as a given. What about spelling, date formats, currency symbols, paper size, etc.? There is probably also an EU regulatory environment for the insurance industry defining how brokers must operate, cooling off periods, privacy regulations, etc. If your software is not localised to address these issues VARS will not be interested, particularly the better ones who can pick and choose between suppliers.

For the UK market, Thomson Directories is probably a good place to start to generate a initial list of potential VARS https://www.thomsonlocal.com/ .


I hope this helps

Good luck

Pat Divilly

Your question had two parts: identifying and approaching. Let me take a run at the second part.

Based on your limited intro, I would guess you are either going to succeed or die based on the partner channel. So I would approach this with as much rigor as a company that was going to market directly to end users. You need a well-thought-out partner acquisition campaign. Getting attention at events or thru cold-calling will be next to impossible. Your targets are inundated with other partners and day-to-day business. You've got to stand out, especially since you are in the crm space (altho targeting SME will help).

Too much to go in depth, but here are the highlights:
- develop your value proposition to the partner: here's how we, together, can improve your business (different than any partner you are working with today)
- develop your JOINT value proposition to the end-user: here's how we, together, improve the customer's business (ditto)
- create simple marketing materials: letters, postcards, etc. that express your value props in "creative" copy
- develop and execute a contact strategy: after the letter/ postcard, the second (and third) touch should be a phone call
- always consider a web link or a CD demo in any communications
- references will be key; even tho you are just starting out with the SME Ins. product, get references from at least 2 reputable partners you have worked with in the past (no one has to know that it wasn't in insurance, etc.)
- have your deal parameters ready; there is nothing worse to a partner candidate who is willing to sit with you to find out you've not thought thru the joint business model or marketing strategy.

More detail than I can provide - but I hope you get my point: your approach to approaching partner candidates should be considered serious business, and a serious investment.

I guess that if I were serious about finding these folks, I would put myself in the shoes of someone buying a CRM package.

I would do a bit of digging on the internet, as though I were interested in evaluating CRM packages... and see if, in addition to vendor info, I could find any excellent sites by resellers / integrators / partners. If you are finding these partner sites helpful, so are your potential end-user customers...

... and in the process of searching, I would probably find some discussion groups (you could ask this question there - maybe folks who have bought a CRM package might suggest a reputable reseller) and you might find some good email newsletters (where you could even advertise for partners, hopefully finding folks in touch with the "new economy".)