To recruit your first channel partners in the UK, work from a short list rather than an open call. Pick one partner type, name ten to twenty firms that already sell to your customers, find the person in each who gains if you succeed, and open with a customer problem rather than a programme. A partner says yes when they can see a first deal, so agree one named opportunity before the agreement is signed. Aim for three to five active partners, not a long list of logos.
By John Bates, founder of AXQ
Partner recruitment is where a lot of UK partner plans slow down. The vendor has a programme, a partner page and a target number. What it often does not have is a reason for a busy UK partner to take the call.
Here is the order I would recruit the first few in, whether you are a US software company with nobody in the UK yet or a UK company starting partners for the first time.
Step by step
Six steps, in this order.
Decide which partner type you are recruiting
Resellers, managed service providers, systems integrators and consultancies, distributors and cloud marketplaces all recruit differently and want different things. A message written for all of them lands with none of them.
Start with the type your UK customers already buy through. If you are not sure which that is, the partner type picker suggests one in five questions.
Build a short list from your customers outwards
Ask the customers you have, or the UK customers you want, who they already buy technology and services from. Those firms already have the relationship you need.
Look for partners that sell to your buyer, have a practice next to yours, and are small enough that your product matters to them. Ten to twenty names is plenty for a first round.
Find the person who wins
A generic partner inbox is where recruitment emails go to wait. In each firm, find the person whose numbers improve if your product sells: a practice lead, a head of alliances, or the founder in a smaller firm.
If nobody on their side gains when you gain, the partnership will be signed and then forgotten.
Open with a customer problem, not a programme
Partners hear from vendors every week. The ones that get a reply talk about the partner's customers: a problem those customers have, how you help, and a plain question about what the partner is seeing.
Keep tiers, benefits and portals out of the first conversation. They answer questions the partner has not asked yet.
Agree a first customer before the paperwork
Before you sign, ask one question: which of your customers would be first? A partner who can name one is serious. A partner who cannot is likely to sign and go quiet.
The agreement matters less than the first opportunity. Get the opportunity moving, then do the paperwork alongside it.
Carry the first deal with them
Join the first customer calls, help with the proposal and answer quickly when the deal gets stuck. Partners talk to each other, and a first deal that went well is the best recruitment message you will have.
For a week-by-week plan once a partner has said yes, see the first 30 days with a new UK partner.
Before they say yes
What UK partners usually want to know.
Expect these questions in the first or second conversation. Having a plain answer to each one makes recruitment much quicker:
- How do I make money from this: resale margin, services work, or both?
- Will your own sales team sell direct into my customers?
- Who else in the UK is selling this, and how many partners will there be?
- Who do I call when a deal is stuck, and how quickly will they answer?
- Is there support in UK hours, and a contract and data handling that UK customers will accept?
If any answer is still being worked out, say so. Partners respect a vendor who is honest about being early.
What usually goes wrong
Three patterns come up again and again.
Waiting for partners to apply
A partner page with a form brings in firms looking for a new logo, not firms with customers ready to buy. The first partners are usually recruited by name.
Signing twenty in the first month
A long list feels like progress, but nobody can support twenty new partners at once. Most go quiet, and quiet partners are hard to restart.
Selling around the partner
If your direct team turns up in a partner's accounts without warning, the partner stops bringing you deals. Agree early who sells where.
The short version
Short list. Right person. First customer.
Recruit a few UK partners on purpose, talk about their customers rather than your programme, and do not sign until there is a first opportunity to work on together. The rest of a channel partner program is easier to build once those first partners are selling. For the full order, see how to build a channel partner program.
John Bates, founder of AXQ. Five years at TD SYNNEX (via IQBlade, acquired), leading partner go-to-market programmes for AWS, Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia across EMEA.