How do you run Partnership at a SaaS company?

Question

Partnering is usually a compulsory category to cover your whole customer tunnel in a SaaS company since building your product requires constant attention to resources hence other categories (marketing, sales...) usually won't be spared with many resources to work with.

Here are some Partnership business models that I had my chance to come by:
- Affiliate Partnership. 
- Influencer Partnership.
- SaaS Partnership.  (Co-Marketing/Branding + Integration)
- Expert Partnership. (Strategical Partnership: educators, specialists....)

So do you have any addition to the bundle? 
How do you apply these models to your business? 
Any framework/criteria that you have to choose the right Partner?

Nico Spijker · Accepted Answer

Small add-on to partnership business models that is picking up a lot of steam now that people are moving to organic acquisition more often:

- Content partnership: writing an eBook together, guest posts or recurring backlink exchanges with businesses that target similar audiences with different offerings. :)

We typically pick based on branding, domain authority, originality/quality of content and unique factors they discuss.

Marko Rakic · Answer

Don't know if is it valid due to books, but the sponsorship model definitely works. That would be, for example, you give money to someone to organize an event, and in return, he gives you a piece of his media space.

Josh Edmond (xOracle, xGartner) · Answer

Deliverable value. Over the years, I've been a part of some great partnership negotiations, and all of the failed ones did so because there was no deliverable value. We had great ideas, great relationships, and plenty of resources, but our products and directions needed to be aligned, and they just weren't. This kept us from being able to deliver a joint value-prop to the customer that would communicate why the partnership was better for them.

If you have to try too hard, you're trying to make something work that doesn't. The best partnerships have a natural synergy, starting with a shared customer base.

My partnership formula is win-win-win (good for you, better for the partner, best for the customer).

Tai Nguyen · Answer

@josh_edmond Well said. That's gonna be my quote of the day, after all we should always take our users as the core for every decision that we made.

Answer

Running a partnership program at a SaaS company typically involves several steps, including identifying potential partners, establishing mutually beneficial terms and agreements, and providing support and resources to help partners succeed. To start a partnership program at your SaaS company, you can begin by identifying companies that offer complementary products or services, and reaching out to them to discuss potential collaboration opportunities. Once you have established a partnership, you can provide your partners with access to marketing and sales resources, training and support, and any other resources that will help them promote and sell your product. Regular communication and ongoing support can help to ensure that your partnerships are successful and beneficial for both parties.

Sanya Sharma · Answer

Partnership at a SaaS company can be an extremely rewarding experience, but it requires careful planning and execution. To start off, you need to establish your foundation by developing strong relationships with key customers, partners, and suppliers. This way, you will be able to provide valuable feedback and insights that will help improve the overall customer experience.
Additionally, partnerships are important for gaining new users or clients. You should actively pursue partnership opportunities with complementary services or solutions that could benefit both parties in some way. And finally, make sure to reward your partnership partners generously for their contributions! This can include marketing support or additional resources that they may require in order not disrupt business operations.

Tai Nguyen · Answer

@charles_lee90 Totally agree Charles!

Surely, Identify the right Partner to fill the Complementary Tunnel - The previous step of customers' workflow is always important though.

But to dive deeper into actionable steps, I would say that we should divide our partners into suitable categories then we will know exactly what should be included in our package to offer our partners.

Because

- Most of the time, we would like to be partnering with someone who has more or at least equal authority to us right? Then the initiative package should be in detail for the offers to actively be considered.
- Get the priority straight: with limited resources, and in my experience, unless you pay enough focus on a type of partnership (materials, plans, resources....) or you won't yield any results at all.

Tai Nguyen · Answer

@nicolaas_spijker right! we usually combine Content Partnership with SaaS partnership though.

But great idea, I can tonally imagine a bunch of things for both parties to go over the blogpost, social post....

Ths for evaluation factors Nico, a little bit add-on that I know should be overall traffic, user base details and ideal ICP.

Tai Nguyen · Answer

@marko_rakic2 well it really depends on your business goals. But I would count that more as promotion/influencing marketing rather than Partnership.

Since we aim for long-term partnerships, the situation needs to be a win-win one instead of just paying/sponsoring to be promoted.

And most of the time, the most common assets that we use to trade are traffic, exposure to our partners' audience, and social collaborative activities.

Tai Nguyen · Answer

@sanya_sharma123 yeah, totally agree.

Usually, I would say that Partners are the most reliable sources for insight to attack the targeted market since they have the local expertise and know exactly what is working. Besides, lot of times they are also veterans in the field so just by a glance they can immediate spot out what need to be improved for the products,

By being thorough with the preparation the smoother thing become for your partners to soon generate results and kick-start a long-term relationship.

By rewarding, here at WriterZen we spare no resources to assist our Partners and also fairly address their effort with our Affiliate Partnerships. (also recurring revenue as well)

How do you run Partnership at a SaaS company?

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