How Prime 8 Consulting Grew One Client’s Revenue by 67%
A global technology company wanted to improve the adoption of its cloud computing solutions and looked to their partner ecosystem for help. Historically, the relationship between the client and its partners has always been symbiotic. Partners amplify the company’s marketing efforts and connect directly with customers at a local level while the company grants partners greater access to unique sales and marketing motions.
However, in this case, partner amplification was tepid. Further, partners were not embracing the marketing support provided by the company designed to help partners sell cloud computing solutions to end customers. The low adoption of these marketing supports, or go-to-market benefits, led to a disconnect between the two entities. Local partners were missing opportunities to access exclusive sales and marketing resources, reducing the number of successful deals and limiting revenue.
Without sufficient partners poised to sell cloud solutions, reaching customers and challenging competitor products could become difficult, which could lead to stagnation in growth. Key stakeholders quickly realized that forging closer relationships with partners was critical to increasing cloud revenue long-term.
Partners Help to Drive Revenue
Senior leadership at the technology company turned to Prime 8 Consulting for expertise in channel strategy and revenue programs to define a solution. During initial discovery discussions with Prime 8, the VP of the client’s commercial partner program shared three main goals for the next 12 months.
The main objective was to increase the through-partner revenue for cloud services by 60% year-over-year.
Secondly, the VP highlighted the need to raise adoption of the go-to-market benefits so that partners were educated and prepared to offer product guidance for the cloud solutions to end customers in the local markets.
Finally, the stakeholders needed more partners to achieve co-sell ready status, a designation the company uses as a certification for top-tier partners and a revenue enabler for other products the company sells.
The Solution
As a part of data analysis during the client discovery process, Prime 8 found that a significant correlation between the activation of go-to-market partner benefits and cloud-consumed revenue.
Prime 8 efforts prioritized solutions for raising awareness for the go-to-market benefits. Getting insights about the cloud service, relevant offers, and practical information about how the cloud solution would directly impact customers into partners hands was critical to growing company revenue.
To solve this global and business critical problem, Prime 8 proposed a bold solution: add resources dedicated to promoting cloud solutions among partners.
Working on behalf of the company, Prime 8 identified an agency that could quickly provide 40 individuals to function as partner managers in this new role.
This new role assumed responsibility for a portfolio of 65 partners. According to Prime 8’s vision, this role would help partners navigate the sometimes-complicated set of marketing resources provided by the company, help partners activate their benefits and ensure they were connected with company’s field sellers to promote and sell cloud solutions to end customers.
To set the new development managers up for success, Prime 8 built a learning program to thoroughly train the team on their core commitments and accountabilities. As a part of this training, Prime 8 developed core guidance for operationalizing the role in the form of a digital playbook of best practices, content and resources to ensure that new people knew how to communicate with the partner community. This guide included email templates to help with communications, call scripts, a cadence of what to discuss with partner each month to encourage progress on benefit adoptions and co-sell status, among other role based reference materials.
A comprehensive communication plan outlined regular regional calls, partner training webinars, newsletters and other mechanisms to better align and embed partners in the company’s marketing and sales motions.
Prime 8 also produced an additional extensive playbook targeted to partners to help them expand into other geographies, a key stepping-stone on the growth roadmap for companies engaged in cloud service sales activities.
Cloud-Consumed Revenue Increased by 67%
Prime 8’s strategy was a resounding success. This role became central to building cloud solution pipeline for the company by increasing the go to market benefit adoption which ultimately led to accelerating growth for the partners. In less than a year, Prime 8 Consulting helped:
Implement a training program that supported the cloud provider’s revenue growth by 67%
Increase partner adoption of marketing benefits from 2% to 38%
Guide 89 partners to expand outside of their home geography
Help 400+ partners achieve co-sell status
At the end of the project, revenue growth had improved dramatically, increasing by 67%, which was 7% higher than the initial target revenue goal. Prime 8’s bold strategy was the key to revenue growth because it addressed the root causes of the customer problems and provided a sustainable solution that built the partners’ pipeline of business.
The overall increase in partners obtaining co-sell status combined with the expansion of 89 partners outside of their home geography, ensured the technology provider had all the foundations in place for long-term sustainable growth.
Once Prime 8 Consulting completed the project, the client not only had a community of trained and productive development managers at its disposal, it also had stronger connection in place with local partners. Now that partners have access to expert guidance from the solution provider, and the client has more control over the marketing strategies of local vendors, the company’s customer acquisition strategy is significantly more effective.
Project Snapshot
Industry: Technology
Location: Washington, US
Company Size: 150,000+
Critical Business Issues: Optimize relationships in partner ecosystem to increase revenue.
Solution: Add headcount to focus on relationships and hire a vendor agency to quickly staff new roles focused on partner development and alignment with the client’s marketing and sales motions
The Method: Building an internal team and providing them with a operational playbook grow revenue through methods identified through data.
The Outcome: Cloud-consumed revenue increased by more than 67%
