Aug 29, 2022 5 min read Hiring

Part 6: The Ideal Partner Profile

Three ways to identify your ideal partner profile 👌

Hey everyone,

Thanks for opening up another issue of the Partnership Pocketbook!

I am probably sounding repetitive now... I have thanked you all a ton already for subscribing and engaging with this newsletter.

Here’s an inside peek on how my subscribers and open rate (a newsletter’s north star 🌟) are looking.

Since last week's issue, I am up a whopping 28% in terms of subscribers.

Now that 28% only represents around 30 people but every single time I log in, and see a new subscriber it makes me happy…so thank you!

What I am even more excited about is the open rate number which sits at 76%!

Hopefully means that everyone that is subscribing is getting value which makes it all worthwhile.

Happy, happy Ben!

partnerships in the wild

Last week I chose Paramount and Walmart. This week a partnership that was highlighted during my call with Juhi Saha, VP of Partnerships at Clearbit.

For those that don't know, Clearbit is an awesome tool that enriches data to guide customers into your lead funnel.

They have an AWESOME technology partnership with Intercom.

Now, transparently, I do work for Help Scout and Intercom is a competitor, so it pains me to promote them here. But I am not blind to a great idea and this one deserves a shout out to their partnerships team.

Intercom has a chat widget that sits on a website and enables customers to live chat with support directly. Their integration with Clearbit uses the data provided by Clearbit to convert more leads by sending them highly targeted auto messages.

With that all out the way, let's dive into this week's topic.

Last week we chatted about a few reasons/things to consider before starting a partnership program.

This week is more tactical. You have started a partnership program, you are at step one, and you now have to work out who is a good fit from a partnerships perspective.

The best way to do this is to sit down and map out your ideal partner profile or IPP (as I will refer to it for the rest of this article in order to save my fingers).

An IPP is exactly what it sounds like: identify who we should spend time and energy on recruiting to become a partner and who is a good fit for the company you work for.

This transparently is not a static exercise, I would advise revising or revisiting the ideal partner profile for your team at regular intervals as products change, customer profiles shift and therefore so do your ideal partners.

So how do you figure out your IPP?

1. Same Customer Profile

I hate to drop another acronym into this issue (but you know how much the business world LOVES an acronym) but ICP is a term that is used widely across business, especially in marketing.

Ideal Customer Profile.

Does the partner in question sell into or have customers that match your ideal customer profile?

This is critical.

Ultimately you are looking to source and land leads and revenue. The best way to do that is to put your product in front of customers through your partners that you have a track record of selling into.

For example, at Help Scout, our ICP is SMB businesses in a number of sectors (B2B SaaS, E-commerce, real estate, financial services). There is no point in me recruiting partners that sell to enterprise clients primarily.

We won’t be a fit for their customers, and therefore it would be a waste of time for both sides.

One of the ways in which this process has gotten easier is through account mapping tools like Reveal and Crossbeam.

If both companies have Crossbeam and aren't sure about account overlap, get one of these platforms connected and clearly see on your screen exactly where you stand from an overlap perspective.

Take the guesswork out first!

2. Joint Customer Value

This one is a BIGGY.

Is there a story that you can tell to your customers which equates to this key formula?

you + your partner = better experience for customers

Especially in the world of tech partnership, there HAS to be a story that both of you can tell your customers that also resonates with your sales teams.

Couple this with a joint case study that shows the value and puts some hard data or ROI towards it, and it becomes an easy revenue generator for both sides.

This joint customer value can also be extended (although somewhat to a lesser extent) with channel partners.

Again, another Help Scout example - we have a number of channel partners that play in the outsourcing space.

Oftentimes they are a “trusted advisor” to the customers they serve.

When there is an issue with their support solution, they ask the people who are the industry experts: the people that see support tools each day, the outsourcing company.

Help Scout benefits by getting a qualified lead, and for the outsourcing company benefits by reinforcing their trusted advisor status by referring to a tool which is a great fit whilst also getting a referral commission.

P.S.. if you are looking for great joint customer value collateral, check out my friends at Segment and their “recipes”.

3. Appetite from Partner

This one might sound like an obvious one, but it's one that is worth considering.

When you jump on an initial call with a partner you need to feel out whether there is genuine excitement around the thought of a partnership.

Does your partner understand the concept of partnerships and are set up to go to market with you?

A few questions in order to sniff this out:

❓ Are they willing to co-market?

❓ Are they willing to come and do enablement sessions with your sales team?

An ideal partner is one that is willing to partner!

One that is ready to put in as much effort as you are to truly achieve a mutually beneficial partnership.

So that's it, a quick and easy guide to think through mapping out an ideal partner profile.

With all three of the above being met, you are ready to go with a partner and success will follow.

⏰ REMINDER⏰ this is NOT a one time thing.

It's an ongoing, iterative process.

As a business your product will change, as will your target verticals and even your target customers.

Because of this, your ideal partner profile will grow and change with your company strategy.

To end this week’s newsletter I am going to try something different. I am going to offer my subscribers something else of value: my simple, easy IPP mapping sheet, which I use when I go through this exercise whenever I kick off a partner program.

I want to offer it to all subscribers of this newsletter, however there is a little catch.