Pick Me! Pick Me! Pick Me!
My
colleague's daughter is applying to college and, as a marketing
professional, I can't help but be impressed by the process.
It began over a year ago and has included the compulsory information
sessions, campus tours, and interviews. I've been privy to the
entire process, seen the mounting piles of slick and glossy
admissions collateral, and now know what's in store for my future
six years out.
My favorite part has been the tales of "how to" advice,
to ensure that my friend's daughter has a "hook" that
differentiates her from the pack. For instance, a kid that
stands on his head while playing the oboe will have a distinct
advantage over an equally qualified candidate. While the
admissions process seems intense, for the most part, I'm respectful
of its value. While I understand that overwhelming demand has
fed into this hyper qualification process, as an objective bystander,
it's not a stretch to see that it's good business to make
sure the student is a solid match for the school. All this
so that parents can pay enormous sums of money once their offspring
is chosen.
And, of course, it has forced me to ask: why shouldn't a
business partner program be just as selective? Isn't it
in every company's interest to ensure the "best fit"
partners join its team, and to have partners that will succeed
and produce? "Why sure," you reply, "but how
do I go about this?" To which, I offer the following focus
areas:
The Profile
How clear is your web site or recruitment collateral in helping
prospective partners self-identify whether they would be a good
fit for your company?
One of the first requirements is creating and publishing your
ideal candidate profile. It should be as easy for a partner
to self-qualify a fit with your company as it is for a prospective
college student to figure out if she is Ivy League material.
Schools use grades and SAT scores as an initial gate, but they
also publish percent of out-of-state applicants and financial
aid statistics. You can approach partner recruitment similarly
by making it clear what market expertise, technical competency
and/or complementary product experience fit your business needs
best. The bottom line is that creating and publishing specific
partner profiles remove the mystery and ultimately save time.
The Qualification Process
When prospective partners raise their hands, or agree to
learn more, how quick and transparent is the process?
The Common Application has been touted as the Holy Grail of
college admissions; fill it out once and the student can apply
to as many schools as he'd like. But wait, there's more: there
are "Supplemental Applications," various deadlines
for different admission decisions, and SAT scores to send from
the College Board. Let's just say the process was not designed
for the teenage brain. While arduous, there are no secrets.
The process is the process and it's readily published by each
school, including the fee to apply. As with the college application
process, documenting your partner qualification process for
both internal and external use ensures every party understands
what's required and at what point a decision will be made. For
smaller companies we've seen simple flow charts work well; for
the larger ones, automated workflow with milestones is clearly
the way to go.
The Onboarding Process
Once you've decided to do business together, what will you
do in the first 90 days to ensure that the partner becomes productive
as quickly as possible?
Freshman Orientation is not the "drive-by-jump-out"
experience that I recall. In many schools, it's now a two-week
process that ensures the student is quickly acclimated, learns
about resources, and makes friends. It's in the school's best
interest to have the new student quickly feel at home, ensuring
retention and maximizing success from day one. In terms of your
business and in the spirit of transparency, are all parties
clear on what, and how long, it takes to equip a partner to
make the first sale? Effective partner onboarding requires
systematic operational, technical, sales, and training investments
to ensure the partner is capable of selling quickly on your
behalf.
And, a few of you may be wondering if you do all this will you
be able to charge obscene amounts of money for partners to partake
in your program, like the schools do? The answer, of course,
is "it depends." It depends on the value of your brand,
product and service fit, high value enablement that may be part
of your program, and the degree to which you would benefit from
another qualification mechanism. At the end of the day, charging
a fee can prove a valuable test of your partner business proposition.
If it's strong, partners will pay. If partners aren't willing
to pay, your partner business proposition may need some work.
May the partners you pick be productive and ever independent
in selling on your behalf. And, let me be among the first to
wish you a prosperous 2008, where you will most certainly be
ahead of the curve!
email:
jwilkinson@thoughtwav.com