After years of neglect, Sage North America has modified and added new channel programs to energize and engage partners. †
By Cecilia Galvinalvin
Tom Miller came to Sage North America two years ago with a mission: to reenergize the channel programs that had gotten little attention for years, and put Sage back on the map for midsize resellers. Miller, vice president of channel management for the business management software giant, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., tackled his job with a philosophy of “getting back to basics and doing them well,” he says.
But because the channel program had been neglected, partners were not engaged with the company. “At my very first customer conference, I was totally dismayed that where I think we had 2,000 customer persons in attendance, there were only 55 actual partner persons attending,” notes Miller.
To make matters worse, says Miller, “In the summer of 2009, there were probably four or five campaigns [by competitors] that were direct shots against our customer base and our partners.” To help partners fight back, Miller’s team created a webcast series that provided competitive information to help partners better compete in the market. The webcast series is refreshed as market conditions dictate, and is used by partners today. “In one hour we talk about the [competitor], their strategy, performance, how they’re competing against us, where we think their vulnerabilities are, and we arm partners with that.”
The team also created two new programs, Fast Track for Growth and HigherAssist, both of which were singled out as industry best practices by analyst firm IDC. In the Fast Track program, “a partner commits to a 12-month program, using a marketing professional as a peer adviser, and commits to marketing activities over this course of time,” says Miller. “[Advisers] provide expert advice and develop marketing programs, make sure they are executed, and measure the results.” Although there is a $3,000 fee for the program, partners receive more than $7,000 in benefits and can earn back their original investment in incremental sales.
The HireAssist program was originally developed to help partners hire qualified salespeople, but this year Sage broadened the program’s focus to include marketing and consulting professionals as well. Here’s how it works. After undergoing an assessment, a partner works with an expert in one of the program’s three business disciplines to identify prospects, set up interviews, and move those prospects through a qualifying process until a hire is made. There is no cost for the HireAssist program, except the partner’s investment in hiring a full-time employee. Sage estimates that the program provides more than $10,000 in benefits.
In February of this year, Miller and his team introduced the Sage Partner Marketing Platform. Partners pay $83 a month to subscribe, and receive access to electronic marketing campaigns that can be downloaded and customized with the partner’s logo and messaging. Sage marketing “panels” are also automatically posted to partner websites. About 600 partners have already subscribed.
At the company’s partner summit in July, Sage also announced a four-step program broadly known as the Sage Partner Transition Journey, to move partners beyond a billable-hours mentality. In the program’s first module, the Firm of the Future Symposium, partners learn that “their value proposition is the process improvements that allow customers to be more competitive, lower their operating cost, and provide a higher level of service,” explains Miller.
The second component of the transition program is the Web Strategy for Partners Workshop, which provides “the nuts and bolts of the business model changes,” says Miller. In the two-day workshop, partners create their own customized transition plan. Another component of the program turns this workshop into a webcast series, because “We’re not going to be able to reach all partners in a workshop environment,” notes Miller. The final component is a two-day leadership symposium focusing on the “firm of the future” concept and changes in the marketplace from a business model standpoint. The Leadership Symposium and Firm of the Future Symposium cost $2,500 each. However, Sage Select partners receive two registrations to the educational course of their choice.
Perhaps serving as a gauge of his success thus far at Sage, this year’s week-long, combined customer/partner summit “had over 500 partner persons stay for the entire week,” Miller notes. “So we went from some 52 participating to 10 times that.”
