Today most every business seeks partners they can leverage to extend their reach into the marketplace.  Typically there are 3 approaches to partnering: sell to, sell through and sell with.

Sell To

Particularly in the tech world, these are partners that integrate your firm's technology into theirs for greater value to their customers.  Once these relationships are established, an ongoing revenue stream is created as the partner promotes their solution.

Sell Through

These partnerships are designed to leverage the partner's existing sales force.  Every firm would like to instantly put more "feet on the street" and that is the intended purpose of these partnerships.  The partner typically operates in a similar or related market and has the ability to market your products as if their own.  Co-branding and private branding allows the partner to expand their product or service offering without the expense of research and development.

Sell With

Just having the best product or service doesn't mean the market will knock down your door.  You also must develop rapport with prospective clients and demonstrate your value.  This takes time that many companies would like to eliminate.  This can be accomplished by developing partnerships with firms that have existing relationships.  Even better is if this is a two-way street.  Each partner focuses on their own offerings while working closely with the sales force of the other.  By leveraging each other's existing relationships, the time to market can be greatly reduced.

So what?

Understanding the nuances of partner alliances, Mainstream Technologies can help you develop processes that address your particular needs.  You likely need a transparent process to allow a simplified flow of sales materials, training tools and presentations between the partners.  This could include your existing CRM package to allow the separate sales teams to work as one, or on eachother's behalf.  Management dashboards might be included to provide easy access of key metrics to assure the partnership is succeeding.

The success of a partner relationship depends on the free-flow of information between the two entities.  And as no two businesses have direct connectivity of systems, Mainstream can assist you in that process; which in turn increases your liklihood of success.

Multiple Partners

With each additional partner relationship, your firm will add complexity to your partner solution.  New interfaces are required to allow connectivity to the new partners.  Each partner will have different systems with which to connect.  As your technology partner, we will have a complete understanding of your partner solution, making it far easier to connect into additional partners.

Success Breeds Success

As the management of your partner program succeeds, more opportunities to partner will become self evident.  Other firms will want to partner with you.  It will become obvious in the marketplace that by being transparent with your partners, your success and your partners' success is maximized.

Focus on What You Do Best

The Mainstream consultative approach is designed to allow you to focus your attention on what you do best.  Meanwhile, we'll keep our eye on your IT ball.  From presenting you with our strategic recommendations to maximize your partner program, to implementation of your customized solution, to hosting the system in the Mainstream Data Center.  We can provide any or all so that you can keep doing what you do best.