Software companies can use channel partner strategies as a force multiplier for their sales team, creating visibility and building trust in all the places their customers live and do business.

At Appspace, we recognized early on that our success depended on understanding how our customers buy and ensuring that we are represented in that process. We sell a Workplace Experience Platform with a suite of communication and space management tools that help organizations manage their digital workplace within one software platform versus a number of different point products.

We have a dedicated sales team of 25, but by working through a sophisticated network of channel partners we have over 50,000 potential people that are in a position to recommend Appspace every day. This channel partner strategy has proven highly effective for us, as it makes it easy for clients to learn about Appspace during different stages of their buying process.

Channel partners represented over 70% of new logo growth for us in 2020, including many new Fortune 500 clients. We have aggressive plans to grow our partner department in 2021 and beyond.

Four pillars of our channel partner strategy

There are many ways to reach new customers through the channel, a topic that was covered in depth in a previous GrowthBit: “10 Types of Channel Partnerships That Can Transform Your Growth Potential.”

In this post, I’ll share the four types of partnerships that have been critical to our growth and some of the best practices we have developed to cultivate and optimize our channel partner strategy.

IT Resellers

IT Resellers help us get to the decision-makers faster and more efficiently than we could on our own, and they make the supply-chain process faster and more scalable, too. They also bring product knowledge, configuration expertise, integrations and wrap-around services that reduce friction on the sale and enhance customer success—a win-win.

This channel is motivated to promote tools like Appspace because our solution adds more value for their customers. Customers look to IT Resellers to bring best practices and industry leading solutions to provide better business outcomes.  The Appspace platform has helped IT Resellers save their clients time, money, and drive operational efficiencies versus the traditional methodology of selling point products.

IT Resellers like doing business with Appspace because we make the selling and buying process frictionless.

IT Resellers like doing business with Appspace because we make the selling and buying process frictionless. Our software makes it easy for IT Resellers to land new business and expand their presence with our suite of workplace experiences.  We provide multiple revenue streams including annual recurring revenue from our software, services opportunities, and pull through on their hardware sales. Lastly, our product is very sticky and opens up a number of different buyer personas across their clients organizations.

We currently partner with over 250 IT resellers across the globe including industry giants like Worldwide Technology, CDW, AVI-SPL, and many others.  We are quickly growing in this area as IT resellers look to drive more recurring revenue through organization.

Technology partnerships

Appspace has partnerships with industry leaders such as Cisco, Crestron, Samsung, LG, BrightSign and others that make it easy for clients to run Appspace on their technology standards.  This goes hand and hand with how we partner with IT Resellers.  IT Resellers have built their business around selling hardware and Appspace makes it easy for them to align their clients with the right technology to deliver on their business goals.

The industry is full of point products that do one specific thing and lock clients down their proprietary technology.  Appspace has transformed the industry and made it easy for our resellers and clients alike to more efficiently do business.  Our Technology partners represent a good lead source for Appspace both directly to end users and through channel partners alike.

Product or software marketplace partners

Software marketplaces as a channel have become even more important as a result of the large-scale transition to remote work. As our potential customers turn to content, service and business apps such as WebEx Teams, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, these marketplace providers can help us drive awareness in the market by including Appspace on their list of integrations. In turn, we can help them bring richer solutions to their customers. While this is a newer channel partnership avenue for us, it’s one that we feel optimistic about, especially as the way people work continues to evolve.

Service professionals are motivated to differentiate their offerings and add value by helping clients support better communication and collaboration.

Professional service alliances

As the war for talent heats up, organizations are looking to trusted advisors and consultants to help them create workplaces that attract and retain the skilled professionals they need. That extends to both the physical and digital environment they maintain.

This has created the opportunity for software companies like ours to align with professionals in very different but complementary areas, including architects, real-estate consultants and workplace designers. While it may not seem like an intuitive partnership, these service professionals are motivated to differentiate their offerings and add value by helping clients support better communication and collaboration. Firms such as CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield and Gensler have the advantage of working directly with decision-makers, and their recommendations carry considerable weight.

Best practices for a successful channel partner strategy

Appspace has cultivated a high-performing channel partner strategy for many years, and these approaches have been instrumental in turning it into one of our most powerful growth drivers.

Make it easy. Our partner website makes it easy for potential partners of every type to understand how we partner with them, how it benefits them and how they can apply. We also created collaboration spaces within platforms such as Teams and Slack where partners or potential partners can ask questions and interact with our regional sales teams and partner managers.

Once a company becomes an official partner, we support their promotional efforts with videos and other types of collateral that describe our integrations and help open doors with clients.

We have seen our greatest success by avoiding partners who focus solely on sales volume and prioritizing relationships with those who understand and can articulate our value proposition.

Align on values. We have seen our greatest success by avoiding partners who focus solely on sales volume and prioritizing relationships with those who understand and can articulate our value proposition. When choosing new partners, we look for client-centric companies whose end users have the same needs and priorities as ours.

Button up your pricing. Instead of conducting one-off negotiations on every deal, we offer a fixed price with a set discount across the board. This prevents situations where resellers mark up their pricing and ensures that every client feels that they’re getting a great deal. By fully understanding how our resellers make money and how Appspace helps with that, we deliver pricing integrity and full transparency.

Support the sale. Don’t hide behind your partners and expect them to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to closing deals. We don’t expect our partners to be Appspace experts: we educate them on how to spot good opportunities, and when they do, we come in to do the heavy lifting and close the sale.

Remove friction points. Some software companies make it difficult to set up a test environment. We have always made it as easy as possible for prospects to test-drive the product through our freemium offering. Anyone can sign up for a free account, and because we’re hardware agnostic, clients can test our solutions on the platform of their choice, which makes life easier for everyone—especially our partners.

Keep an eye on KPIs. We keep a trained eye on exactly where our new opportunities and leads come from so that we can move quickly to support high-potential areas or address problems. We monitor partner and channel performance and reinvest in those to drive more opportunities and a higher percentage of fulfillment.

Here’s the bottom line.

Software companies can use channel partner strategies as a force multiplier for their sales team, creating visibility and building trust in all the places their customers live and do business. Figure out who your customers trust and how they gather information. Once you’ve identified those channels, find the companies whose objectives and values align with yours. Then give them the tools they need to identify and act on the opportunities that drive optimal success for both parties.

This GrowthBit is featured in LLR’s 2022 Growth Guide, along with other exclusive insights from our portfolio company leaders and Value Creation Team. Download the eBook here.