Building a Partner Program Flywheel

<p>In this episode of SaaS Connect your host Evan Radisic, MD of <a href="https://www.cloudsoftwareassociation.com/">Cloud Software Association</a>, speaks with Matt Irving, Senior Manager of Global Partner Programs and Strategy at WP Engine. WP Engine boasts 6,000 global partners, grown with the 7-stage bow tie funnel framework they created, and which has driven around 50% of year-on-year growth for the company in the last 3 years.</p> <p>Irving takes us through a presentation, discussing:</p> <ul> <li>How to scale everything, from spreadsheets to systems, and creating a partner-first organization.</li> <li>The key questions to address internally and from which to build on. <ul> <li>The 7-stage bow tie funnel framework the company created and where to start building from first. This includes things like:<br> - How to grow a partner program.<br> - Buying motions and typical engagement patterns of partners.<br> - Educating partners on how they can work with you.<br> - How to attract big advocates.<br> - Understanding partner adoption.<br> - Partner specializations and where the third party interacts within the customer journey.<br> - Partner resources for every point of the journey.<br> - Success metrics for each funnel and the tools used.<br> - Criteria for partners to pay the most attention to.<br> - Partner retention.<br> - Educating partners.<br> - How much is automated.<br> - Making continual improvements.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>Resources Mentioned:</p> <p><a href="https://www.salesforce.com/">Salesforce</a></p> <p><a href="https://cloud.google.com/looker">Looker</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.docusign.co.uk/">DocuSign</a></p> <p><em>Thank you to our amazing podcast team at Content Allies. Want to launch your own B2B revenue-generating podcasts? Contact them at </em><a href="https://contentallies.com/"><em>https://ContentAllies.com</em></a></p>