Over the years it amazes me to see companies making mistakes that can be avoided in their efforts to recruit new partners for their programs. You may have heard it said before, “you only get one chance to make a good first impression”? Research shows that within the first 10 seconds a prospect will make several judgements about you and importantly whether they can trust you. So here are three partner acquisition mistakes that you can avoid helping ensure that your first contact with a potential partner is a great impression!
1. Set proper expectations: When you ask a partner prospect to sign up or apply for your program make sure you communicate exactly what you are asking. For example, in your call to action for a prospect to sign up or apply for the program - don't say something different on the sign up form itself such as “book a product demo”. Once they complete their sign up make sure your confirmation confirms their call to action (IE, they signed up or applied for the partner program) - obvious right - you would be surprised! Do not say something vague or unrelated to that call to action such as “thanks for requesting a product demo”. Just say what you mean and do as you say and you will be setting expectations for your partner prospects that are clear and easily understood.
2. Get your first personal communication right: This is my biggest pet peeve – a prospect applies to your partner program and the first communication they receive is utterly confusing, It has nothing to do with their partner application or worse – they have
been placed in an automated nurture flow sending them some weekly newsletter that they did not sign up for in the first place. This happens too frequently. Over relying on marketing automation for the sake of “automation” is just as bad as NO communication at all. When a partner prospect applies to your program, they should get a short personal message (automated or not) thanking them for their interest and (per # 1 above) setting their expectations as to what happens next. Let them know they will be getting a call/email from who, within X hours or days to discuss next steps in the process. Keep it short, simple and to the point.
3. Qualify your prospects during the application process: This is one of the most important and often overlooked areas in partner acquisition. You should be qualifying every prospect that enters your funnel BEFORE you reach out to them. Failure to do so not only wastes your time, but it also wastes the time of the partner prospect who wants to learn about your product/service. I have seen programs ask for a prospect to complete an application only to send an email communication out a few days later asking them "why they are interested" in their program. If you are doing that… STOP now. Of course you want to know why they applied to your program - but ask them when they sign up so you can use this information before you reach out to them. This will arm you with the right information and allow you to qualify your prospects as they enter the funnel so you can properly align channel resources through the rest of their journey.
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