When leadership asked what the program actually produced, the honest answer was that no one could say with confidence, and the program’s budget came under scrutiny. Partner operations exists to take that work off the relationship team so their time goes to the motion that produces revenue. They hire partner managers to build relationships and never build the operational layer underneath, so the program grows faster than anyone’s ability to measure or manage it.
In his mind, the best-case scenario is partner ops reports to someone in the revops team, with a thick dotted line to partnerships — especially if the company isn’t fully bought into partnerships yet. Understanding and investing in Partner Ops is essential for any company seeking to build sustainable and profitable partnerships. The function works across departments — from sales and marketing to finance and IT — to streamline collaboration and drive mutual growth between a company and its partners. It’s about ensuring that each partnership runs smoothly and productively, supporting mutual growth and success. Over time, both companies work together to assess the partnership’s performance and identify areas for improvement, ensuring the alliance remains beneficial to both parties. Partner operations refers to the strategic and tactical management activities involved in forming, maintaining, and evolving partnerships between businesses.
Partner management builds and runs the relationships with individual partners. Design your partner operations against your own program size, systems, and CRM before committing to a process or platform. A company scaled its partner program to sixty partners on the strength of good relationship managers and almost no operations. Every hour a partner manager spends fixing deal-registration disputes or rebuilding a report by hand is an hour not spent co-selling. Even with the right tools, running a channel partner program is a challenging task. I’m looking forward to a time where AI can do things for partners, but that really depends a lot on your PRM data quality.”
Figure Out Who Partner Ops Reports To
- “Though we’re seeing more and more leadership positions pop up, partner ops roles typically cap out at Director.
- Any third-party tools or firms referenced in this space are independent third-party products, and mentioning them is not an endorsement.
- PartnerOps focuses on managing and optimizing the day-to-day activities and processes with your partners.
- Yes, AI can surface anomalies, automate some of the more tedious processes going on behind the scenes, and help draft QBR slides.
- Partner operations is the internal vendor function responsible for designing, administering, and continuously improving the operational processes and technology infrastructure that make a channel partner program function reliably — encompassing program administration, PRM system configuration, onboarding workflow management, deal registration processing, incentive calculation governance, partner data management, integration management, and channel program performance measurement.
She’s exceptional at building trust across stakeholders and keeping everyone moving in the same direction without needing constant escalation.” For Orest Chaykivskyy at Forbytes, an ideal partner ops specialist had a consulting background. She could not only build out structured workflows, but also manage the complexity of different personalities across geos and verticals. Situational questions like, “Tell me about a time you said no,” can help you figure out if they have what it takes.
This reduces risk exposure and ensures that partnerships operate within legal and ethical boundaries. When partners feel supported and equipped for success, they are more likely to be loyal, proactive, and aligned with the company’s goals. A well-orchestrated Partner Ops strategy ensures that partners receive clear communication, seamless access to tools and information, and timely support. However, without robust operational infrastructure, scaling partnerships can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. ZINFI’s UPM platform supports partner operations teams by providing a configurable, automated, and analytically capable PRM system that enables program administration at scale without proportional headcount growth. CAMs are measured on commercial outcomes their partner relationships produce; partner operations is measured on the reliability, accuracy, and efficiency of the operational systems that support those relationships.
For instance, it aligns sales goals with marketing campaigns, ensures product updates are communicated clearly to partners, and coordinates with finance on partner incentives and commissions. Sign up for our email newsletter to get the latest and greatest in partnership excellence. PartnerOps focuses on managing and optimizing the day-to-day activities and processes with your partners. And ZINFI’s business intelligence layer gives partner operations teams the data infrastructure required to measure program performance, identify operational bottlenecks, and continuously improve the channel program’s commercial effectiveness. The administration console gives partner operations teams full control over program rule configuration, workflow design, user access management, and integration settings without requiring custom software development.
What’s Partner Operations?
Then, they document the change and train internal teams and partners on the new process. Here’s the catch — your leadership wants to see proof of their value. But they need professional investment in communities just like sales ops does, just like enablement does,” Aaron shares. Candidates want to see a clear way to level up in the company, so https://www.inrecognition.org/how-can-innovative-thinking-transform-traditional-industries/ you need to think through that future for them. “I see it over and over again,” says Aaron Howerton at Go Nimbly, “Companies hire reactively, not strategically. “I’d go so far as to say a program without partner ops is a partner program in name only,” Raegan emphasizes.
Streamline & Centralize Resources to Enhance Opportunities for Growth
Trying to spread those duties across one or two people’s already full plates is a recipe for disaster. Partner managers are fully focused on recruiting new partners, nurturing relationships, and getting deals over the finish line. And if you can’t afford to hire a new person, you need someone on the team to very intentionally carve time out of their day to work on it.” They bring fresh ideas to leadership about how things could be done differently or what they could try in the next month or quarter (and try to back it up with as much data as possible). Below, we talk more about how crucial this role is, how AI changes the work (and how it doesn’t), and what to look for in your first partner operations hire. Yes, AI can surface anomalies, automate some of the more tedious processes going on behind the scenes, and help draft QBR slides.
Many, many thanks to Kristian Vanberg of WebCruiter for the truly amazing things he said about Channeltivity in our latest customer success story. When https://expandsuccess.org/crafting-a-business-plan/ partner ops teams have reliable data, they can do the work that AI can’t — pinpointing what to automate, foreseeing (and eliminating) friction, and anticipating where the program should go in the future. Top-tier partner operations teams run on clean, connected data. Raegan advises, “If you have access to a tool, try to optimize your daily tasks one by one, starting with the most monotonous ones. The partner operations teams that continue to do well in this environment will learn when and how to use AI to their advantage — and when to use their other soft skills instead. AI has made life for partner operations teams a whole lot easier.
Uncover Your Growth Potential
Partner operations is the internal vendor function responsible for designing, administering, and continuously improving the operational processes and technology infrastructure of the channel partner program — encompassing PRM system administration, deal registration processing, incentive calculation governance, partner data management, and channel program performance measurement. When these things fail — when registrations disappear into approval queues, incentive calculations produce disputes, or the analytics dashboard shows data that no one trusts — the partner operations function is where the problem lives and where the solution must be found. It all starts with having the right tools and systems in place for this seamless collaboration and efficiency. By investing in this function, businesses build trust, extend their market reach, and enhance their competitive edge.
- Conversations and actions with partners only become pipeline and revenue you can see if the plumbing captures them and ties them back to the CRM.
- Candidates want to see a clear way to level up in the company, so you need to think through that future for them.
- 1 in 36 children in the U.S. are on the spectrum and boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed than girls.
- Understanding and investing in Partner Ops is essential for any company seeking to build sustainable and profitable partnerships.
- In his free time, you’ll find him spending quality time with his children, one of whom is on the autism spectrum.
One of the main functions of Partner Ops is to track and analyze partner performance through KPIs such as revenue contribution, deal registrations, training completions, and customer satisfaction. This structured approach makes it easier to replicate success across different markets and partner segments.
- “I’d go so far as to say a program without partner ops is a partner program in name only,” Raegan emphasizes.
- Partner operations refers to the strategic and tactical management activities involved in forming, maintaining, and evolving partnerships between businesses.
- If your partner program runs on spreadsheets and no one can say cleanly how much revenue partners sourced, the missing piece is operations.
- A company scaled its partner program to sixty partners on the strength of good relationship managers and almost no operations.
- It’s about ensuring that each partnership runs smoothly and productively, supporting mutual growth and success.
If you can make the case for a partner ops manager or team, it’s worth it. “Though we’re seeing more and more leadership positions pop up, partner ops roles typically cap out at Director. “The partner ops person is going to play a big role in selling the team internally. Though having partner ops in place from the get-go is ideal, the reality is that most companies end up bringing on a partner operations person when they’re already underwater.