Partner Activation

What is partner activation?

In general, partner activation refers to activities that indicate a partner is fully engaged in your partner ecosystem, trained up, and ready to start selling your products or services. You’ll define what “activated” means in your ecosystem. As an example, suppose you’re a transportation logistics company. A new implementation partner has signed your partnership agreement and signed onto their partner portal. However, these activities don’t mean this new partner is ready to start supporting your customers. There’s an activation process required.

Partner activation can be defined in a few ways, depending on your business goals and program needs. Common ways to define partner activation include:

• Onboarding completion: They’ve successfully finished the onboarding process, including tasks such as training, documentation review, and account setup.
• Certification attainment: These partners have completed set certification programs or achieved specific qualifications related to your products or services.
• Resource engagement: Partners have actively engaged with provided resources, such as training materials, sales collateral, and marketing assets.
• Sales readiness: These partners are adequately trained, equipped, and prepared to effectively sell and promote your products or services.
• First deal closure: You may consider a partner activated when they’ve successfully closed their first deal, demonstrating their ability to apply their knowledge to generate revenue.
• Portal usage: Reflected in their regular and meaningful usage of your partner portal, indicating their active participation.
• Participation in joint activities: Partners actively participate in co-marketing campaigns, webinars, events, or other collaborative initiatives.
• Deal registration: Partners are registering and actively pursuing leads and opportunities within your PRM.

Defining partner activation in a way that aligns with your business objectives and partner ecosystem will help you set clear goals and measure the effectiveness of your partner engagement efforts. Keep in mind that partner activation is an ongoing process. As your products, market conditions, or the partners’ capabilities change, you’ll need to continue to provide updated training and resources.

Just like any new employee in your organization, a newly onboarded partner requires orientation, training, and resources. By investing time and resources into properly activating your partners, you’re creating a stronger partner ecosystem that empowers your partners to become a valuable extension of your own sales team.

Related content:

Activation Rate | Partner Consumption | Partner Enablement | Partner Lifecyle Management | How to Activate Partners with Impartner