If, like me, you believe your greatest marketing and sales tool is through advocacy and referral (i.e. having others talk about your product and getting them selling the virtues of how your solution will benefit likeminded customers with the same need) then you will believe this approach will drive the strongest growth and, if you get it right, a strong bond between you and your customer base going forward.

I have never over the years found a greater marketing and sales machine than ‘bought into customers’, where the client through developing a great relationship with you then progresses to buying into the brand and solutions you deliver. They become your unofficial ambassadors.

The first and the greatest voice of these customers you want onboard, are the customers that everyone is looking towards to guide the market, these are your innovators. If you are entering into an existing market with a new product, and you have a prior relationship with any of this influential group then gather them together to give them a close up look at your product.  Get them excited and engaged so they will talk about and promote your product.

If it is a new market, you are going to have to do some work on segmentation of the market and start building personas as to what an innovator looks like in this new market. Then start to build relationships with these innovators either on a 1-2-1 basis or via group consultation.

In a new market, once the innovators have bought into your culture and vision, you need to show how working with you will help change the market.  When they are excited with the vision, now get them engaged with the product you are going to launch, you can do this in a number of ways but some ideas are:   Offer them an incentive to take a look at your new product before anyone else; get them on the pilot providing feedback; offer them a years free subscription.

Ultimately whatever tool you are using to bring the innovators onboard, if you can get the innovators to understand and start talking to the market about the value of the product you are launching, you will move from the innovator to early adopter phase of the maturity model much quicker than through direct mailing or other marketing techniques.

Remember, innovators generally are happy to take a risk on a new solution if they feel it gives them a competitive advantage.

For many software companies there is a real challenge in continuing to develop the software to keep pace with changes in their sector. To be successful you need a business strategy that makes sure you meet the needs of customers in your target market . . . and it’s here where Product Partners play a crucial role.

Product Partners are different to straightforward channel resellers who include your software in a portfolio of other solutions to sell to their target market. Instead, Product Partners have created software of their own which adds value to your existing solution. They can help you to offer a functionally-rich solution, create better revenue opportunities, position your company as the strongest supplier, and create new active and passive income streams.

There are four main different types of software Product Partner, all of which need to be carefully managed to make the business successful:

1.      Advocate partners – this is where you would recommend a partner product and company to your customers in return for remuneration, but would remain in control of the sale from proposal through to closing. It’s a low-touch partnership to add value to your solution.

2.      Strategic partners – these are high-value relationships between your company and the Partner, working together for common goals and revenue-share incentives and aligned around the same values and messaging.   This involves working in true collaboration and allows your business to position itself as a leading supplier in a given deal.

3.      Technical partners – partners who pay a fee to pass information between their product and your product, but their product does not feature within your portfolio. This can represent a separate but active revenue stream for your company.

4.      Referral partners – you would pass leads to Partner companies in exchange for commission remuneration, either per lead or per sale, and allow them to lead the sale through to closure. This is more of a passive income partnership where you are allowing partner companies to capitalize on your customer base in exchange for % revenue.

Whichever Product Partner strategy you go for (and it can easily be a combination of all four) it’s important to keep the main goal of any partnership in mind; both sides must get value from the relationship.