AE Co-selling Enablement Summary

I interviewed 6 Partner Managers and 2 AE’s who work well with the partner team.

Challenges

AEs are not working on partner deals

The AE follow-up process is unclear

Roles & Responsibilities are unclear

Summarization

AEs are not working on partner deals for various reasons. Today, the majority of partner deals are from distis and resellers, which operate differently from a solution partner.

PM POV

They think the partner or PM has it

They might potentially see it as a waste of time - TBD

They don’t understand the value

They try one outreach and give up

If the partner closes on it, they get paid whether they put the time in. Do they understand that it could be a land and expand?

According to 4 PMs so far, the PMs are updating SFDC with Next Steps, not AEs

AE’s POV

The comp neutral component is only helpful if the rep doesn’t need quota relief

There are some bad feelings from past interactions, mainly with distis/resellers, because they are taking orders versus solution selling

An AE was stuck, reached out to a parter, the partner shared an email to a decision maker (but didn’t help get access to the DM). The partner got the margin and the AE gave up points and quota relief

If there is no customer contact info, AE’s have to stalk the partner to get info. Sometimes the disti/resller contact doesn’t have any info because they are soley submitting DRs from their procurement system

Some DRs are unqualified and don’t have any meat on the bones and/or don’t have customer contact info on them. If there is no contact info, AE’s have to stalk the partner to get updates

Our reseller minimums are already low and some of the deals are too small (mostly from resellers)

AE’s are getting pinged by partners directly for quotes as opposed to going to the partner portal

Partners don’t know when to engage a rep

Potential Solutions

Based on all of the conversations, here is a list of potential solutions that would help, in order of value

1. AE co-selling enablement

Course/Loom

Sana - workload TBD. Would create accountability in the org

Coda - would not have the same accountability

Catalyst - co-selling meeting

Workflow Diagram

Roles & responsibilities chart

2. Disco prep facilitation - every person liked this idea, both PMs and AEs

Partners may or may not have done some discovery with the customer. Superhuman AEs don’t know how much discovery has been done or how in-depth it is. To have an intelligent conversation, Sellers (AEs and Partners) should know all of the challenges a customer is having.

Create an email/form that lists the challenges a customer might be facing, and have the partner complete the form prior to a call. This would help both sellers (Superhuman & Partner) align on the challenges before the 1st customer discovery call, as well as what to prepare to speak to for a demo.

What challenges are you experiencing that “product” can help with? (Create a list of problems based on the persona)

Challenge 1

Challenge 2

Challenge 3

Challenge 4

Challenge 5

Challenge 6

Challenge 7

In the customer discovery call - after introductions, the first question would be, “Customer, here are the challenges that we are planning on discussing. Please confirm we are aligned, then rank them in order of importance.”

3. Deal Registration Suggestions

Add in the help needed as a request

Collateral

Quote/Proposal

Co-selling

Automated email of deal approval - email or include the partner seller cc’d or contact information. (The DR Approval Notifications email the person that submitted the deal registration and does NOT include the partner seller. This is leading to misalignment of our AEs reaching out to the person that submitted the opp versus the partner’s seller)

4. Direct quote requests from partners to the portal

Create a snippet that AEs can share to direct partners to the partner portal

5. Channel Partner <> AE Advocacy Program

Match a sales team with someone on the partner team to be their go-to buddy. This creates more of a relationship and allows the vulnerability to ask any and all questions.

KK’s Team

Rich Faro

Connor Eagan

Jon Roche

Sarah Issner

Jenny’s G4E Team - Hannah or Lauren?

Jason

Mary Rose

Monica’s Team

Flavio’s Team - Michelle or Kristen

David’s Team - Ted

5. Opportunity Monitoring

If an opp has a value, it should be treated and worked on like all opps

Partner opps that move from Omitted to closed should be flagged

Partner opps without AE activity should be flagged

Partner opps without AE next steps should be flagged

Learning Topics Covered for Co-Selling

Why it matters

Type of partners and how they operate

Process

DR gets approved - need to read

AE gets assigned

AE reaches out to Partner to do a pre-discovery call/email

Learns about the customer (in pre-research??)

Learns about the opp

What type of partner (Distributor, Reseller, Solution Partner) are they, and what are their typical engagement styles

Aligns with the partner on how the partner wants to be supported

Collateral

Quote - how does the partner want Superhuman to engage? Superhuman should push for direct access to the client to ensure we propose the best solutions that fit their needs.

Demo

SE/SA Assistance

Co-selling Discovery Call

Who is going to lead the call?

If the partner wants to be point on the deal, then the AE should be part of the calls as co-selling support adding value.

If the Superhuman AE is on point for the deal, the opp is handled as usual, and the partner is included in all communications.

Always ask partners if they want to be part of the calls.

Is a demo expected for the first call? If so, what to cover? (For the 1st Customer & Partner call - most of the time, the customer is expecting a demo, and Superhuman should lead it)

What is the goal or next steps for the call?

How do we co-strategize for land and expand?

If the partner does not want to participate in the sales process, then the AE will engage in High-touch engagement directly with the customer (if co-selling is not an option) - the AE works on the account to maximize value for the customer and partner and grow the account.

Communications

All comms need to include Partner and PM until the Discovery Call.

After the Discovery call, the Superhuman AE MUST include the partner in all customer communications.

If an obstacle or stalemate occurs, the AE should reach out to the PM by (if comms were by email - AEs should share using @Comment in Superhuman Mail)

Opps

AE Keep running with it (need a timeline of expectations: how many times should they reach out before giving up?). Currently, most AEs do one outreach and then give up. If an opp has a value, it should be treated and worked on like all opps

AEs are responsible for tracking the ‘Next Step’ field in SFDC, not the partner managers

Work partner opps the same way as a direct deal

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