Article

Why Choosing the Right Partners is Key to Microsoft Dynamics ISV Success

by Paul Solski
Founder, AIM International, AIM International

If you are a Microsoft Dynamics ISV looking to expand your market reach, then partnering with the right Value Added Resellers is going to be critical to your success. Too often ISVs embark on a partner recruiting drive to sign up resellers across the country and across the globe where they succeed in getting handshakes, sometimes many, but twelve months down the road they find themselves having invested extensively in training and marketing with many partners but with very few results. In fact, it's not uncommon for ISVs to see that just 10% of their partners produce 90% of their channel revenues.

Having a quality solution with meaningful competitive differentiation that addresses a real gap in the market and can be justified with a customer ROI model is a must. Offering compelling partner business terms and benefits are just as important. But choosing the right partners is the major factor that will determine your success in the channel. Therefore, it pays to be systematic in assessing the capability of potential partners to be able to build a business around your solution and become self-sufficient and pro-active in winning new customers.

The first step is to develop your own ideal partner profile. This will establish the criteria against which you can judge partners' potential. Consider these three criteria and associated characteristics to assess potential:

Market Reach

  • How many installed base customers does a partner have in the target vertical(s)?
  • Has the partner allocated marketing budget to run their own demand generation campaigns?
  • Can the partner identify key business drivers that would cause customers to buy an ERP or CRM solution?
  • How many sales consultants does the partner have with experience in selling ...

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About Paul Solski

Paul Solski (paulsolski@aimcorpinternational.com) is the Managing Director of AIM International, a management consulting firm specializing in assisting software companies to enter and grow in new markets. Mr. Solski has over 25 years' experience in international business development having held executive positions at Microsoft, HP, Intel, and Compaq.

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