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Amazon Consulting is licensed or otherwise published by Amazon Consulting with the permission of the owner of
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cathy@eyetoeyepr.com

Amazon Consulting 2011

Thought Leadership Brief

The Strategic Role of the

Partner Development Manager:
Do The Skills of Todays
Channel Sales Managers Translate?

Table of Contents

Page
Your Partners Want More

Who is the Partner Development Manager?

Leadership for a Faster Start

It Takes a Villageand a Seasoned Leader

Partner Coverage and Logistics

Amazon Recommends

13

Amazon Consulting

The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Page 2

Your Partners Want More

Todays solution provider expects more from the vendor enablement process
than ever before. It's not enough anymore to simply get a welcome letter
from a channel manager and login credentials to the channel partner portal.
Partners want more hands-on support, better guidance during business
planning and faster deployment of resources to achieve a quicker return on
their vendor relationship.
In fact, most partners say that they
expect to start selling in the first six
months of a new vendor relationship and
to achieve an average ROI of 200 percent
in the first 12 months.1
At first blush it might be easy for vendors
to dismiss these expectations as over
demanding. But solution providers are
making a significant investment based
only on faith and financial guesswork. If
those guesses don't pan out the soured
relationship could presumably
inconvenience the vendor. But has the
potential to absolutely sink a partner.

Partner Development Managers

and the
Partner Value Equation
Your channel partner prospects aren't
willing to risk an investment in a new
vendor relationship without some
assurances that they'll see meaningful
returns. After being burned before by
unsupportive vendors and facing
increasing pressure from a challenging
economy and changing business models,
they want to work with vendors who
offer a total package that we call the
Partner Value Equation.
Are you doing everything you can to put
your channel support strategy in line
with this equation? If you haven't
started talking about establishing a
Partner Development Manager role,
probably not.

Meanwhile, changing customer habits and

an increasingly competitive IT sales
environment are both putting pressure on
solution providers to adapt with new
service models and build better value on
top of vendor products.
In light of all of this, we at Amazon
Consulting believe that vendors need to
start transitioning partner management
from a program management function to
a true business development function
within the next five to ten years. And the
first order of business for this evolution is building a suitable role for someone
to lead the charge.
We call this position the Partner Development Manager. More than a Channel
Sales Manager, a Partner Development Manager should be a prospect hunter
with senior executive skills and a strong background in building team
relationships.

Rookie to Rock Star: Accelerating the Development of Channel Partnerships, Amazon Consulting, 2010

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Page 3

Partner Development Managers are more proactive and more focused in their
recruitment efforts. They've got the intuition and the skills to engineer the
best match between the needs of the vendor and the solution provider.
It's a leadership position that will encourage successful long-term
relationships even in the face of tough economic times and shifting channel
business models. Which is why we think that if you can have only one role in
your channel enablement team, it needs to be the Partner Development
Manager.

Who is the Partner Development Manager?

No matter what you call them Channel Recruitment Managers, Partner
Recruit Managers or Partner Sales Managers Partner Development Managers
think differently than traditional Channel Sales Managers.
Since SAP added the Channel Recruiter role
our time-to-revenue with partners has
increased. Partner selection has become
more thoughtful, and we have brought on
higher quality partners.

We definitely look at a new hiring profile for Partner

Recruit Managers," says Karine Allouche Salanon,
Director of worldwide strategy and compete for Microsoft.
"We are recruiting for a different DNA more business
savvy, more sales-oriented with an entrepreneurial
spirit.

John Scola
VP, Partner Recruitment & Excellence

It's no knock against Channel Sales Managers, either. Our

recent projects and research has shown that these
traditional channel liaisons are so mired in the day-to-day
upkeep of existing partner accounts and sales tasks that
it would be unfair and unrealistic to pile on the added
responsibility of recruiting and building an enablement
team around a new breed of partner.
By adding Partner Development Managers to the mix, vendors can better
compete for prospective partners' time and attention. It takes a seasoned
business manager to engage the new breed of partner. A Partner
Development Manager should not only have the ability to research, identify,
qualify, sell-to and recruit solution providers, but also to establish a team
relationship where the vendor and the partner can build technology solutions
together.
Its a personality or attitude difference between the two roles, not skills:
both need to have strong sales skills, but the PSR will like to hunt, sell, uproot
the competition, and be tech-savvy in order to have new discussions with
partner prospects, asserts Jane Lowe, Director of Personal Systems Group,
HP.
As vendor technologies and partner business models focus more heavily on
services, this engagement step has become the most crucial in determining
channel relationship success. If it isn't done right, little else matters.

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

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Case Study: SAP

L
Increasing demands from partners has spurred some vendors to respond to those needs
e with dedicated recruitment and enablement managers. For example, software giant SAP
has both Channel Recruitment Managers and is piloting a new role of Channel Incubator
a Manager in North America. The Incubator role works only with new designated partners
to them for nurturing by the Channel Recruit Manager. The Channel Incubators
dpassed
sole role is to work with the partner on hands-on sales and onboarding tactical activities
12-18 months, with the overall goal to make the partner successful in driving
Efor
revenue and to become self-sufficient.

Leadership for a Faster Start

Through our many client engagements and recent vendor interviews on this
topic, we believe it has become an imperative to establish and refine partner
management roles to match and support the phases of the partner
development lifecycle, which we identify as a series of four steps:
engagement, activation, ramping up and management. Ideally, organizations
shouldn't be dumping Channel Sales Managers in lieu of Partner Development
Managers. Instead, these two roles should be working in concert for
maximum enablement throughout the partner development lifecycle.
When working in concert with the Channel Sales Managers and other
enablement team members, the new Partner Development Manager role
offers high touch early on in the lifecycle. The Partner Development Manager
takes the facilitator role while passing operational duties off to the Channel
Sales Managers and the rest of the team once the relationship is established
and sales take root.
So in relation to the lifecycle, the Partner Development Manager looks
something like this:

Partner Development Manager

Responsibility Stage 1: Hands-On
Business Development and Recruitment

Partner Development Manager

Responsibility Stage 2: Facilitator for
Day-to-Day Channel Management Team

In the first stage, the partner development manager helps the company grow
its partner ecosystem. Their job is to find the right partners, to match

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

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company goals with partner needs, to explore and define the benefits of
working together. Its more critical today than ever before for an
entrepreneurial-minded business executive to understand, own and sell the
value the company brings to the prospective partner and how they might
benefit from investing time and resources to become a productive and selfsufficient partner. Vendors need to actively recruit a new breed of Partner
Development Manager who is a savvy hunter, who understands business
and technology, and who is an entrepreneurial team leader.
Moving the partner from initial engagement and recruitment to becoming
activated at the sales, technical and marketing levels is a proverbial cliff many
Channel Sales Managers fall off of as they try to move partners along their
development path. At this activate stage, the Partner Development
Manager takes the basic program elements to a higher level. This is where
the partner gets introduced to their functional partner team members (the
safety net) to establish ongoing support relationships and to accelerate the
activation of their partnership.
Phase

Channel Sales Manager

Engage

Qualify partners from leads

Execute contracts
Recruit into vendor program

Activate
(Onboard)

Activate
(Enable)

Partner Development Manager

Program enrollment
Contract negotiations and administration

Establish path to certification

Transition to training and

Establish and manage enablement track with virtual team

Technical training guidance

Brokers sales collaboration

Manage

Relationship building meetings with local sales teams

Recruit and manage contracts

Program enrollment
Contract administration
Initiate on-boarding process

marketing resources

Ramp

Research and identify partner targets

Qualify fit and interest with execs
Initial business planning

with field teams

Pipeline/forecast tracking
Order tracking

Sales pipeline and forecast

management
Revenue monitoring
Renewing contracts

Introduction to virtual team

Develop business and marketing plan

Pre-Sales training
Synch with Partner Marketing Manager to offer guidance and
support for campaigns
Linkage with field account managers for mentoring

Personal co-selling support

Facilitate partner-to-partner collaboration
Lead generation--pipeline development
Manages multi-region or multi-practice partners until fully
ramped in all regions or disciplines

Transitions or teams with channel manager on all other

ramped partners

When Partner Development Managers ramp a new partner, the lead

generation and sales development process is high touch and may be a
lengthy step. Once a partner is fully activated and ramped they are likely
transitioned to the Channel Sales Manager to manage and own the growth

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

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and evolution of the relationship. This handoff point varies from partner to
partner depending on the complexity and depth of the partnership.
In stage two, the Partner Development Manager becomes a coach, teacher,
and facilitator. They show the new partner the path to productivity. They lead
the partner management team which provides sales, marketing, technical and
operational support the partner needs to ramp steadily and achieve ROI
faster, all while keeping functional overlaps and operational complexity to a
minimum for the partner.

It Takes a Village -- and a Seasoned Leader

It might take a village to raise a channel prospect up the right way, but true
prosperity will only follow if that village has a strong seasoned leader. The
division of labor between operational enablement support and strategic
business development work is key to keeping things running smoothly within
the confines of a vendor's organization. But in order to keep the seams from
showing and prevent new partnerships from losing steam early on, channel
teams need a leader to glue everything together. This is where a Partner
Development Manager can play a huge role.
Once a new partner is recruited, the Partner Development Manager acts as
the chief of the partner on-boarding and enablement team. Together with the
Partner Development Manager, the team should consist of a Technical
Solution Specialist, Partner Marketing Manager, Program Support Manager,
and Sales and Technical Trainer.
Partner Development Manager:

Owns overall relationship

Demonstrates path to revenue
Team captain of virtual team
Accountable to objectives
Leads Sales readiness
Manages milestones
Transitions relationship to CM

Technical Solution Specialist:

Develops partner enablement path

Guides in training and certification
Assists in Pre-Sales, Lab, POC
Owns tech contacts relationships

Partner Marketing Manager:

Assists partner with campaigns

Accountable to MDF funds

Joint go-to-market activity plans

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

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This division of labor is key. Vendors are more often

discovering how inefficient and costly it is to have their
channel sales managers distracted from higher level
partner development activities. Large technology
vendors have begun to move the day-to-day
administration and program support issues away from
Karine Allouche Salanon
Director of Worldwide
the Partner Development and Channel Sales Managers
Strategy and Compete
and to the role of partner program support and trainers.
The Partner Development Manager serves as the
knowledgeable expert who understands the solution
providers business goals and go-to-market initiatives,
and who makes sure the rest of the team does also. It
is his/her responsibility to set the plans and plays of who, when, and how the
other members of the partner team will assist the partner in their path to
revenue and market success. Additional tasks are managing the early
enablement activities, measuring the progress and communication to the
partner about their sales and technical readiness.

We definitely look at a new hiring profile for

Partner Recruit Managers. We are recruiting
for a different DNA more business savvy,
more sales-oriented with an entrepreneurial
spirit.

The new breed of solution provider expects to be mentored by the vendors

team in sales, market positioning, business development and technology
implementation. Face time, sales training sessions, side-by-side on the
customer site, best-practice mentoring sessions, are new expectations of
partners from the vendors partner
team.

35% of vendors are

investing in field and
business development
reps for planning and
enablement in 2011.

The well-orchestrated virtual team is

essential for successfully providing
these resources. The winning formula
is a combination of the right resources
that follow a common set of growth and
Amazon Consulting 2011 State of
development objectives and clear
Partnering Study
processes for functional handoffs that
are planned and measured. An
increase in resources, planned out thoughtfully without overlap or
unnecessary complexity, is welcomed by the partner community.
Case Study: Microsoft

Microsoft has long used the field Technical Solution Specialist (TSS) to enable and
support their solution providers in the field. Technical Solutions Specialists provide
partner assistance to navigate the resources, sales and marketing support from the
Microsoft product solution teams for their respective specialization. TSS staff engage on
specific customer deals and support partners during the sales process while helping to
move the partners technical staff to self-sufficiency. Microsoft uses its Channel
Recruitment Manager to help the partner proactively build its pipeline. The Channel
Recruitment Manager aligns the partner with the TSS and the direct sales people to help
drive their first 5-7 customer opportunities.

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

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Partner Coverage and Logistics

With so many ways to collaborate and communicate virtually today, vendors
need to design appropriate partner coverage models. Traditionally, large
vendors have designated channel program tiers for aligning resources.
Partner-facing teams, especially those in the field, are typically organized
around partner tier, region or by partner type.
Partner types and tiers are the most common organizing principle today for
determining a partner coverage model. Partners who cannot meet target
revenue goals or higher program qualifications often receive management via
tele-managed resources, from distribution, inside sales, partner resource
desks or self-service partner portals.
Many vendors are reconsidering their coverage strategy today to focus on
quality, not quantity of their partnerships, with an eye toward being more
efficient in the use of partner development resources. Since smaller vendors
dont have the luxury of granular coverage they may assign partner managers
for large geographic regions and they will share the Technical Solution
Specialist role and inside sales teams to support the partner. This can be
adequate for vendors who have few technology areas and a high-touch
approach to channel management. Some vendors have been fishing FOR the
partner versus teaching the partner how to fish, but that is changing. More
vendors are trying to be more effective with their managed partners, while
reinforcing their unmanaged partner business with self-service support.
Case Study: Sophos
Sophos, a highly focused global security software company, has recently altered its
approach to how it assigns partner resources. It has begun to provide new partners
with Partner Development Managers who are field-based sales advocates to help them
build their security solutions around Sophos products. In parallel, Field Channel
Account Managers (CAM) are teamed with Inside Channel Account Managers at a ratio
of 2:1 to manage existing partners. Distribution handles partners with high volume but
small deals resources which frees up the CAM team to focus on business building
activities with partners.

Regardless of their size or channel maturity, vendors are typically not able to
fund enough dedicated channel resources to adequately assist all partner
types and tiers. Channel Managers teamed with Technical Solution Specialists
can usually support and manage 30 to 40 enabled partners in an assigned
region/geography. Technical and Marketing Enablement Managers, since they
are assisting most frequently with purely the training and enabling of new
partners, can support many partners and multiple Channel Sales Managers,
and Partner Development Managers.

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

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The challenge lies in determining how many partner prospects and new
recruits a Partner Development Manager can manage. Solution providers will
be at various stages along the development continuum so there is never a
dull moment. When partners pass their first successful year they may
transition to a Channel Sales Managers responsibility, while the Partner
Development Manager will continue to find and nurture new partners to
address new markets or technologies. On average, we see vendors with an
established Partner Development Manager role manage about 8-12 partners
in the on-boarding process at any one time.
Vendor
Role

Distribution

Inside
Manager

Channel Sales
Manager

Partner Development
Manager

Vendor Role

Distribution

Inside
Manager

Channel Sales Manager

Partner Development
Manager

Primary
Recruitment
Focus

May recruit from

existing
resellers

Inbound recruit
calls

Recruits to fill territory needs

Researches, identifies,
qualifies and recruits

Partner Touch
Points

Low-volume,
unmanaged
VARs

Silver and
bronze volume
VARs

Select gold and platinum

VARs

On-boards new partners;

may team-manage national
or multi-practice partners.

# of VARs
Managed

>100

>100

50-60

15-20

Enablement
Duties

Owns
enablement and
management
directly

May assist CSM

in management
tasks

Manages inherited partners

passed from Partner
Development Manager or
teams on key partnerships

Manages enablement team

and acts as a liaison to
direct partners to the right
team members

Performance should be monitored, measured, and analyzed along the way.

Development objectives are not a nice-to-have anymore they are an
imperative, so that all parties see a strong ROI for the partnership. While
creating and managing these development results can be a challenge, it is
paramount as it defines the appropriate compensation that is required to
attract, retain, and recognize this new key role.
Due to the economic environment, vendors face increasing pressure to
rationalize the unique contribution and ROI from each and every partnerfacing role.
We have found that we need to have a clear view of unique partner-facing
roles and must be surgical in BI reporting to measure individual impact,"
says Microsoft's Salanon. "It can be tough to show strategic value and
individual sales accountability.

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Page 10

Its a personality or attitude difference

between the two roles, not skills: Both need
to have strong sales skills, but the PSR will
like to hunt, sell, uproot the competition,
and be tech savvy in order to have new
discussions with partner prospects.
Jane Lowe
Director, Personal Systems Group

The concept of the Partner Development manager is a new

challenge because of the critical partner incubation role,
which likely will not result in much revenue in the first year.
Vendor CFOs and financial management teams cut back
heavily on partner-facing roles in the last couple of years
only to realize it starved their partner quality, decreased
partner satisfaction, and negatively impacted their ramping
process. The Partner Development Manager and the
traditional CSMs should have complementary roles, both
accountable to unique measureable milestones in the
partner development cycle.

The ultimate measure of any new role is how its success is measured by the
vendor and the partner. In order to attract and retain the right talent for the
new Partner Development Manager role, it is imperative to provide a new
compensation plan that recognizes and rewards the efforts to hunt for new
partners and the ultimate outcome of those efforts increased revenue.
Compensation should be tied to the metrics of the value-based partner
program including tracking rewarding for recruiting, on-boarding,
enablement, certifications, industry wins and high customer satisfaction.
Case Study: HP
Channel-centric giant Hewlett Packard organizes its SMB partner coverage like its
direct account coverage model. HP puts the partner in the generalist role for most
accounts and supports them with HP specialists. In 2011, the Personal Systems Group
(PSG) followed suit for the role of those building and nurturing the channel, as follows:
Partner Sales Reps (PSR) - Outside field sales resources that engage actively in
partner team-selling, face-to-face with end users. PSRs are compensated on a
geographical territory sales quota, not based on the performance of individual
partners.
Partner Development Reps (PDR) - Inside sales resources responsible for partner
coverage, recruiting and development. Their role is to help farm solution
providers who are already enabled to ramp their revenue. PDRs are compensated
for the growth of individual partners year over year.

How will these value-based metrics affect compensation? The old adage
applies - people do what you pay them to do.
We really saw increased performance in the Channel Recruiter role once we
started measuring the metric of time-to-revenue vs. quantity of new
partners," says John Scola, vice president of partner recruitment and
excellence for SAP. "Channel Recruiters have also been more effective than
CSMs in partner selection resulting in bringing on higher quality partners.

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The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Page 11

In order to attract the sales skills, experience, and track record required of a
Partner Development Manager, vendors will find that they should be paying
higher base salaries since there is less opportunity for commission. One
solution is to set up annual and quarterly objectives around the steps in the
partner development cycle. Keep in mind, the partner is investing their first
12-18 months and so is the vendor by providing the right resource for the
job.
Although SAP, Microsoft, HP and Sophos are all instituting new compensation
plans and measurement criteria for new roles like the Partner Development
Manager, it is still appropriate for them and other IT vendors to continue to
compensate the traditional Channel Sales Manager on the fundamental
metrics of revenue and enablement activities.

Amazon Consulting

The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Page 12

Amazon Recommends
When partners don't feel well supported by their vendors, don't see signs of
early returns on their relationship investments or don't achieve measurable
milestones, vendor loyalty goes out the window. In this challenging and
dynamic environment, vendors need to keep partners' perceived value on the
top of the priority list throughout the recruitment lifecycle. Amazon believes
that the Partner Development Manager plays a crucial part in keeping
priorities straight.
This burgeoning role will help vendors better ramp new partners during the
critical first 12 to 18 months and help partners navigate the relationship going
forward. Upfront vendor investment with the right combination of resources
and benefits, along with patience and dedication (yes those are still virtues)
will drive measurable success for a new partnership.
We see five partner management imperatives that every technology
vendor should consider:
1.

Make sure the partner management team understands and supports

the Partner Value Equation in all partner interactions.

2.

Invest in the Partner Development Manager role with a new

entrepreneurial and hunter skill set. If you can only have one role
let it be the Partner Development Manager.

3.

Establish clear role definitions with measureable metrics for each stage
of the partner development cycle be willing to create a new
compensation plan to reward those development metrics.

4.

Clearly link the interdependencies and accountability of the partner

management team to the key elements of partner growth, maturity,
and productivity.

5.

Keep it as simple as you can adding complexity detracts from

partner value.

Amazon Consulting

The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Page 13

Key Contributor:
Susan Pessemier - Consultant
Susan brings many years in channel sales leadership roles with technology companies
to this topic. Having been on both sides of the fence as the vendor channel sales
leader for Microsoft, Exodus, Savvis and QlikTech to owning her own IT reseller
practice for 9 years. Susan is passionate about the need to evolve the vendor partner
facing roles to better serve the ever-expanding partner community.

For More Information

To find out more information about this paper, please send an email to
info@amazonconsulting.com.

Established in 1997, Amazon Consulting, LLC, (Mountain View, CA) increases the impact of
partnering by designing, implementing and automating effective partner models. Amazon
Consultings clients entrust them to formulate growth strategies, build route-to-market models,
perform competitive benchmarks, design partner programs, facilitate partner advisory councils,
and provide temporary experts for project management and program execution. Drawing on
decades of combined experience, Amazon Consulting makes available a vast library of partnering
resources, hosts regular informational webcasts, and offers PartnerG2, a comprehensive partner
intelligence subscription service. For clients looking to optimize the partner relationships and
improve organizational efficiencies, Amazon Consulting also offers a hosted partner automation
system called PartnerPath. For more information please visit www.amazonconsulting.com.

Copyright Amazon Consulting 2011

Mountain View, California 94043
Phone: 650.480.4030 | Fax 650.240.4030
Produced in the United States of America
All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, faxing, e-mailing,
posting online, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission
from Amazon Consulting.

Amazon Consulting

The Strategic Role of the Partner Development Manager

Page 14

Amazon Consulting Terms of Use

The information in this presentation is produced by Amazon Consulting and may
contain previously unpublished synthesis of materials.
Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute any material from Amazon Consulting
is hereby granted provided that the contents of this "Terms of Use" notice appear with
all copies. In addition, if the material used includes other credit or copyright
information, then this source information should also be included with all copies.
Use of Amazon Consulting content (documents, white papers, articles, research, etc.)
is for informational and non-commercial or personal use only. You may not modify any
content, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license,
create derivative works from, transfer, post on any network, broadcast in any media
or sell any information unless expressly permitted by Amazon Consulting. Content
other than that belonging to Amazon Consulting is licensed or otherwise published by
Amazon Consulting with the permission of the owner of the material. All rights in such
materials are reserved to the respective owners.
For questions and media requests, please contact:
Cathy Sperrazzo
Eye-to-Eye Communications, Inc.
858-565-9800
cathy@eyetoeyepr.com

Amazon Consulting 2011