Grow Your Marketing Budget Through the Power of Partnerships
Are you looking to stretch your marketing budget? MDF, marketing development funds, can allow you to extend your marketing budget by up to 50%. So how does this work?
Many technology vendors build ecosystems of partners that are knowledgeable on their products and services to best serve their collective customers. This allows the vendor to extend their sales and marketing efforts in the market without the burden of directly hiring sales and marketing staff. While each vendor has their own guidelines, these programs often include training, certifications, and funding to support demand generation efforts.
Many MDF programs require 50% of the investment to be spent and executed by mid-year. Timing is crucial, especially when enterprise solutions often have sales cycles of 12-24 months. The sooner you launch your plan, the sooner you will see results. Here are my top five tips for an impactful joint marketing plan to deliver results.
Five Tips to Maximize Your MDF:
Define Objectives and Focus on Common Goals. Your company’s business objectives may not be 100% aligned with the vendor’s goals, but there are always areas of commonality. Work with your business, technical, and partner counterparts to define the objectives and metrics for success for your partnership. The marketing plan and MDF spend should align to those goals.
Understand the Program Guidelines. MDF is typically a reimbursement program, where the partner (you) fronts the cost and then submits the claim for reimbursement from the vendor. Avoid unpleasant surprises and thoroughly read the program guidelines to ensure you are clear on the vendor’s deadlines, reimbursement criteria, and qualifying activities.
Identify Vendor Success Metrics. Each program is different, so be certain you understand how the vendor defines success. Some programs track the dollar value of the deal registration, new logos, customer references, quantity and value of qualified leads, etc. While those may not be the metrics your company uses, ensure you are showing up on your vendor’s reports by tracking and promoting your progress.
Evangelize Your Value Widely and Often. Now that you understand the program and how the vendor defines success, share that success widely across the vendor’s organization. Identify other teams and contacts within the organization where you can add value. Many partner programs have hundreds—sometimes thousands—of partners and do not have the resources to proactively engage each partner individually. Find a group where you can drive success and show them how you can add value to their line of business. For example, do you have a solution to support manufacturing customers? Or perhaps you specialize in generative AI solutions for customer service and have a compelling customer testimonial you can share? Oftentimes these teams operate separately from the partner organization and may have their own budgets and opportunities you can align with.
Practice Thoughtful Flexibility. Business priorities may shift over time, and that means the marketing plan will follow suit. Work with your partners and stakeholders to define a mechanism to evaluate changes to the objectives. In some cases, it may make sense to adjust objectives for the business, but sometimes it may not. Defining a process in advance will assist with a quick decision and avoid unnecessary cycles.
Partner programs are a terrific way to scale resources for an exceptional customer experience, but they can be challenging to navigate. Perhaps you just inherited a partner relationship, or perhaps you’re looking to accelerate an existing plan and note sure where to start. With over 20 years of partner marketing experience, Grow Strategic Consulting, LLC is here to help. Book a free consultation here to discuss your objectives and how we can help you grow through the power of partnerships.