Partner Experience is as important as the Customer Experience
There I said it.
If you are in a channel oriented business the partner is the thing.
In a sense … The Partner is the King. (click2tweet)
Or should be.
The whole idea of embracing the customer experience #CX is absolutely the right way to think about tradeshows, events, engagement.
There is an active community on Twitter that embraces the #CX model. Marsha Collier is quite active in the community.
But, an often overlooked area is where the interface between the customer actually occurs.
Enter PX
Where PX is the Partner Experience.
This is where the vendor or what I call the platform provider needs to think about the solution engagement and sales cycle holistically.
If the vendor aka platform provider sells through a partner network there had better be consideration for both the CX and the PX
How is your company adapting and adding PX to your product, event, and engagement strategies?
(click2tweet)
Microsoft is Making Changes
This year microsoft has re-organized it's sales organization around the One Commercial Partner (OCP) model. Microsoft has made a lot of changes to align with the PX side of the equation. And, this is the right thing to do for the Microsoft Partner Ecosystem today.
I wrote about this in Changes Ahead in the Microsoft Partner Ecosystem.
Where the partner, ostensibly, is put at the center of the equation and all (or at least almost all) activities, actions, alignments revolve around the partner.
Does this mean the customer is not part of the equation?
Absolutely not. However, as I am trying to note here, Microsoft is wisely adapting to the PX in order to get the CX inline with the way they want their sales teams, marketing teams, technical teams, and even their executive teams to engage.
Everything needs to address one critical question:
Why do partners keep coming back?
No one WANTS to buy products (click2tweet)
- They want to deliver solutions
- It's all about the experience
- It's all about the Partner Experience
If you have thoughts here please share.
I have been in the Microsoft partner ecosystem for over 20 years. I know what I know. I’d like to hear what you know.
I’ll be writing and podcasting more about the Partner Experience in the coming days and weeks. If you have something to add … let’s collaborate.
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