More than margin

During Ecosystem Week, Jay McBain said something really powerful (paraphrasing):

Each $1 SaaS sale creates more dollars for partners - that’s not margin, it’s multiplier.

We’re talking about new opportunities created for tech, implementation, and service partners on top of the product value prop—not substracted from it. New value created, not just dicing up the same pie.

A great question to ask: Does our product create additional value for our ecosystem? Could we do it more?

Is your ecosystem healthy?

In the traditional channel, partner profitability was measured by margin. Today, that’d be a mistake.

Norma Watenpaugh wrote a Forbes article explaining ways to know if your partner ecosystem is healthy.

You first have to begin with a fundamental acknowledgment.

We often talk about a partner ecosystem as a collection of partners, but the real power of ecosystems is in the interconnections between members in the ecosystem.

Then, you have to answer 5 questions:

1. What is the strategic purpose of your ecosystem?

2. How does the ecosystem contribute to achieving company goals for growth, innovation and agility?

3. If the power of the ecosystem is in the interconnections, how do you stimulate that?

4. Are you creating sustainable value in the ecosystem? Do your partners share the same values?

5. Are partners better off by being a part of your ecosystem? Are they more profitable, experiencing growth or creating new revenue streams? Or are they looking for the door?

Finally, you focus on (5) important metrics.

Read the article for more.

Video of the Day

Sara Wang’s full Supernode Keynote!

We’ve been talking about how a16z is betting on partnerships. Here’s your chance to hear the full talk!

The real power is the interconnections between members

Enhance your interconnectedness.

If you want to find and network with more people from the PhD community, use #partnerhackers on LinkedIn and we’ll make sure to feature a list of PhD members who are open to connecting in an upcoming PhD.