In this episode of SaaS Connect by Cloud Software Association, Sophia Sithole, Head of Customer Success and Partnerships at CloudApp at the time of this presentation and now Senior Partner Marketer, Platforms at Zapier, explains what made a small startup abandon tradition to develop a channel sales strategy; how they did it; what worked; what didn’t work. 

CloudApp, an instant video and image sharing platform for companies, had 25 employees at the time, all of whom juggled many tasks; Sophia explains how they handled setting up a channel when they didn’t even have a dedicated marketing team.

Discover the steps and processes CloudApp went through and the tips they offer, based on their experiences:

  • What does partnering look like to you? For example, are you going to share your revenue? Are you going to sell your solution through a reseller or a distributor? Are you going to offer volume-based discounts or any discounts on your product? 
  • How CloudApp figured out the answers to the crucial questions that needed to be addressed.
  • How much support are you willing to provide to your partners?
  • Don’t directly compete with your partners. 
  • Metrics are helpful to understand your audience and to better figure out what you should focus on.
  • Which channel partnerships worked and which didn’t.
  • The most important thing is to make it easy to partner with you.
  • Understand who is your ideal partner.
  • Finding and building a distribution channel through VARs, and resellers.

 

Teaser Tip: … “The great thing about every lost opportunity is that you get an idea of what your ideal partner looks like, and how to scale.” – Sophia Sithole

Resources Mentioned:

Please note: this presentation was from a 2018 SaaS conference.

 

 

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