Salesforce, the American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, is introducing a new partnership model that includes a new economic model, program design, and greater product & industry expertise, all of which are aimed at making it easier for the agency and consulting partners and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to collaborate and drive customer success.
The Lowdown: The enhancements in the multi-faceted partnership model that was announced by the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendor were a result of feedback from partners. They will give ISVs more access to the out-of-the-box Salesforce Customer 360 Platform.
The Details: The new partner program is empowered by a revamped design. It emphasizes on letting partners know they are performing and what should be their point of focus with Salesforce. This includes the Partner Trailblazer Score that measures partners in certain areas like innovation, success, and engagement. Their scores dictate whether they fit in the new tier structure and partners are eligible to move into a new tier every quarter.
The new economic model for ISVs includes:
- New products: Einstein Analytics and AppExchange App Analytics that would let partners find out how their solutions are being leveraged by customers and then analyze the data; MyTrailhead for Partners for top-tier ISVs for publishing a custom Trailhead experience for customers; and Apex and ISV Customer Debugger to debug Apex in real-time and specific customer issues.
- Greater access to Salesforce Customer 360: This includes Einstein Analytics for building machine learning into solutions; Salesforce Communities technology for extending customer business processes and improving collaboration; and platform services to provide access to partners in the context of developer tools for testing code and metadata, delivering connected apps, and improving performance.
- Marginal royalty model: Partners will see a reduction in their marginal royalty rates as revenue increases.
Salesforce also announced elevated product and industry expertise for agency and consulting partners:
- Consultants on AppExchange: Customers can see partners’ expertise, project reviews, and customer ratings in their AppExchange listings.
- Enhanced Salesforce Navigator: Partners can now market their Salesforce expertise the customer-facing way.
There are additional benefits for Salesforce partners:
- Referral fees: They are now open to all agency and consulting partners in 22 countries in Asia and Europe.
- Reduced fees: The costs of participating in the consulting partner program of the vendor were dropped at almost every level.
- Increased investment in Trailhead for Partners: Helps partners grow their practice through a Partner Learning Camp and talent programs to help them efficiently build, sell, and implement Salesforce products.
Woodson Martin, executive vice president and general manager of Salesforce AppExchange, wrote in a blog post that customer success is at the core of every Salesforce partnership. Martin added Salesforce firmly believes that customer success is strengthened by our ability to create a thriving and connected ecosystem together with our partners, we grow, innovate, and invest in ways that help customers transform their businesses. The executive vice president and general manager of Salesforce AppExchange further remarked that our joint success has always been fueled by feedback from our partners, and they’ve recently told us they want us to help them scale faster.
