Why your Partner Summit agenda is wrong. How to change it
The Partner Summit Goal
The goal of a Partner Summit is to gather as many partners like distributors, resellers, value added resellers and integrators on one event in order to engage, inform about products and to stimulate sales.
Large efforts and expenses are made to get all partners lodged in the same chic hotel and good food is served to please the partners. Even presents are given at their arrival.
The Partner Summit Agenda – typically
The schedule of a partner meeting day is typically as follows in order to have a flow from vision to execution (being selling aided by marketing):
BREAKFAST
- The introduction by the CEO giving his vision on business
- The CFO telling how good the company is performing and well financed it is.
- The sales pep talk from the VP Sales showing the sales success stories of the company
BREAK
- The CTO giving his vision on technology
- The VP Product Marketing on corporate positioning and product strategy
(The joke: my presentation is the only thing holding you back from lunch)
LUNCH
- The VP Quality or Engineering about production and quality assurance
- The VP Product Management gives overview of the new products
BREAK
- The VP Marketing explains the new marketing plan, program and MDF (Marketing Development Fund)
- The Awards Ceremony for the best partners presented by the CEO and VP Sales.
GALA DINNER: in an exclusive location.
What’s wrong with the typical scheduling ?
The problem with this typical program is that people are already tired of traveling the previous day and the welcome reception (drinks on an empty stomach), the diner at the hotel and the bar of the hotel after dinner. Thus the next morning they start of listening to the more generic and motivational information, then have lunch and more drinks thus by the time the new products are presented in the afternoon the level of attention as slipped to very low – some people will even have fallen asleep.
It is beneficial to propose the vision of the company during the day, but the vision will not generate sales without the products being known. The vision helps to support the products – not visa verso.
The goal agenda
As the new products are probably the most important for the partners to understand, know their positioning or just to remember them because they need to sell these during the coming year. Thus instead of products being presented when conference fatigue is happening in the afternoon, the new product presentation should be presented just after the welcome and introduction by the CEO. When people are still awake and have found a seat in the conference room. Then this presentation would get more attention.
Additionally the marketing presentation at the end of the day should be used to have a repeat of the products liked to their specific marketing efforts and programs in place.
Explaining the new products just after starting the conference day would give the benefit of:
- The partners will still pay attention
- Gives partners ample time to think and to formulate questions during the day to management (feedback)
- Repeat the product overview during the marketing presentation – repeat info stands more chance to be remembered
Repeating items always helps especially if presented by a different person and from a different angle.
Please note: if people take away 3 things of a presentation or even a conference then you are already successful.
When is your next Partner Summit planned?
Is your agenda similar to the typical scheduling ?
