Case Study: A Strategy for Driving Partner Sales

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03 Mar Case Study: Driving Partners Sales at a Fortune 100 Tech Company

Posted at 16:00h in Case Study, TDG Updates by The Design Gym 0 Comments

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At A Glance:

CLIENT:
Fortune 100 Technology Company

TIMELINE:
3 months

PROJECT TYPE:
Strategy

DECISION MAKER:
SVP, Partner Sales

FUNCTION:
Sales + Partnerships Team

“[The Design Gym] is a complete rock star and the absolute glue of making the strategy come to life in a simple and clear perspective.”
Senior Leader and Collaborator

The Challenge:

Our client, a global technology company, leverages a partner model for much of their sales. However, with turbulent and shifting markets, supply chain disruptions, and increased competition, their partners’ confidence in the company had decreased, leading to a corresponding decrease in sales. So, the team that leads global partner strategy engaged us to help them define a strategic recommendation for executive leadership to improve partners’ confidence in both the short and long term.

The Solution:

Our intentionally collaborative approach engaged multiple geographies to inform the holistic strategy.

Discovery

We began by surveying internal stakeholders and reviewing existing data on partner sales. Our research informed two virtual workshops with ~20 senior leaders from cross-functional groups. During each workshop, we collaboratively defined partner confidence. Then, we leveraged these insights to prioritize three key investment areas. Finally, the strategic recommendations were shared with and approved by executive leadership.

Design

Anchoring to the three investment opportunity paths, we held an additional two co-creation workshops with the same senior leaders. They generated ideas that haven’t been explored before and refined the top ones into 12 high clarity concepts for increasing partner confidence.

Delivery

The core team prioritized four of the top concepts. We then refined them into illustrative prototypes with accompanying business cases and action plans that outlined the value, feasibility, and next steps to further explore and test them. Ultimately, the collaborative approach informed a holistic strategy with implementation and investment options that wove multiple solutions together for executive leadership approval and funding.

The Results:

Cross-organizational definition of partner confidence
100+ early ideas, consolidated into 12 high clarity concepts
4 illustrative “Initiative Prototypes” with lightweight business cases and action plans
A holistic strategic recommendation for executive approval
Increased organizational buy-in through a collaborative, transparent approach to strategy development

To ensure that each of the prioritized concepts for increasing partner confidence was clear and actionable, we engaged senior leaders around the globe in co-creating detailed one-pagers for each idea.

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The Design Gym is a strategy and innovation consultancy helping leaders to grow their business by fully unlocking the power of their most important advantage: their people. We work at the intersection of business strategy, experience design, and change management to engage the people that matter most to your work: your customers, your leaders, and your employees. See something that resonates with a project or challenge you're working on? Shoot us a note at [email protected].