For almost 20 years, Adviser Partner has been training, coaching, and consulting +35.000 Sales Reps, Sales Managers, CEOs, and business owners. We have been working with the best, in more or less every industry and because of that, we have learned a lot of what-to-do and probably even more, a lot of what-not-to-do! 

So, what can we do for you now when you are reading this article? Well, we can give you our top three list on what to do to maximize your results as Partner Account Manager, in these articles referred to as PAM. 

We have already covered the importance of having the same idea or definition of what a partner is, and last week we clarified the important topic of how a Partner Account Manager wins his or her game. Today we will look at point number three which is covering how to plan and even more important, how to execute the plan.

3. The method of GPR

This will bring us to the third and last point of the article, The Plan. Said slightly differently: to coach you need a plan, to plan you need to know what results to achieve and to know what results you should have (or more specifically, your partner needs to reach), the Goal must be clear, well understood, and challenging. Perhaps even accepted but that’s included in the term “goal” which ultimately, needs to come from the individual himself, with a mix of maybe/possible taken into the equation of: will I be able to reach the goal?

GPR is short for Goal – Plan – Results and is the most important document to develop and carry out with the partner or reseller. With a clear goal, you, and your partner together, can define: what kind of results do we need to achieve for being able to reach the goal? Goals represent the direction forward, results what you need to have accomplished and show the rest of the world, to reach the goal. 

Tell me a goal and I will ask you: what kind of result do you have to accomplish to reach the goal? Ask the same question, over and over, and the results will pop out, one after another! After doing that until you’re satisfied, the obvious question now will be: How will the plan look, that will bring us the desired results? What we will build the plan after, is the gap between what we want to happen, compared to how it looks like today. A plan always fills the gap! 

You will find “the gap” between what we see in the future, let’s say one year ahead, comparing it with how it looks today. It’s called the Formula of improvement! No matter what you want to make better, you can use it with the same logic. Wanted future, compared with reality today, see the gap…plan for how to fill the gap! That is how you plan! With a plan at hand, you can start to coach your partner. A plan is a plan after you have written it down, not before. Point to take with you? Always write your plan down! It doesn’t even count as a plan otherwise! 

You’re on to something powerful here: set a goal, find out the needed results and then plan for them. What would happen if you did that with all your partners? Not just one time, but over and over…?

Interested in a dialog on how to help your company increase sales, don’t hesitate to contact one of our twenty Sales Expansion Specialists, or press the button below to get contacted.

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