Some time ago, I worked inside an IT company that developed software for fleet management.

And I was sure that there was no money in mass SaaS for fleet management

- tough competition
- expensive acquisition
- low subscription fees

So the team focused on niche solutions for a couple of industries.

Imagine my surprise when soon a SaaS from Belarus started actively growing in the Russian "mass market"

Yes, the product was great. But there were plenty like it on the market.

Prices and monetization model for clients were also more or less the same as everyone else's

Logical question - how?!

The innovation was not in the features

They realized that their client was not the fleet owners. Their client was the partners!

Companies that already work with these fleets.

For example, individual entrepreneurs and LLCs that daily (sometimes without days off) install and maintain, say, GPS equipment.

And what did they do?

Software that (first and foremost) partners liked and found convenient, not end users.

Plus attractive partner terms for sales, a shared partner chat, cool POS materials, training, support.

Result
- minimal costs on their own salespeople
- almost free implementation and support
- rapid growth of the client base

Later I learned that this strategy is called Partner-Led Growth

The meaning is simple

You expand reach and reduce CAC because the partner already has trust and access to the target audience, and in return you pay them a commission on each sale.


Important!

PLG is not about "launch a referral program and wait for leads". It's about rules and control

Without managing pricing, discounts, promotions - the partner program turns into chaos.

So..

If you are working on the Go-To-Market strategy of your product and looking into partner sales

Pay attention to:

1) The partner's role in the customer's CJM
- do they only bring the lead?
- or do they also implement?
- do they handle support?

(this determines what margin you give them)

2) Pricing and discounts
- is the partner price uniform or tiered?
- can the partner give a discount to the client?
- how are leads assigned?

(important pieces of partner unit economics)

3) Motivation
- commission only for the first sale?
- for retention / upsells?

(this affects requirements for partner resources and competencies)


I took into account the experience of Belarusian colleagues. One of the products started being sold through integrators.

We made money. Although much less than we could have, as it turned out.

Because at the start we poorly calculated unit economics..

After all, there was no such useful telegram channel as this one

But you have one. Enjoy it

I will be glad to your questions

#GTM_strategies