People who can’t decide between a sailboat or a powerboat have a third option: the “motorsailer”.  The idea is that you can sail when the wind is favorable, or motor when there is no wind or it’s blowing in the wrong direction.   It may sound great on paper, but in most cases, neither sailors or powerboaters are happy with the results.   As a sailor, I’ve discovered that these boats, not so affectionately labeled “stinkpots”, aren’t very efficient for sailing or motoring.  Trying to be a little of both leads to lack of focus in design and execution.   The same can be said of partner business models.

Identifying and focusing on your primary business model will help you grow faster and align more effectively to the SAS Partner Program. Following are the 3 most common models of our partners:

1. Consulting Business - If your primary business model is consulting, you are focused on growing the sales and profitability of your consulting services and keeping your consultants off the bench.   The SAS partner model best suited for this business model is our Alliance Program. It offers sell-with opportunities that can lead to teaming fees and additional consulting engagements for your firm. Expanding your technical skills through certifications and specializations can enhance your value to SAS and increase your level of engagement with SAS sales and professional services teams.
2. Software Business - Partners whose primary business model is selling software are focused on revenue and profit growth of software product sales.   Consulting services may add to your business, but your core focus is in building a sales and marketing engine that will drive sales growth.  The SAS partner model best suited for this business model is our Reseller Program. As a SAS reseller, you can build a high-margin stream of recurring revenue, with the added-benefit of consulting engagements for your firm. Investing in expanding your sales and technical resources and skills through competencies and certifications will enhance your value to SAS and increase your level of resell engagement with the SAS sales teams.
3. Managed Services Business - Many partners are making the transition to managed services to meet the growing market demand by customers who want to outsource the management of IT and business applications. This business model requires a sales and marketing engine for business development, as well as technical skills to offer high-value services.   Our Managed Analytics Service Provider (MASP) program is ideally suited to partners who want to combine their software IP and/or consulting services value-add with SAS software. The combined solution, typically focused on solving a specific business problem in a market niche, is hosted in the cloud and delivered as a managed service.

I meet too many partners who haven’t decided on a primary business model where they will focus. This was a theme in my presentation at the 2017 SAS Partner Forum. (See “Prepare to Tack! How to grow your business and your profits leveraging the SAS resell program”)   As we close out this final quarter of 2017, it’s a good time to start thinking about your growth model for 2018. As for me on the water, I’m staying off the stinkpots!