How partners are playing an important role at Asana

Jo Gaines, head of channel APJ discusses the new partner program and how channel is playing an important role for the vendor.

Workplace management platform Asana has undergone a transformation where it has gone from solely a product-led growth (PLG) company to a hybrid of PLG and sales-led, with partners playing an important role.

Jo Gaines, head of channel APJ at Asana told CRN Australia about the company’s channel transformation and how the new partner program works.

"We have this combination of product led and sales led growth. We have a sales team, and the partner ecosystem is an extension of that sales team,” she said.

“We're learning about that sales led growth, as our partners are as well, and they're teaching us, they're telling us what things customers are asking for.”

For example, a customer came to Asana last year to run an objective key results (OKR) request for proposal (RFP), Gaines said they weren’t ready, but that customer returned a year later.

“They came back to us a year and a half later, and said we didn't select anyone because no one had what we needed, can you show us what you've got now?

“We built out our solution with some of what they were asking for in the RFP. They're now running a proof of concept with us, and said, we're not going to look at any other platform, because there's nothing else out there like [Asana],” she said.

Gaines explained how they’re using customer and partner feedback to tailor their products.

“They're telling us what customers are asking for? Can you build it? That's what I've always loved in my career as well,” she said.

“Where I've loved my job, it's been in a technology company that builds what customers want and need, not what's going to make us the most money.

"Some of the products they're building and some of the integration they're building for us with our customers and also with other tech vendors are phenomenal.”

An extension of the team

When working with partners, Gaines said she has learned that organisations should deal with them as if they are a part of their team.

“Bring them in, share information with them that you would share with the team,” she explained.

“Don't be afraid to tell them the truth, or to share some hard truths with them. Give them some benchmarks, have some goals. Have clear goals with your partners and be really honest about if you're not delivering, why not? What are we not doing? What are you not doing?”

She added, “[They] should be just an extension of your team. That's what I love about it. It's not so different to leading a commercial team.”

Asana has invested in enablement something Gaines said they haven’t done a lot of with their partners.

"We're now doing pre and post sales enablement exactly what we do with our own teams,” she said.

Gaines said that Asana is at a “good point” for the business to do this expansion with channel partners.

“I don't know that it would have been as successful if we've done made this investment three, four years ago. I'm not sure whether we would have been as successful as I really do believe will be now.”

New partner program

Asana has recently launched its new partner program that caters to different shapes and sizes of partners.

According to Gaines, Asana didn’t want to treat all their partners exactly the same because they all have different goals.

“Not all of our partners want to be service delivery partners. Not all of our partners want to do implementations. Not all of them want to sell licenses,” she said.

“If you want to be a referral partner, you can be that. If you want to do service delivery, you can be that you can work together. We've got partners now, working together with different customers because they want to do different things.”

New partner program launched in March with clear tiers for their partners, while it’s not new to the partner world, it’s new to Asana.

The Asana partner program is a three tier program. The first tier, solutions has been launched, with two more tiers, services and referral, to be launched later this year.

“We've got clear financial goals, as well as a scorecard that we are going to score partners on to determine whether where they rank,” Gaines explained.

According to Gaines, the feedback about the Asana partner program has been positive. She said the partners love that they know where they fit in within the Asana ecosystem.

“What do they need to do to qualify for to be that type of partner. But also some benchmarks, like, what are other partners doing? What can I learn from them?”

Asana recently hosted its first partner summit to have their partners discuss, network and share insights.

“It is a level playing field. They can all really describe what it is they do, and what do they do differently to someone else. There's an abundance of opportunity,” she ended.