Partner awards are inevitable. Technology companies engage in this exercise in order to show the core cadre of firms it works most closely with that they a) think they’re great to work with b) really value the joint customer approach that they are able to engender and create through working together c) actually really need them as a go-to-market facilitator that underpins their own core technology proposition, or d) that they just kinda like them and think they’re cool.
Whatever reason it is that leads to partner awards, the end result is generally a moment on stage at the annual user convention, a chance to be photographed shaking hands with the CEO... and the presentation of an inevitable bent piece of glass or Perspex with the company name engraved, embossed or encapsulated in it or on it for posterity.
Partner award status can sometime be used by the receiving parties as a marketing tool in and of itself, but at worst it just means a nice bendy see-through award for the company trophy cabinet in reception.
Puff, fluff & stuff
Sarcastic naysaying notwithstanding then, are partner awards all puff, fluff and stuff designed to showcase the marketing-person’s favourite pledge to ‘exceed customer expectations’, or is there substance here that we should be looking more deeply into?
