A misconception we address with partners who are thinking about joining the AppExchange is that they should only focus on launching a product and then moving onto the next project.
Successful partners know when you create a solution for the AppExchange, you’re doing so much more than just putting a product out there — you’re creating an entirely new line of business, and it requires a myriad of considerations, including how you will manage licenses, monetize and roll out new features, support your customer base, and numerous other operational considerations.
Here are resources partners need to know as they build their Salesforce business:
Partnership Agreement
Every partner must go through the Partnership Agreement process before you can sell. In our Road to the AppExchange Series, we hear how new partners inadvertently make the partner agreement process more difficult. Getting your partner agreement right is vital because it sets the stage (and pace) for your go-to-market strategy.
License Types
Licenses are how you generate revenue. The terms of the license outline who can use your product and for how long. The type of license you have will depend on what type of partner you are.
Before you begin building your application, you must choose what type of license type you want to offer to your customers. The two of the most common are ISVforce and OEM embedded (ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor, while OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer). ISVforce partners are the most widely found partnership type; these partners develop apps that only run on the Salesforce platform, while OEM partners embed Salesforce into their own solutions to sell to external customers.
As far as the licenses you offer customers, you can offer per-user licenses, where you give a customer a certain number of users and let them assign those users as they see fit. There are also site licenses, where you grant an entire company access to your solution. Additionally, you may want to experiment with free trials or products to excite and attract new users.
Operational Tools at Your Disposal
Part of building a successful business on Salesforce is understanding how you fulfill the orders from your customers. The operational aspects of your AppExchange strategy may seem like a secondary priority to some, but it is these tools that ensure your business runs smoothly.
There are IP Tools which manage how your customers access the application and what features they can interact with:
- License Management App (LMA)
- Feature Management App (FMA)
There are also transactional tools. These handle how you process orders from your customers and report them to Salesforce:
- Channel Order App (COA)
- Checkout Management App (CMA)
Access/Feature Management
As a newer tool for partners, the Feature Management App allows you to define a limited number of features (currently, up to 25) per managed package.
Partners can use the tool in a number of ways — you can use feature management to pilot certain features to a specific beta group of users, employ a dark launch of a solution so you can later “turn on” a certain functionality without requiring upgrades, or specify which features are available to clients on your free license types.
Customer Success
When customers pay you to license your product, they expect you to be there to support them if they have questions or issues. You will want to put some thought behind how you can show up to support your customers throughout their lifecycle with your company; the process you put in place around this is called a customer success framework.
A solid customer success framework requires you to know your customer lifecycle and what’s important to your customers at every individual stage, and then identify ways to support and nurture them along their journey. This may require multiple frameworks, depending on how diverse your customer base is. The end goal is to have customers not only renew with your company but also spread the word among their networks about your product.
