Getting to Know You

By John Wilkinson

Have you seen the commercials?  Chemistry.com says that more than a million people have been rejected by eHarmony.  Seems a shame, doesn’t it?   (And a nice revenue opportunity for Chemistry.com to boot!)

But why were all those nice folks shown the door?   I suspect it’s got to have something to do with a pretty rigorous profiling process, which is one of my favorite bugaboos.

Having been in technology channels for more than 20 years now, I’m firmly convinced that having solid, validated and up-to-date partner profiles is the key to any successful recruitment  and on-boarding process.   I’ve seen too many (well funded) recruitment efforts deliver disappointing results because vendors aren’t focused on specific (but flexible) partner profiles.  By specific, I mean profiles that focus on both where a prospect partner does business (their market or industry), as well as how they do that business (their business model attributes).   Consequently, nets are cast too wide (or focus on the wrong characteristics), and recruitment campaigns never achieve the anticipated return.   All too often, it’s a waste of time and money.