5 Ways to Get the Most Out of the New AppExchange Partner Program
By: Adriana Santos
Tags: Salesforce Partners, Salesforce, Isvs

March is an eventful time of year. We welcome the start of Spring and roll forward our clocks. It’s also an important time for Salesforce partners as we kick-off our new program year and get down to business.



On March 2, 2020, Salesforce announced exciting enhancements and innovations to the AppExchange Partner Program. Our partner program empowers businesses and individuals of all types, including developers and entrepreneurs, to build the most powerful solutions on the Customer 360 Platform and deliver the highest levels of customer success through AppExchange.



At Salesforce, feedback is critical in everything that we do. And that is no different for our partner program and the way we deliver success in the Salesforce ecosystem. We also know that in order for partners to take advantage of the opportunity that is the Salesforce Economy (representing $1.2T in global economic impact by 2025), we need to learn how partner’s needs and goals are changing. We’ve talked with partners all across the globe and have taken this feedback to evolve our program with a focus on transparency, simplicity, and flexibility. Alongside that, we’ve aligned our program and partners to the universal pillars of customer success, innovation, and engagement, which are pivotal to all of our success.

You may be wondering, what are all of these exciting changes and how do I get the most out of all of them as a partner? We’re sharing the top five ways you can take advantage of the new AppExchange Partner Program enhancements to build the most successful businesses.

1. Understand how the new economic model fits into your long-term business strategy

One of the biggest enhancements we’ve made to our program is how we enable partners to be more profitable in their Salesforce business. To help us set every partnership up for success, we’re giving you the added flexibility you need with a new Marginal Royalty Model. How does this work? As you scale and grow your AppExchange revenue over time, the royalty rate on new bookings will go down. This means you get to benefit from higher gross margins. And who doesn’t want that? Take this time to understand if this model makes sense for your business today or how it can be beneficial for your business further along in your partnership journey.

2. Take advantage of the latest Salesforce Customer 360 Platform technology

We know that customer success can only be achieved by creating innovative solutions that deliver seamless experiences. As part of your new program benefits, partners have access to a whole new set of Customer 360 Platform technology that includes Einstein Analytics, Platform Services, Communities, and myTrailhead. These are both technologies that partners can start using today to distribute directly to customers, and technologies that partners can use to run better businesses. As part of your roadmap planning this year, see what technology benefits can be plugged into your existing product development strategy. There may even be an opportunity to evolve it into something greater!

3. Assess your new Partner Trailblazer Score

At the beginning of March, all AppExchange partners were notified of their new Partner Trailblazer Score. This score is exciting for partners and our program because it represents a system of transparency where all of our partners are universally measured in our program. Now, partners can easily see how they’re performing overall in their Salesforce partnership, how they’re performing across the three pillars of our program (customer success, innovation, and engagement), and what metrics are being used to measure that success. Take some time to review your Partner Trailblazer Score and understand where you’re hitting it out of the park and where there may be more room for improvement. This is a score that gets reassessed every quarter, so there’s lots of opportunity to move up.

4. Review your new benefits as part of your program tier

Serving the needs of our partners is not a one-size-fits-all approach. You have different goals and face different challenges, and many of you are at different points in their growth and partnership journeys. That’s why we’ve created a new benefit model that is aligned to programmatic tiers. Take a look at the benefits you now have as part of your tier across the categories of development, marketing, and support. Your tier is based directly on your Partner Trailblazer Score. We’re also excited to share that nearly 50% of program benefits are new!

5. Plan for the future of your Salesforce partnership

There are LOTS of exciting enhancements to the new program to take advantage of. What are your AppExchange plans for this year, the next two years, and the next five years? If you aren’t sure, thats ok. Brainstorm with your teams what’s possible — where are there opportunities to deliver new solutions, target new audiences, and take your businesses to new heights? It’s also a great time to talk with fellow AppExchange partners. You never know what ideas will spur through candid conversations on learnings and best practices.

Are you interested in learning more about our program enhancements? Current partners can learn more by going to the AppExchange Partner Program page in the Partner Community (login required). If you’re not yet part of our program, but want to build amazing solutions for AppExchange, learn the top three ways that our partner program accelerates business and customer success.