Managing partnerships can be a real headache. Keeping track of data, automating workflows, and gaining insights all take time and effort. With Airtable, you can build customized partner programs, streamline your processes, and get the insights you need. 

But how? This guide will show you best practices when leveraging Airtable to make partnership management easier and more effective for your company.

Nelson Wang, Head of Worldwide Partnerships at Airtable, and Benjamin Green, Co-Founder of Optimize IS, shared their tips and tricks on using Airtable to tackle common partnership challenges. Let’s look at their insights and see how you can make the most of this powerful tool.

Setting Up Your Airtable Workspace

First things first, you need to set up your base in Airtable. Think of this as the foundation for all your partnership data. 

​​”Every business is very different in nuance,” says Nelson. A well-structured base will save you time and headaches down the road.

Start by creating a new base dedicated to partnership management. This is where all your essential data will live. It’s simple: just click “Add a base,” and you’re ready to roll.

Consider including the following:

• Partner Name
• Contact Information
• Partnership Stage
• Key Contacts
• Notes
• Agreement Dates
• Renewal Dates

Nelson explains, “The key is gathering that data, which then helps you understand what the ideal partner profile is.”

Customizing Fields and Views

Now that you have your base, it’s time to customize it. Airtable lets you use different fields to capture the needed data. 

Here’s a quick list of field types to consider:

• Single Line Text: For names and short notes
• Email: For contact information
• Date: For agreement and renewal dates
• Single Select: For partnership stages and types
• Attachment: For storing documents

Next, you’ll want to set up views. Views help you organize and display your data in different ways. These views make it easier to keep track of everything without getting overwhelmed:

• Grid View: For an overall look at your data
• Calendar View: For tracking key dates
• Kanban View: For managing workflow stages

Customizing fields and views not only makes your data more accessible but also ensures that you’re capturing all the necessary details to manage your partnerships effectively.

Build a Partner Portal

Creating a partner portal in Airtable is a game-changer for managing your partnerships. It provides a centralized hub where partners can access essential information and resources. Setting up this portal is straightforward and highly customizable to fit your brand and needs.

When designing your partner portal, consider adding:

• A welcome message to greet partners.
• Partner resources such as guides and FAQs.
• Contact forms for accessible communication.
• Important dates and milestones.
• Access to performance metrics and reports.

A well-designed partner portal enhances communication and ensures that your partners have everything they need at their fingertips. Sharing the portal with your partners is simple, and you can control who has access to what.

Manage Partner Data

The next step is to get your data into Airtable. You can easily import data from CSV files, Excel sheets, or other sources. Once your data is in, organize it using linked records to connect related information. This setup helps keep everything interconnected and easy to navigate.

Properly organizing your data ensures that you can quickly find and use the information you need. With everything neatly arranged, you’ll spend less time searching and more time managing and growing your partnerships.

Automating Data Updates via Airtable

Automation in Airtable can save you loads of time. Set up automations to handle routine data updates and notifications. For instance, you can automate reminders for upcoming renewals or send alerts when specific criteria are met.

Examples of automations include:

• Sending email reminders to partners a month before their contract renewal date.
• Notifying your team when a new partner is added to the database.
• Automatically updating the partnership stage based on specific actions or dates.

“It’s going to save [me] a ton of time where I’m doing manual lookups… and then what you’ll need for the future so that you can plan appropriately from there,” said Benjamin.

This way, you ensure nothing slips through the cracks and your data remains up-to-date without manual intervention. Automating these tasks frees you to focus on more strategic aspects of partnership management, like building relationships and exploring new opportunities.

Automate Workflows

Automation is a crucial feature of Airtable that can significantly enhance your partnership management processes. 

One practical example is automating the onboarding process for new partners. You can set up a series of actions triggered when a new partner record is added to your base. This can include sending a welcome email, creating a task for your team to schedule an introductory call, and updating the partnership stage to “Onboarding.”

Setting up such automations involves:

1. Defining the trigger (e.g., a new partner record).
2. Specifying the actions (e.g., sending emails, creating tasks).
3. Testing and refining the workflow to ensure it operates smoothly.

Using Airtable Integrations

Airtable’s ability to integrate with other tools can further streamline your workflows. Platform integrations like Slack, Zapier, and Google Workspace can automate notifications and data syncing across your tools. 

Useful Airtable integrations include:

• Slack: For real-time notifications and communication.
• Zapier: To connect Airtable with thousands of apps for custom automations.
• Google Workspace: To sync data with Google Sheets, Calendar, and Drive.
• Salesforce: For syncing partner data with your CRM.
• Mailchimp: To automate email campaigns and updates.

Using these integrations, you can create a seamless workflow that spans multiple tools, ensuring all your systems are up-to-date and your team is always in the loop.

Generate Insights and Reports

Creating reports in Airtable is straightforward and incredibly valuable for understanding your partnership performance. 

Start by identifying key metrics you want to track, such as the number of active partners, partnership stages, and performance metrics. Use Airtable’s filtering and grouping features to organize this data and create custom reports that clearly overview your partnerships.

For instance, you can build a report that tracks the progress of each partner through your program’s stages. This might include data on: 

• Onboarding times
• Engagement levels
• Renewal rates

Benjamin also adds other fantastic use cases for Airtable automation: “Airtable can help in automating workflows, managing projects, generating social media posts, and even in conducting MPS surveys.”

Having these readily available insights helps you identify trends and areas for improvement, ensuring your partner program is continually optimized.

Airtable’s dashboards take these insights a step further by offering visual representations of your data. Create dashboards to display key metrics in charts and graphs, providing at-a-glance insights into your partnership health.

Implement a Partner Matching System

Creating an effective partner matching system in Airtable starts with defining your matching criteria. These criteria will help you pair partners with the right customer requests based on their strengths and specializations. Begin by identifying the key attributes that matter most in your partnerships.

Example criteria might include:

• Functions: Specific services or products the partner offers
• Integrations: Compatibility with specific tools or systems
• Verticals: Industry sectors the partner specializes in
• Use Cases: Specific scenarios where the partner excels

This setup lets you easily filter and sort partners based on the criteria, making the matching process more efficient and accurate.

Automating the Matching Process

With your criteria in place, you can automate the partner-matching process to save time and maintain consistency. 

Airtable’s formula and automation features allow you to score potential matches based on how well they meet your defined criteria. For example, you can create a formula that assigns points for each matching attribute and then ranks partners based on their total score.

Here’s how to set up this automation:

1. Define a scoring formula for your matches.
2. Create an automation that triggers when a new customer request is added.
3. Configure the automation to calculate scores and suggest top matches.

This system accelerates the matching process and ensures your selections are objective and data-driven. By using Airtable’s automation capabilities, you can spend more time fostering solid relationships with the right partners and less on manual matching tasks.

Adopting a Customer-Centric Approach

To truly excel in partnership management, adopt a customer-centric approach. 

Start by mapping out the customer journey in Airtable. Identify critical touchpoints and needs, then align these with your partner’s capabilities. This will help you understand which partners are best suited to meet specific customer requirements.

“Understanding that and mapping that out in Airtable helps you understand what’s working and what isn’t,” Nelson pointed out.

Take action by regularly reviewing and updating your customer and partner data. Use Airtable’s features to link customer needs with partner profiles, ensuring a tailored match every time. 

Focusing on the customer journey can create more effective partnerships that drive higher satisfaction and better outcomes.

Conclusion

Using Airtable for partnership management can transform how you handle data, automate workflows, and generate insights. Focus on customer-centric strategies and leverage Airtable’s powerful tools to streamline operations and drive success. Start implementing these steps today and see the positive impact on your partnership management efforts.

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