Google’s partner connect program
In the past couple of months, Alley Group has been lucky enough to be invited to a couple of events put on by Google, managed by Duncan McGrath, and hosted by Altus Q with content from US agency Cardinal Path. Google’s Partner Connect program has seen Google provide its SME agencies with a new type of training. Most of us have had the privilege of being trained on Google’s own products, but this is very different.
As a Google Agency Partner that is deemed to have large growth potential, we recently attended two courses;
- Business development – negotiating, pricing, marketing and closing a deal
- General business management – finance, team management, positioning and developing business value
The idea is that we are better equipped to sell more of Google’s products but, more importantly, that we are better equipped to grow and flourish. We were apprehensive and discussed being too busy at work to be able to attend every day, but that didn’t happen.
The courses commanded our attention, and we were good pupils: attentive, hardworking and with a perfect attendance record. As well as picking up a few gems, it was an opportunity to mix with like-minded agency owners, sharing successes and mistakes. It was great to find common ground and work on shared problems.
The course is far from over, and with the help of project management software and some individual coaching sessions, we’re being managed through a 100-day plan.
Hats off to Google for being brave and generous enough to set these courses up. We feel lucky to have been invited and hope more will come.
