Current Market Distribution: Most sellers and opportunities are concentrated in smaller markets, but there’s a growing trend toward larger Enterprise (ENT) deals, which now outnumber Mid-Market (MM) and General Business (GB) deals.

Importance of Partner Connect for Large Deals: Sellers are more likely to use Partner Connect for larger deals to ensure they have the ideal partner, suggesting that as deal sizes grow, leveraging this platform becomes increasingly critical.

Aligning Market Preferences: You may see more deal opportunities if your market preferences match the distribution of opportunities. However, since the SMB market typically involves smaller deals, any changes to your preferences should be strategic.

Staying True to Your Business: It’s crucial that your profile accurately reflects your business focus. If you specialize in large market deals, don’t risk missing out on significant opportunities by mistakenly adjusting your market preference from Enterprise (ENT) to something smaller, like General Business (GB).

High Demand for Sales/Sales Cloud: Over 60% of deals brought to Partner Connect involve Sales/Sales Cloud, which is supported by more than 80% of current partners. If your business isn’t certified in these areas, your chances of being suggested to an AE are significantly lower.

Certification Impact: Not having certifications for in-demand products can greatly reduce your visibility and competitiveness in searches. Prioritizing these high-demand certifications can improve your chances of being matched with more opportunities.

Top Attributes: Sellers frequently use required tags in advanced searches to filter for essential qualifications in partner profiles. This ensures that only partners with specific must-have attributes are suggested.

Budget Considerations: Many sellers handle deals with tight budgets, which prompts them to prioritize partners with smaller average Statements of Work (SOWs) or lower hourly rates. This trend likely reflects the current market distribution and may change as the market evolves.

Popular Products: Experience with widely used products like QuickBooks and NetSuite often appears in top search criteria. If your business operates in these areas, listing this experience is a definite advantage.

Niche Technologies: Sellers sometimes urgently need partners experienced in specific, lesser-known technologies or applications. Listing niche products on your profile can give your company a near-guaranteed chance of being suggested when those products are relevant to a deal. This can set you apart in highly specialized searches.

Market Alignment: Check if your skills and services align with the market distribution of sellers and opportunities.

Competitiveness: Assess how many projects you’ve completed and if your profile is competitive within your chosen market bracket.

Required Certifications: Make sure you have all the necessary certifications. If an opportunity requires specific certs and there are enough fully certified partners available, you might not be suggested.

Strategic Certification Planning: Consider getting cross-cloud certifications, as they are included in 23% of searches but only 13% of partners have them.

Patience and Timing: Remember, the algorithm has a time factor. Even if you haven’t been suggested yet, you’ll eventually be moved to the front of the queue.

Competitive Pricing: Make sure your pricing is attractive.

Experience Comparison: Check how your completed projects compare to others. For example, if you’re aiming for mid-market or enterprise deals but have few projects, sellers may favor more experienced partners.

Certified Professionals Count: Keep your AppExchange listing updated to show the number of certified professionals you have. If sellers see an incomplete profile, they may doubt your capacity to deliver within the desired timeframe.

Price Consideration: Many sellers fine-tune their searches based on price. If you're close to a price range limit, it may be worthwhile to adjust slightly and see how often you get suggested at the new price. Then, evaluate if your value proposition can win the deal.

Specialization is Key: Standing out as a company can be easier if you have expertise with niche or less common software. In some cases, only a few partners out of hundreds had listed experience with a particular product, making them the top choice. When this happens, you’re very likely to get noticed and contacted by the account executive for a chance to prove your fit.

Fair Visibility: The algorithm uses a time factor to ensure that all fully qualified partners get a fair chance to be shown to sellers. If there’s a tie between equally qualified partners, the one most recently suggested gets rotated to the back of the list.

Include Everything: Make sure to list all your software experience, placing each one in the correct categories.

Multiple Categories: Some experiences may fit into more than one category, like integration and implementation.

Correct Spelling: If you're unsure about the spelling or capitalization of a software name, a quick Google search will show you the correct format (check the feature result on the top right).

The algorithm is designed to match you with opportunities that suit your real expertise and preferences.

Overstating your qualifications may actually reduce your chances of getting matched with the right projects.

When you get a collaboration request, it should be a great fit for your skills, and there should already be good business alignment with the seller or customer.