Channel Partners: Scale Your B2B Sales
B2B organizations form alliances with like-minded, goal-oriented channel partners such as resellers, distributors, service providers, vendors, agents, or retailers to increase their market share and scale their growth. Channel partners help organizations venture into new markets, passionately co-sell their products, market their offerings to customers, and achieve revenue through sales. As a result, you can focus on efficiently utilizing your existing resources to innovate and offer exceptional customer service instead of hiring new employees.
In a candid conversation with
Media 7 about the
growth of the partner market.
“We're working with some huge brands at the moment, we're giving companies a faster way to start Partner Marketing. Find the partners you want to work with, or the publishers or creators or affiliates, to promote your business.”
Sam O’Brien, CFO at Affise
How Do Channel Partnerships Drive Revenue?
More than 90% of company executives and channel leaders expect to increase revenue directly through their partner ecosystem. (Source: 2021 Annual Channel/Partner Marketing Benchmark Survey conducted by Demand Gen Report and Channel Marketer Report)
In a channel partnership, the ground rules for revenue generation are laid beforehand. Channel partners optimize their performance to match each other’s expectations. The revenue in channel partnerships is governed by the type of partnership. Some of the most popular channel partnerships are channel value-added resellers (VARs), service delivery partners, technology alliance partners, cloud service providers, and high-velocity partners.
Channel partnerships drive revenue by:
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Increasing a brand’s market presence through the channel partner’s credibility
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Leveraging an already established customer base to improve brand recognition
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Enabling the sales channel using defined processes that accelerate lead conversion
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Offering a bigger network of connections in the target industry domain
A revenue performance management strategy uses partner engagement data from marketing assets that help close deals. It helps you understand how every part of your partner network is performing and which areas need extra attention. You can do this effectively through
partner relationship management (PRM). Read on to find out the finer details of PRM.
Partner Relationship Management: How to Net on Channel Partnerships?
Partnership relationship management is a combination of processes, software tools, and strategies that help businesses optimize their channel partnerships.
Channel partner management software usually includes a partner portal, a customer database, and tools that allow businesses and partners to manage leads and opportunities. A PRM system also gives insights into the sales and revenue metrics to understand how well a partnership is faring. You can track inventory, product pricing, operational efficiency, and discounts through a PRM system.
Streamlining PRM
According to Gartner, PRM has expanded considerably in the past decade. In tandem, the importance of closely managing
channel partner performance and partnership processes has increased. A good PRM solution for managing partner relationships takes care of the following parts of a channel partnership:
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Partner Recruitment: Score and recruit partners based on an ideal partner profile to kick-start a successful partner program.
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Partner Onboarding: Onboard ideal partners to your partner program to increase revenue and enter new markets confidently.
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Joint Business Planning: Plan business strategies with partners to optimize partner sales processes.
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Partner Training & Certification: Train and certify partners with on-demand product training and onboarding programs.
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Partner Enablement: Provide partners with resources like playbooks that are industry-specific, covering sales cycle stages, and product details.
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Lead Distribution & Management: Monitor, organize, and score leads based on their categories and assign them to channel partners.
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Deal Registration & Management: Get insights into the channel’s sales after partners register their deals.
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Marketing Development Funds (MDF) Management: Manage and process MDF applications from partners, tracking payments, and marketing campaign approvals.
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Partnership Contracts Management: Manage special provisions, signing, documents, and archiving of partner contracts. With the help of automation, reduce labor costs, limit liabilities, and increase efficiency.
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Partner Solutions Marketplace: Connect channel partners with prospective customers through a unified solutions marketplace.
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Partner Performance Management: Optimize partner program by analyzing dashboards and reports that show the status of leads, and opportunities.
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Communication & Collaboration: Communicate with partners at every stage of the sales cycle. Monitor opportunities and collaborate in real-time with partners about new deals.
A great example of how
channel partner management software can streamline partner management would be Halodata. As a leading distributor of information security products and solutions across Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, Halodata managed a network of 80 resellers that sold 10 different products. The company invested countless hours into training, deal management, and coordination, which was challenging and affected its performance. Streamlining processes was crucial. It found a solution in Kiflo, a
channel partner management software which helped define deal registration, set a clear business plan, and organized resources effectively. Halodata’s indirect sales went up by 33% in a year with Kiflo’s help.
B2B Businesses Are Creating a Sales Machine with PRM Software
B2B executives are giving priority to consolidating multiple systems into one to provide simplified support to their channel partners. The
partner relationship management market size is set to reach $1994.76 million by 2026 (Market Research Future).
The changes in digitization, the expansion of businesses in new territories, and the need to create external partnerships to strengthen sales channels are driving the market’s growth. Getting buy-in for PRM is no longer a hassle for B2B executives because they use partner management software for:
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Achieving productive marketing
Providing partners with robust marketing material, implementing an MDF program, and periodically updating co-branded marketing materials that can be accessed through
PRM software brings in more revenue.
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Addressing partner oversight
PRM software provides analytics and reports that can give you insights into your partners’ performance. These insights can help you make critical changes to your channel strategy to achieve optimum results and avoid oversight.
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Real-time partner feedback
Your channel partners can provide actionable insights that can help you adjust your approach to addressing customer pain points.
Read more about
effective channel partner management.
Conclusion
Based on the unique requirements of a business, channel partnerships take shape. They can be effectively managed using
PRM solutions and enhance revenue growth strategies across different touchpoints.
FAQ
What features should you look for in PRM software?
Some features that you should look for in a
PRM software are partner profiles, partner portals, partner performance management, data integration, partner marketplace, and partner contract management.
How does PRM help increase ROI?
Partner relationship management helps increase ROI by providing businesses with a comprehensive view of how well their channel partners are doing, how they can empower their partners to do more, and what steps need to be taken to
strengthen the partnership.
How can you create a successful partner relationship management strategy?
You can create a successful PRM strategy by using insights from
PRM software to make decisions, streamlining lead management, onboarding, and training partners, and preventing partner churn through transparent communication.