Channel Management Blog
Our blog features channel management tips, best practices and expert insights to help you get the most out of your PRM and create a successful partner program.
Friday’s Channeltivity Release: Admin, Data & Security Improvements
Our 4.4.0 release will be going live tomorrow Friday, November 9th. It focuses on security and increased usability and data consistency in the Admin module. Here’s a breakdown of key improvements:
Why Your Partners May Not Be Using Your Marketing Materials
Partners often opt to go it alone in their marketing efforts, foregoing the benefit of vendor product expertise, marketing collateral and support. This seems like a waste from the vendor perspective, but consider the number of portals and tools you offer as a supplier – and then multiply that number by every supplier a partner […]
Canaries in the Coal Mine
Canaries in the Coal Mine – Apparently Minor Issues That Quickly Become Revenue and Market Share Problems Keep an eye on these dead canaries to detect problems before they start killing sales. 1. Small Declines in Customer Satisfaction These could be due to issues on the vendor’s or the partner’s side. Dissatisfaction could be with […]
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
How to Identify Partners Who Are Reaching the End of Their Lifecycle It can be hard to say good-bye, but in the same way products have a lifecycle, partner-vendor relationships do, too. Ending the relationship gracefully—without burning bridges or losing customers—can be a challenge. In some cases, even knowing whether or not to break up […]
Risks of the Recurring Revenue Model in the Channel Partner Relationship
The old transactional model of selling a solution, closing the deal and moving on to the next customer is evolving. The recurring revenue model relies on ongoing relationships with customers that your partners need to be ready to service—and that you need to be able to track how well they’re servicing. The ability to transition […]
To Build or To Buy a Partner Relationship Management System
With the state of the economy, people are tending to be more conservative with their expenditures (as they should be) and this may mean tackling more projects yourself and becoming a real DIY’er. Your Partner Relationship Management System is an excellent example. When it comes to updating your home, doing it yourself can easily be the […]
Determining the ROI of Your Channel
Everyone is looking to get an ROI read on their indirect sales channel, especially those organizations that are just starting out with a partner program. If you’ve been tasked with managing this initiative, odds are your CEO is regularly asking, “what are we getting out of the channel?” This is true especially for CEOs who […]
What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You
Lack of visibility into the channel is one of the most common contributors to a failed indirect sales initiative. There’s no way around it: you can’t manage in the dark, and you can’t build effective strategy on guesswork. When management lacks easy access to channel data—visibility into partners’ profiles, recruitment pipeline and partner performance, geographic […]
Smash those Silos from Your Indirect Sales Channel
Silos have their use – if you’re a farmer – but you don’t want them in your channel. The more obstacles between vendors, partners and their marketing teams, the less productive the channel. Anything that prevents information flow between these three parties is essentially blocking revenue. Creating an Information Hub When you have one place […]
Part 2 of Structuring a Partner Program
A poorly designed incentive program can create some pretty counterproductive behaviors in your channel partners. See last week’s blog post for some of those pitfalls, and below are some ideas for preventing them. 1. First, make sure your incentive programs are strategically planned and integrated to support customer needs, vendor goals and partner […]