Over the last decade, partner relationships have evolved. As cloud and digital transformation are rapidly advancing, as well as APIs that make it easier to connect applications, the changes will only accelerate. Partnering with other companies is no longer just about finding resale partners.
Businesses today collaborate together to innovate, market, invest, and co-sell complete packaged solutions to their customers using their ecosystem partners. We at CEO-ME realize how partnerships can serve as indirect channels to market for your business.
This guide will help you learn everything you need to know about partner relationship management software and how to maximize your partner revenue.
Understanding Partner Relationship Management
It has become increasingly important for organizations to partner with customers to deliver value to their industry partners. Increasingly, such engagements are facilitated by technology.
On average, high-performing ecosystems reduce costs 1.5 times, contribute 1.5 times more to revenue, and generate 2.1 times more incremental revenue than low-performing partner ecosystems according to a recent survey by EY.
Market share and overall customer satisfaction have grown due to companies' reliance on partner networks. Digital transformation has created a need for network-driven strategies to increase customer value. Rapidly changing customer demands require broader partner relationships.
What is Partner Relationship Management Software
Traditionally, the management of reseller partnerships was done through partner relationship management software. Partners are recruited, onboarded, enabled, co-marketed, deal registered, and paid commissions through PRM.
Our article will teach you how partner relationship management software solutions fit into the context of current and changing market dynamics.
PRM, or partner relationship management software, helps companies automate activities related to reselling their products and services by distributors, resellers, MSPs, and VARs. In a PRM, partners gain controlled access to leads, joint opportunities, affiliate links, and deals.
What Is The Difference Between CRM And PRM?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software helps companies manage their customer sales, closing, onboarding, and retention processes. Businesses wanted a way to manage their indirect sales partners as channel partners became more and more significant to growth.
It is critical to understand that CRMs were designed to manage direct sales teams. In contrast, PRMs were designed to be used by reseller partners who often have large teams of sales professionals who manage their own (indirect) sales channels.
It is not very likely that companies will open up their CRM systems to these non-employee sales teams. This means that PRM systems are in essence an extension of your CRM system, but are designed so that partners can log in, share and receive information about your products and services to assist in the sale of those products.
Key Features & Benefits Of A PRM Software
Dedicated Partner
As your reseller partner network grows, your deal volumes and sizes increase as well. With PRM software, you can track leads, opportunities, and their progress without having to constantly chase partner teams. You can ensure the success of your partner relationship with dedicated partner portals. These portals can help your reseller partners get customized rewards structures, onboarding, etc.
Lead Management
To close the sales, companies want their resellers to be able to attract leads. Alternatively, a company may share leads with its reseller partners in order to close deals, in order to attract leads. There may be times when your partners don't record leads, or that your partner program team is constantly contacting your partners for updates or deal management.
With PRM software, you can streamline lead management processes and decrease duplicate leads by using the lead management feature. You are also able to close deals more quickly as PRM tools facilitate tracking of deal progression. Consequently, you are able to reduce your sales cycle by a considerable amount. By not wasting time on meetings, tasks, or paperwork that is not necessary, you will be able to focus on the activities that will grow your business.
Marketing Campaigns and Training Management
Marketing collateral can be found easier with a PRM solution, and you no longer have to respond to multiple partner requests or share the same materials multiple times. PRM solutions help your partner marketing team send partner marketing collateral and related documents from one place. Your new partner teams must receive appropriate training and resources in order to understand your partner programs.
The role can become hectic and time-consuming with multiple partner programs. Partner teams can receive self-guided training and documents with a PRM solution. Provide a unified partner experience to your ecosystem partners by saving your team time on redundant training.
Admin Controls
A head of partner management, sales operations team, or partner operations team may find managing multiple partner programs with multiple ecosystem partners challenging. All reseller programs can be managed and tracked in one place using a PRM solution.
Managing multiple partner programs can be stressful and lead to easy mismanagement of partner activities for partner professionals. You can manage activities between your reseller partners and some PRM solutions provide workflows. Additionally, the platform allows you to define access controls for users based on their roles.
Dashboards to Measure Goals
CRM platforms with business intelligence dashboards can manage reseller programs. By tracking the activities and ROI of your reseller partners, you can determine your next move. Therefore, observing their performance will allow you to determine which partners are the most profitable. In addition, you can experiment with a variety of reselling strategies with data-driven dashboards.
Communication, Notifications, and Alert Tools
Communication with your reseller partners can be difficult if you have multiple partner programs running at once. Your reseller partners can access information via the partner portal provided by a PRM solution. Additionally, PRM systems promote communication among you and your resell partners. Additionally, PRM notifications and alerts keep you informed about important partner activities on time.
Do You Need A PRM Solution?
Considering a PRM for modern partner activities may be the right choice for scaling your partnerships. There is no one-size-fits-all answer!
It is important to consider a number of factors when investing in a PRM solution. These include your strategy, your future partnering opportunities, your PRM solution, your partnering market, and others. As innovation speeds up in our ever-evolving world, the rate and methods of partnerships between businesses are constantly changing.
A business management platform that focuses on partner relationship management is the right approach in this scenario if you want to co-sell. A PRM system integrated with a CRM could be the best way to go if you already have a robust partner reselling business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is partner relationship management software?
Using partner relationship management (PRM) software, companies can automate activities pertaining to working with their distributor, reseller, MSP, and VAR partners to drive better channel sales.
Partner programs can be updated with sales metrics, affiliate links, affiliate links, deals, and PRM-controlled leads and joint opportunities. In order to collaborate with its partners on a shared system, companies can adopt the ecosystem mindset. Through this, they are able to work together on scalable co-selling activities.
What are the key features of a partner relationship management software?
Proper partner relationship management software typically includes:
Dedicated partner portal.
Lead management.
Marketing, training, and performance management.
Admin controls.
Notifications and alerts tools.
What are the challenges of a partner relationship management software?
Databases and siloed business processes are common challenges in PRM Systems, as well as difficulties sharing data among partners and quantifying real-time results. Due to its integrated cloud storage, CEO-ME can give permission to business owners, which is why it is so helpful.
Wrap Up!
You can embed a CRM and ERP platform into your partner portal if you already have a PRM portal in place and want to manage co-sell partnerships with your business partners. With this system, partners can gain visibility over data, collaborate on sales among ecosystem partners, and collaborate with P2P partners to gain an edge.