ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

Onboarding partners in a channel ecosystem can be complex. Onboarding new partners includes activities like contract signing, business planning and training. But one should also have the structure in place for onboarding existing partners. That’s because they are likely to have new products, programs and promotion launches almost every quarter. This podcast discusses onboarding of both kinds of partners in comprehensive detail. It also explains why PRM software is indispensable for managing onboarding process.

While success of a channel program depends on factors like end user value proposition, partner business proposition and overall market growth opportunity, it takes an integrated partner relationship management (PRM) framework to realize the true revenue potential of any organization sellings through the channel. This podcast takes you through the entire framework, from the partner portal and partner recruitment to training, engagement, performance management, multi-partner demand generation, deal registration and many more.

There are plenty of mistakes vendors can make across the channel as they pursue a partner relationship management strategy, but this podcast focuses on the five most common ones: overdistribution, overpromising and underdelivering, complex incentive programs, condoning unethical behavior and insufficient channel infrastructure investment. We recommend you keep these mistakes top of mind and make sure that both existing employee channel employees and newly hired employees go through an orientation program to understand these how to avoid them.

What are the core capabilities that any best-of-breed partner relationship management (PRM) platform must have? In this podcast, we discuss five key phases of the partner management lifecycle that a robust PRM platform can bring together to help your partner program succeed: partner recruitment, partner onboarding, partner training, partner marketing and partner incentives management. Focusing on these five phases in an integrated and unified way will ensure your program is structured, and has clear policies and programs.

Have you thought of using your customer relationship management (CRM) system to manage your partner network? In this video, we explain why that approach is a bad idea that will result in poor functionality and little or no ROI. Partner relationship management has a number of core requirements that today’s CRM systems simply don’t offer. These include modules for partner recruitment, engagement and training, as well as tools for offering campaigns, sales assets, MDF programs, reward and rebates to partners.

The Cornerstone of a Partner Ecosystem

Channel ecosystems are becoming more evolved yet more distributed and diverse. There is an inherent need to invest in a partner ecosystem.

This video podcast examines the role of distribution within this evolving distributor marketing environment.

ZINFI’s CEO Sugata Sanyal joins forces with Larry Walsh, Industry Influencer and CEO of Channelnomics, for a lively debate on the new position of distribution in today’s multi-channel ecosystem, channel marketing management, and how it has found a new platform and value proposition in this environment.

Video Podcast: The Cornerstone of a Partner Ecosystem

✔ Chapter 1: What is a Partner Distribution Ecosystem?

Today’s partner ecosystem management should now be labeled Ecosystem 6.0 as it has been a force for six decades. Distributor marketing and management have always been at the heart of ecosystems as its core value is interoperability and collaboration in addition to the enhancement of value by combining complimentary products and services. The case discussed here, is not so much as is an ecosystem, but how to get the most out of one.

Play Chapter 1

✔ Chapter 2: Distribution’s Role in Today’s Ecosystems

Distributors are aggregation points in the market. Ultimately, the legacy ecosystem is distribution, and the output is channel marketing management. All types of channel partners rely on distribution for guidance, product selection evaluation, and sales as well as transactional support, financing, and post-sales support. Distributor marketing provides tremendous value by being the center of an ecosystem for solution providers looking for products.

Play Chapter 2

✔ Chapter 3: Distribution Models in a SaaS World

The role of channels is based on relationship and channel marketing management, not just sales. In today’s digital environment, people don’t want to talk to sales – they just gather the information needed, but don’t want to be sold to. A channel will help vendors scale and build relationships that cannot be done at a corporate level. Even the largest Cloud vendors can’t service customers in this way. This is where distributor marketing comes into play. Tune in to find out how vendors are embracing channel relationships and how distribution has made huge strides in the era of digitalization.

Play Chapter 3

✔ Chapter 4: Device-centric Distribution vs Cloud-centric Offerings

Good distributors have solid relationships, and this is the foundation of everything. They have developed huge amounts of capabilities in business intelligence. Ultimately, they understand the sales environment, along with the opportunities and challenges. They have developed capabilities for training & enablement, integrating marketing agencies and marketing support to and through partners. They have evolved. Tune in to hear more from Larry & Sugata on how distribution is supporting new business models, and how they are becoming a massive support system for everything Cloud.

Play Chapter 4

✔ Chapter 5: The Dynamics of SaaS Organizations & Distribution

The challenge with distribution is that everyone needs an easy solution. Many smaller vendors jump into the distribution work with high expectations, but they don’t realize how hard it is to gain mindshare. Companies of all sizes need to level expectations and provide the right resources to enable and engage distribution. Distribution is not a silver bullet,

The world of partner relationship management is changing rapidly, driven by a number of economic developments, including Covid, the normalization of hybrid work, and jobless growth, but also by a number of related technological innovations. Look for the continued rise in marketplaces, evolving partner ecosystems, a focus on rewarding partner loyalty, an explosion of independent software, and partner-fed versus partner-led activities. This podcast will explore these trends and five addition technology trends that are changing the PRM landscape.

An affiliate is an individual or organization that represents your brand as well as your products or services in the marketplace. Before selecting software for onboarding affiliate partners, there are several key considerations you should keep in mind, including your target audience and the kinds of affiliates you will be recruiting to partner with. In this podcast, we will discuss the five most important factors to consider when selecting affiliate marketing onboarding software.

Onboarding partners into your channel marketing management platform can be difficult. Partners are busy, they lack marketing expertise, they may have dozens of vendors trying to get them engaged, and they lack resources to pursue new activities. Poorly designed tools haven’t helped. In this podcast, we discuss the importance of having the right programs and the right tools for each of your different partner types, so the onboarding process is relevant to partners and proceeds in a logical, step-by-step manner.

Because ecosystem partners are diverse, onboarding them with your channel marketing management platform can be challenging. A systematic approach to onboarding not only increases partner engagement, but also reduces costs. In this podcast, we explore five key steps for onboarding in the context of through-channel marketing automation (TCMA), including: target the right partners, align your programs, get the right tools to the right partners, align incentives and leverage business intelligence and analytics.