ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

In today’s business environment, every organization is asking its channel management team to do more with fewer resources. This is a common challenge for any channel organization. It’s not enough just to get busy—the key is to figure out how to drive partner recruitment, enablement, management and sales growth in a focused way. This is where partner relationship management  (PRM) software can help significantly. In this article, we will explore some of the core activities that PRM software can help automate.

Before we take a deep dive into the specific activities that PRM software can automate, let’s discuss briefly how the activities tend to vary by company size.

Focused channel (100 – 500 partners) – Companies in this category tend to sell through the channel independent of their own size. In our customer base at ZINFI, we have multibillion-dollar organizations that have only a couple of hundred partners, but we also have much smaller customers who have a few thousand partners. In a focused channel where there is a relatively small number of partners, the level of engagement and focus by the vendor organization is generally high. We will discuss later how PRM software can automate the core activities for a focused channel.

Scaled channel (500 – 2,500 partners) – In this category, the higher total number of channel partners is generally a function of two main factors: a low-price product with a high reach that allows partners to build service revenue, or moderately complex solutions with a medium and focused reach that require specialized global delivery and support. There are always hybrids, of course, but for the sake of simplicity it makes sense to define a scaled channel in terms of these two primary scenarios. PRM software typically automates more activities in a scaled channel than in a focused channel.

Broad channel (1,000s of partners) ­– This category describes the channel for organizations with many products that are highly horizontal and broadly distributed. Prominent examples would include organizations like Microsoft, Google and Dropbox where usage of their products is quite horizontal. Certain household product companies are also good examples , although their products tend to get distributed through broadliners —e., large retail chains in developed countries, as well as lots of “mom and pop” stores in emerging countries. Overall, broad channels have higher levels of complexity and more demanding automation requirements than most focused or scaled channels. However, the right PRM software can significantly streamline and automate broad channel activities.

The key to operating successfully in a focused or scaled or broad channel is understanding how your distribution strategy will ultimately support the growth ambitions of the company. For an organization with a niche product that has a relatively narrow focus, too many partners can create an over-distribution problem and make the product more difficult to sell. Therefore, before any PRM software can effectively automate and optimize channel activities, the organization’s channel strategy has to be closely aligned with the nature of its channel.

The critical factor in moving from a focused channel to a scaled channel and eventually to a broad distribution network is to have highly streamlined programs and an automation tool—namely, PRM software—that can effectively automate more activities as the organization’s business evolves. We know that automating a channel can be sequential: You start small and then build on your successes. This rule is most applicable to fast-growing companies. However, if your organization has already been around for a while and is already selling through a channel—focused, scaled or broad—you absolutely have the same opportunities to optimize effectiveness through automation by selecting the right set of tools.

Let’s review briefly what you can do for each of the three main channel types—focused, scaled and broad—by aligning your channel strategy, programs, policies and PRM software automation platform.

PRM software for focused channel automation – If you are starting with a few hundred partners, the first thing you want to do is to put together a partner portal that has a highly customizable portal content management module to tailor pages, content and assets to various partner types, groups and locations. Make sure that you have turned on modules for a content library, a co-branded asset library, learning management and deal registration. These will significantly boost your ability to collaborate remotely in an asynchronous way on a 24x7 basis.

PRM software for scaled channel automation – Once you have scaled your channel to where you have several hundred to thousands of partners, you will likely want to have the capacity to automate a variety of channel programs, policies, onboarding processes and more. That means you will need workflow automation capabilities that allow you to build custom workflows. You also should have the ability to create various types of dynamic reports that allow you to track key metrics and understand what is going on in your channel both globally and at the territory level.

PRM software for broad channel automation – Organizations optimizing a broad channel require everything that focused and scaled channels need, but also advanced workflow or activity automation modules such as business planning, contract management, lead management, MDF management and sales rewards. Theses are all workflow modules that allow for significant customization so you can automate by channel types, programs, geographies, territories, promotions and other criteria. In a channel with this kind of complexity, you need state-of-the-art PRM software that allows you to do all of these things easily and quickly.

Before you embark on an automation journey using PRM software, make sure you vet potential vendors carefully. Your chosen vendor should have earned endorsements from leading analyst firms, received overwhelmingly positive reviews and generated positive feedback from its existing customer base. It should also offer a highly scalable and adaptable platform that can easily grow with your evolving channel needs. One thing you can depend on is this: Change is certain, and you always have to be ready to do more with less. A powerful, easy-to-use, highly configurable PRM platform is a critical tool for realizing this goal in real life.

I hope this overview has convinced you it is never too late or too early to start automating channel activities, provided you align overall business strategy, channel management activities and the right PRM software. Doing so will not only reduce waste but also significantly impact your return on investment—whether your channel is very focused or very broad or somewhere in between.

In today’s business environment, every organization is asking its channel management team to do more with fewer resources. This is a common challenge for any channel organization. It’s not enough just to get busy—the key is to figure out how to drive partner recruitment, enablement, management and sales growth in a focused way. This is where partner relationship management  (PRM) software can help significantly. In this article, we will explore some of the core activities that PRM software can help automate.

Before we take a deep dive into the specific activities that PRM software can automate, let’s discuss briefly how the activities tend to vary by company size.

* Focused channel (100 – 500 partners) – Companies in this category tend to sell through the channel independent of their own size. In our customer base at ZINFI, we have multibillion-dollar organizations that have only a couple of hundred partners, but we also have much smaller customers who have a few thousand partners. In a focused channel where there is a relatively small number of partners, the level of engagement and focus by the vendor organization is generally high. We will discuss later how PRM software can automate the core activities for a focused channel.

* Scaled channel (500 – 2,500 partners) – In this category, the higher total number of channel partners is generally a function of two main factors: a low-price product with a high reach that allows partners to build service revenue, or moderately complex solutions with a medium and focused reach that require specialized global delivery and support. There are always hybrids, of course, but for the sake of simplicity it makes sense to define a scaled channel in terms of these two primary scenarios. PRM software typically automates more activities in a scaled channel than in a focused channel.

* Broad channel (1,000s of partners) ­– This category describes the channel for organizations with many products that are highly horizontal and broadly distributed. Prominent examples would include organizations like Microsoft, Google and Dropbox where usage of their products is quite horizontal. Certain household product companies are also good examples , although their products tend to get distributed through broadliners —e., large retail chains in developed countries, as well as lots of “mom and pop” stores in emerging countries. Overall, broad channels have higher levels of complexity and more demanding automation requirements than most focused or scaled channels. However, the right PRM software can significantly streamline and automate broad channel activities.

The key to operating successfully in a focused or scaled or broad channel is understanding how your distribution strategy will ultimately support the growth ambitions of the company. For an organization with a niche product that has a relatively narrow focus, too many partners can create an over-distribution problem and make the product more difficult to sell. Therefore, before any PRM software can effectively automate and optimize channel activities, the organization’s channel strategy has to be closely aligned with the nature of its channel.

The critical factor in moving from a focused channel to a scaled channel and eventually to a broad distribution network is to have highly streamlined programs and an automation tool—namely, PRM software—that can effectively automate more activities as the organization’s business evolves. We know that automating a channel can be sequential: You start small and then build on your successes. This rule is most applicable to fast-growing companies. However, if your organization has already been around for a while and is already selling through a channel—focused, scaled or broad—you absolutely have the same opportunities to optimize effectiveness through automation by selecting the right set of tools.

If your company (or even country) is under a travel ban due to an epidemic like the coronavirus outbreak—or perhaps because of budget restrictions—and you have to cancel your road shows to train and enable your partners, don’t despair. There are multiple ways to enable your partners remotely without meeting face-to-face by leveraging partner relationship management (PRM) software. In this article, I will explore how you can deploy a set of pragmatic PRM channel automation tools to enable your partners in a few easy step.

There are essentially two types of enablement involving collaboration with channel partners using PRM software: tactical and strategic. Let’s briefly address both.

Tactical enablement: Tactical enablement includes activities like pushing a promotion through the channel, rolling out sales incentives for partner sales reps to sign up for and execute on, or creating programs to train partners on new product launches. Within 4–6 weeks you can easily deploy a partner relationship management (PRM) platform with built-in tools that allow you to effectively collaborate with your partners remotely on these and other tactical initiatives. We will discuss these tools in a bit more detail later on.

Strategic enablement: This is about driving systematic improvements like sales reach and lead generation from greenfield opportunities as well as building technical or solution competencies for certain strategic product or services rollouts. These activities can also be performed using PRM software, but to do so effectively you will need to carefully consider your overall channel programs, policies, promotions and key performance management metrics. An appropriate PRM platform will allow you to set up advanced training by product categories and other criteria, but if you lack an overall integrated strategy, much of this work will turn out to be tactical, rather than strategic, enablement.

With this as a framework, it’s time to consider some of the PRM software tools that can be used for both strategic and tactical enablement. These tools can address a broad range of activities related to partner life cycle management, including partner recruitment, partner onboarding, partner enablement, demand generation and partner management. In each of these areas, we can apply  both tactical and strategic approaches by using various PRM tools.

Now we’re ready to consider some of the PRM software tools that can help us with each of these activities and allow us to collaborate remotely:

Partner recruitment – In this age of digital content and media—especially when partners may be working from home, from the office or another location—they are very likely connected to their mobile and other computing devices. “Marketing to” the partner is a core activity, and PRM modules created specifically for social marketing, email, Google AdWords, microsites, events (online live and on demand) all enable core tactics that can be deployed for both tactical and strategic engagement.

Partner onboarding – Onboarding a newly recruited partner with a step-by-step onboarding process is critical, and this is where PRM automation can help a lot. Your PRM software should allow you to quickly set up various partner onboarding programs and establish tracks within those programs to move the partner automatically from one stage to another. Laborious process steps like contract signing, business planning and more can be highly automated.

Partner enablement – One of the most common facets of partner enablement is partner training, which, if it cannot be done face-to-face, can easily be carried out using SCORM-compliant learning management systems (LMSs). When you are selecting a PRM tool, make sure the LMS module is SCORM-compliant so you can easily and build effective step-by-step training courses.

Demand generation – Partner enablement also includes demand generation, which should include a set of integrated tools and campaign content that partner users can use from a single interface to quickly launch digitally integrated campaigns. Just as you require tools to collaborate with your partners remotely, your partners also need effective tools that enable them to engage with their customer base remotely.

Partner management – Once a partner demonstrates the ability to sell and produce revenue, it is essential to reward that partner with commissions, incentives and rebates. To do so remotely requires online automated tools. Every one of these programs can be set up and executed remotely, and the required collaboration can be accomplished through an online portal. Any advanced PRM software platform should be able to drive these activities in a highly automated fashion.

I hope this overview has demonstrated that you can perform essentially every activity that’s necessary to enable partners both tactically and strategically while working remotely if you deploy a PRM platform. There are other benefits as well: Creating a state-of-the-art online collaboration platform can also significantly boost partner satisfaction and the productivity of your partner marketing teams. Instead of having to constantly log on to Zoom or other video conferencing platforms to have discussions with one partner or group of partners at a time, you can have your partner portal—powered by a state-of-the-art partner relationship management (PRM) software—do much of the work for you 24x7.

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Channel Management is the strategic, complex process of organizing, motivating, and enabling third-party partners to successfully sell a vendor’s products, a system significantly more intricate than direct sales. Effective management requires ruthlessly prioritizing profitable partners defined as "producers," eliminating channel conflict, and migrating operations to a virtual collaboration network to sustain revenue amid projected market uncertainty over the next 12–18 months.

Who is this for?: Chief Partner Officers (CPOs), PartnerOps Managers, Partner Sales Managers, and executives leading multi-brand distribution and reseller programs.

Core Problem Solved: The mitigation of channel conflict and securing profitability by focusing resources exclusively on top-tier "producer" partners, addressing the historical lack of inherent partner brand loyalty.

Key Tech/Entities: Unified Partner Management (UPM), Deal Registration protocols, Partner Profile Management, and End-to-End Channel Automation Platform.

If you suddenly find yourself relying on Zoom, Teams, Outlook and Excel to manage your channel in a world that has suddenly shut down completely, you are not alone. This article explores how you can get started on a remote management strategy for your channel partner network that suddenly needs more support faster as some deals appear to be on the verge of evaporating. My goal here is to help you set priorities for virtual collaboration so that you can be ready to respond in a fast-changing world. Much in the world today is outside your control, but you can quickly take control of your channel management approach by following a few sequential steps.

Before we begin, let’s just reflect for a moment on the intrinsic challenges that were already a part of channel management even before the pandemic damaged our economy and took away thousands of lives. We are all beginning to realize that, while managing a direct sales force is tough, managing an indirect sales force—what we all call a channel—is even tougher in times like these. This is due to the fact that resellers, agents, and other types of partners set their priorities primarily around cash flows, customers, competencies (employees) and competitors. So, while a vendor brand may be an integral part of their overall revenue plan, in the end there is always a broader (and more personalized) set of business objectives that drive any partner business. This is where the main conflict lies.

If, as I am suggesting, a partner business is not centered predominantly on a specific brand—that is, if the partner can exist without a specific product or switch it out with a different one—then brand loyalty is almost non-existent. (I realize this may not entirely be the case for captive brands or franchises, but the challenges of managing a franchise are more complex than those for a multi-product resale business or an outlet.) But whether we are talking about a captive or multi-brand channel partner, channel management is a lot more complex world than direct sales. So what can you do in times like this when resources are scarce and will possibly shrink more over the next 12–18 months—and when we are forced stay home and put channel events, trainings and various other activities on hold?

First things first – We all need to prioritize ruthlessly to remain profitable because the world is highly leveraged today. Burning more cash and hoping to get there is certainly not a prudent strategy with so much uncertainty in the air. Yes, some companies like Zoom, which was in a position to scale its data center’s capacity as its user load exploded, have thrived, but their investments scaled with their direct sales demand. When it comes to a channel business, it is crucial at times like this to focus on the producers versus the non-producers in your partner base. To do that effectively, you will need a partner profile management capability that is dynamic and gives you a dashboard that will instantly tell you which partners are winning, why and how you can make more partners win.

Second – We need to focus on selling and eliminating deal losses as fast as possible. This can only happen when you have a focused set of partners who care about your brand and are willing to learn and compete aggressively in the marketplace for every deal that is within their reach. To do that you have to make sure there is no channel conflict, and that means you must protect every deal that partners bring in and have trust in your support network.

Finally – Make sure your reward structure is crystal clear, and then put your money where your mouth is. Stay away from complicated training, enablement and incentive programs. The entire focus for the incentive program should be on motivating partners to sell more to make more. As a partner once told me, “Loyalty can always be purchased.” So, follow the money, provide a path to make it easy for partners to make money, and align all the incentives so there is absolutely no friction along the way.

To complete these three steps quickly and efficiently you need programs and people—but you also need a platform. You need software automation that allows you to profile your partners in a dynamic fashion to reveal who is selling, how much and why. You need to identify the next set of potential winning partners, rapidly roll out sales programs and train them fast. You also need to enable them with sales collateral and offer them meaningful incentives like market development funds, co-op funds and sales rewards. And you need to be able to do all of these things quickly and dynamically, 24x7. This can only happen if you augment your Zoom, Teams, Excel and other applications with a true end-to-end channel management and automation platform. This is the only way you can build a true virtual collaboration network overnight, drive up partner satisfaction and engagement and, yes, “purchase” loyalty—in a legal and friendly way.

To know more about Channel Management, please read the article - The Ultimate Guide to Channel Management.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How does the shift to remote work impact effective Channel Management?

The shift to remote work necessitates establishing a true virtual collaboration network to maintain high partner satisfaction and continuous engagement. This transition requires a centralized, end-to-end channel automation platform capable of driving communication and tracking partner performance efficiently, without relying on traditional in-person events or training.

2. What is the primary conflict inherent in traditional Channel Management models?

The primary conflict arises because a partner’s business is rarely centered on a single vendor brand, resulting in minimal inherent brand loyalty among multi-product resellers. Partners are driven by their own business objectives, requiring vendors to effectively earn loyalty through superior incentives, timely support, and consistent value delivery.

3. What tactical steps can be taken to ensure profitability in Channel Management during uncertain economic periods?

To ensure profitability during uncertain periods, organizations must prioritize resources by focusing on high-value partners clearly identified as producers versus non-producers. This disciplined approach prevents unnecessary cash burn and ensures limited vendor resources are directed toward accelerating the most productive and successful sales pipelines.

4. How can technology directly address deal loss and eliminate common channel conflict issues?

Robust technology such as Partner Profile Management provides dynamic dashboards to quickly identify successful partners and their evolving needs. Mandatory Deal Registration systems protect partner-initiated opportunities, fostering trust and systematically eliminating deal loss and internal channel conflict.

We have discussed earlier what channel management is and why it matters. Assuming that you now know what channel management is and are interested in finding out how to do it more effectively, then your next question might be, “How do I manage our relationships with the channel partners?” The discipline that embodies the principles and tactics of managing channel partners is called partner relationship management (PRM) or channel relationship management. In this article we will discuss the basic steps that a company has to take for effective partner relationship management.

As we have discussed in earlier articles, channel management is about the following core activities:

* Partner recruitment – The goal here is to reach out to and build relationships with potential channel partner organizations that can sell and support a vendor’s solution.

* Partner training – The goal here is to ensure partners’ functional teams are properly trained on how to market, sell, deploy and support a specific solution.

* Partner enablement – The goal of these activities is to provide partners with the right tools and tactics to develop a market, sell to the customer base and then serve.

* Partner sales – The goal here is obvious – go out and generate demand and then close transactions to drive revenue.

* Partner management – This final step entails managing partner performance to increase revenue and profitability.

Partner relationship management focuses on all aspects of these five core activities. In order to manage partner relationships effectively, an organization obviously needs partner programs, processes, policies, people and platforms. Let’s take a few minutes and explore each of these aspects of partner relationship management:

* Partner programs – For any approach to partner relationship management to work, it is essential to clearly define and plan various types of programs related to partner recruitment, onboarding, training, incentives, demand generation, sales and more.

* Partner management processes – Partner management process steps must be clearly defined so all of a vendor’s cross-functional team members know exactly which forms to fill out, which approvals they need to secure, how to escalate processes for special pricing or incentives, and so on.

* Partner policies – This is essentially about clearly defining dos and don’ts. For example, sometimes vendors have products that can only certain types of partners—who have certifications and competencies—can sell. Sometimes a certain government-issued certification is required to sell. The parameters around all of these activities require clearly written policies.

* People – Programs, processes and policies don’t work without the right people in place. So, as we discussed in the “What is Channel Management?” article, various functions like channel marketing, sales, legal, finance and operations need to be able to work together to drive channel management. That means the right people, the right structure and the right skills are all essential.

* Platforms – Last but not least, in this age of business process digitization, it is essential to have partner relationship management software in place to automate programs, process, policies and various workflows. This software must be able to automate partner recruitment, onboarding...

The word “channel” indicates a passageway through which something flows. Channel management is a discipline in management science in which a vendor organization or “brand” creates, captures and fulfils market demand via another set of organizations who act as channel partners and ecosystem players for the subject vendor.  In this podcast, we will expand on this basic view of channel management and attempt to explain in more detail how it functions in real-life scenarios.

Channel Management is the organized discipline governing how a vendor creates and fulfills market demand by utilizing a network of channel partners or ecosystem players. It is critical because it facilitates sales, service, and support functions indirectly, allowing vendors to reach and serve a significantly larger customer base at a demonstrably lower cost than direct selling alone.

Who is this for? Chief Revenue Officers (CROs), Chief Partner Officers (CPOs), Partner Sales Managers, and Channel Operations personnel across IT, Manufacturing, and Telecommunications sectors.

Core Problem Solved: The challenge of high cost-to-acquire and deliver products and services to a large, segmented customer base through a solely direct-selling model.

Key Tech/Entities: Unified Partner Management (UPM) platforms; Performance-based MDF (Marketing Development Funds) programs; SCORM-compliant partner learning and training modules.

The word “channel” indicates a passageway through which something flows. Channel management is a discipline in management science in which a vendor organization or “brand” creates, captures, and fulfills market demand via another set of organizations who act as channel partners and ecosystem players for the subject vendor. These channel partners act as a kind of mechanism that enables the orderly “flow” or distribution of products and services from the vendor to the end customer. In this article, we will expand on this basic view of channel management and attempt to explain in more detail how it functions in real-life scenarios.

Any for-profit organization — and even some non-profits — that depend on providing products and services to customers in order to survive, require two core functions: sales and support. In today’s world, most organizations that sell products and services also require a marketing function. The entire goal of a commercial organization, in fact, is to find buyers, make them aware of the vendor’s products and services, provide those products and services for a fee, and then, as a part of this transaction, make a reasonable profit. Now, we all know profit is a function of revenue minus cost. If the cost to acquire, deliver, and serve exceeds the revenue the company generates, then it becomes unprofitable to serve a specific group of customers. This is where a “channel” organization and channel management come into play by enabling cost-effective sales and support for vendors on a larger scale than is possible through direct selling alone.

The primary purpose of a vendor’s channel organization is to build relationships with a set of other organizations that can resell and support the vendor’s products and services. The core feature of this relationship between the vendor and the partner organization is their mutual interest in increased profitability. For the relationship to succeed, the vendor organization should be able to reach, acquire, and serve a large number of end customers at a relatively low cost compared to selling directly, and the partner organization should be able to increase profitable revenue by providing the vendor’s products and services, along with the other products and services the partner sells.

With this as a backdrop, we can now see that channel management basically entails five core phases, as outlined below:

Partner recruitment – The focus of this phase is to reach out to and build relationships with potential organizations that are able to sell and support a vendor’s solution.

Partner training – The focus of this phase is to ensure partners’ functional teams are properly trained on how to market, sell, deploy, and support a specific solution

Partner enablement – This phase focuses on making sure the partner marketing, sales, and technical personnel have the right tools to do their job.

Partner sales – The entire focus of this phase is to drive increased sales via partner organizations via new accounts and partners’ existing customers.

Partner management – This phase focuses on introducing effective performance enhancement incentives and programs tied to training, certification, sales improvements, quota attainment, etc.

Channel management is a discipline all its own, but it also tends to build up all other cross-functional areas of an organization, such as marketing, sales, operations, finance, and legal. In the case of a channel organization, the traditional direct functional disciplines must undergo adaptations to fit a specific channel requirement, as follows:

Channel marketing – This functional group focuses on driving awareness in the partner base to recruit and enable partners with new programs and initiatives. This group also takes content from the direct marketing team and adapts that content for partner use in end-user lead generation.

Channel sales – The focus for this functional group is to train and help a partner close a new transition or grow an existing account. Unlike direct selling, where a sales rep of a vendor directly calls up an end customer or prospective buyer, channel sales activities are conducted through a partner organization.

Partner development – This group focuses on ensuring partners are properly trained and certified to go after certain solutions. In many cases, the partner development organization also manages alliances or other vendors who “white label” a vendor’s solution.

Channel operations – The focus for channel operations is on managing channel inventory, and this function relies upon supply chain management capabilities, but traditionally the channel operations group focuses on the front end of the channel—i.e., distribution partners—to make sure products are available and returns are properly managed.

Channel finance – This function makes sure resellers who are buying on credit have the right capabilities and credit rating in place to support a sales transaction. In order to ensure proper payment and approve special pricing, channel finance works hand-in-hand with channel sales and operations.

Channel legal – The focus of this function is to make sure there are always updated contracts between a partner organization and the vendor organization. In case of channel conflict, this function also mediates disputes.

While these six functions are not indicative of every channel organization, I use them for illustrative purposes to make the point that channel management is very much like business management, but it is conducted indirectly through a set of partner organizations. So, while traditional direct functional teams may not be needed if an organization’s focus is exclusively on a channel-only model, it is important to remember that channel management itself is a cross-functional discipline and requires all traditional business functions to

be properly adapted for a specific channel configuration.

To know more about Channel Management, please read the article - The Ultimate Guide to Channel Management.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is channel management software?

Channel management software is a unified technology platform that helps companies streamline and automate the management of their indirect sales partners — including resellers, distributors, referral partners, and service partners. It optimizes indirect sales by centralizing partner operations, with core features that include partner relationship management, marketing automation, and sales enablement. Rather than a single tool, modern channel management software is a unified suite comprising several integrated modules designed to manage the entire partner lifecycle. The goal is to increase channel sales, improve efficiency, and enhance partner relationships — all from one centralized interface.

2. What are the main components of channel management?

The foundation of any solution is Partner Relationship Management (PRM), which focuses on recruiting, onboarding, and managing partner profiles and contracts. Partner Marketing Management (PMM) is another vital component that provides partners with tools to market a vendor's products and services. A content library serves as a cornerstone of partner enablement, giving partners access to the latest sales and marketing assets. Partner Sales Management (PSM) features help partners manage leads, register deals, and collaborate on sales opportunities. Finally, Partner Incentives Management helps design and manage programs — including Market Development Funds (MDF), co-op funds, and rebates — that motivate partner behavior.

3. What is the difference between channel management and PRM?

Channel management is the broader strategic discipline of managing all aspects of a company's indirect sales ecosystem — including strategy, partner programs, enablement, marketing, and commerce. Partner Relationship Management (PRM) is the most fundamental component of channel management software, serving as a central database for all partner information and interactions, helping channel managers track partner profiles, contracts, and performance history. In other words, PRM is one critical pillar within a larger channel management platform — it handles the relational layer, while the full channel management suite also covers marketing automation, sales management, learning, incentives, and more.

4. How do companies automate channel management?

To scale fast and with purpose, companies need to automate — moving well beyond Excel spreadsheets and quarterly in-person training. Automation typically covers the full partner lifecycle: the process often begins with digital contract management, where partners can review and sign agreements electronically....

In our earlier articles on lead management, we discussed why it is essential to have the right strategy, structure, staffing and systems. As a part of building the right systems, we talked about aligning channel programs, processes and platforms. In this article, we will dive a little bit deeper into the automation aspect of lead management. Picking the right lead management software is critical to making an overall lead management program a reality. The primary objective of lead management software is to streamline workflows, approvals and tracking processes from end to end. This is what we will discuss in detail here.

To begin, let’s briefly revisit our earlier framework on lead management where we talked about the need to have product-, segment- and market-focused strategies. We discussed in detail how lead management for an SMB transactional product or service is necessarily very different from high-end enterprise lead management for a complete solution. In this article, we will expand on this fundamental theme of purpose-focused lead management and discuss how to select automation software that can address a specific set of objectives.

Small business lead management automation – As we noted before, in most cases management of leads for the channel comes down to simple deal registration. Most organizations that are starting to build a channel need a simple deal capture form to be used by the channel partner while submitting deal details information. These organizations may also require some simple approval flows and processes, with one or two people from the channel sales organization reviewing the specific aspects of a deal and approving it. In very rare circumstances you may require comprehensive—and therefore more complicated—lead capture forms or lead approval flows.

Mid-market lead management automation – As an organization matures and reaches a size where it has more than 100 partners and between 100 and 1,000 employees, it probably needs more comprehensive lead management automation. Management of leads in this scenario is no longer just about automating deal registration; it also becomes important to automate the distribution of leads to partners. Approval processes also tend to vary by segment and region, and the lead management automation software must be able to address these additional requirements.

Enterprise lead management automation – This is where management of leads tends to vary quite a lot. Depending on the size of an enterprise and the breadth of its offerings, some products may require only simple deal registration, while others may require lengthy tracking and automation from cradle to close. There may also be legal requirements to automate certain parts of the end-customer notification process to comply with various industry segments the vendor sells to. With large enterprises, for every $2 to $5 billion in incremental revenue, it is logical to expect different lead management and deal registration forms and flows. Any software system chosen for management of leads in this context must have the flexibility to accommodate multiple forms and flows.

So far, our discussion has provided a high-level overview of the reasons that picking the right software based on lead management use cases is critical for success. However, beyond use cases, you will also need to consider five core capabilities of lead management automation platforms: data privacy, security, mobility, alerts and reports.

Data privacy – In today’s world of data regulations driven by many countries, it is essential that your software to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and other, similar regulations.

Data security – Your lead management software must have not only multi-tenant architecture, but also industry-standard encryption for data in motion and rest to comply with various data privacy and security requirements.

Mobile application – Today’s partner sales reps are essentially mobile and often not behind their desks. As a result, having lead distribution and deal registration functionality in a mobile application is critical for timely follow-up and closure.

Lead alerts – Because most partners carry products from multiple vendors, partners sales reps sometimes miss following up on leads. An automated lead alert and management system is essential to bridging this gap.

Dynamic reports – Last but not least, the ability to produce dynamic reports for all users at all levels is critical to ensuring that partners’ administrators, as well as their reps, can see lead aging reports and track progress in real time.

This article concludes our five part mini-serious on management of leads. I hope I have given you a macro approach that encompasses the five core building blocks—strategy, structure, staffing, systems and software automation—required for a world-class lead management program. Now it’s time to get busy. As the saying goes, the best way to start is to start. Begin with strategy and build it from there.

Most companies selling through an open channel tend to implement deal registration programs. While some deal registration programs are helpful and actually help channel partners close deals and serve their own interests, many programs are inward-looking initiatives that don’t seriously take partners’ core business goals into account. In this article, we will briefly discuss why most deal registration programs fail and explain some of the fallacies associated with them.

Failure of most deal registration programs can be attributed to one or more the following reasons:

Complex process – Most deal registration programs have too many steps or hurdles for partners to deal with. These programs tend to fail because going through the burden of protecting an opportunity outweighs the risk of losing it. If the deal registration process involves more than a simple form and a few approval steps, chances are that partner organizations have decided the extra effort is not worth it and they don’t participate.

Small deals – Unless there is a large service component attached to a specific opportunity and the partner (reseller) who fails to register the deal stands to lose a large amount of services revenue, the 15%–20% commission may not be enough of an incentive for a partner to register. That’s why thinking through how your partners make money and what their financial incentives is a good foundation for planning  a deal registration program.

Lack of automation – In today’s world, it is surprising to see many companies are still using archaic tools like Excel and email for the deal registration review and approval process. This is not only inefficient, but also fails to provide sufficient transparency to partners. Faced with a complex approval process that lacks full transparency, partners tend to skip. Vendors who deploy a simple lead management and deal registration automation platform can eliminate this friction completely.

Allowing direct sales to poach the deal – Channels have everlasting memory. If a company has ever violated a deal registration program by shifting an opportunity from the indirect (channel) sales team to its direct sales team, the word gets out very quickly. Fear of losing an opportunity to a vendor’s direct sales team will last forever. This is why it is usually better in the long run to give an opportunity to a partner than to get into a situation where your sales team is competing with the channel.

Failure to truly protect the deal – Finally, vendors sometimes fail to keep their promises in protecting a deal. When an end-user decides for some reason or other they would like to switch to a different partner-based provider in the midst of their selection process, too often vendors jump in to make the switch happen rather than trying to work with the first partner to resolve the issue or conflict. While in the end  buyers have the right to choose the provider they prefer, a vendor also needs to play the referee sometimes to make sure there are proper business reasons for the switch rather than a personnel-based issue that is getting in the way.

These five examples are not the only reasons deal registration programs fail, but they are the most common ones we see in the channel today. The best way to design a program is to begin by talking to your partner base. A channel is not a true democracy, so it is impossible to design a program that satisfies everyone, but if you ask questions, listen to your partners and work with them to build a program that meets the needs of most of them, very likely you will end up having a high adoption rate where more than 50% of intended users will end up using it. In the channel, anything higher than that is a real success.

For more information, please check this article.

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Partner relationship management (PRM) is a complex process, but when vendors get it right they can drive truly profitable growth via a network of distributed channel partners. Unfortunately, most companies marketing and selling through the channel tend to rely on their existing customer relationship management (CRM) software infrastructure to manage their partner base instead of using a dedicated PRM platform. This is simply a bad idea. Before we jump into explaining why, let’s take a few minutes to describe what a state-of-the-art PRM actually does.

A purpose-built PRM platform should allow an organization to recruit, engage, enable and manage their partner base seamlessly. Most organizations using CRM to manage partner relationships end up resorting to various point applications, attempting to integrate them into their CRM in order to automate their workflow. The primary goal for partner relationship management (PRM) automation is to provide a portal that partners can access to learn about the vendor’s solutions, download assets, run marketing campaigns, generate leads and register deals, and get paid via various incentives, rebates and rewards programs. The primary use cases for all of these activities have been in existence for the past couple of decades. However, they have failed to deliver a high-performing automated solution for most users who rely on CRM to automate the processes involved. So, let’s take a deep dive into why this is the case.

Cost: The licensing model for CRM software is user-based. It is almost impossible for any organization to predict how many users from a partner organization will access their portal. As a result, in most cases organizations end up buying either too many seats or not enough. Budgeting becomes a nightmare, and costs can easily go through the roof. On the other hand, purpose-built PRM software like ZINFI’s partner relationship management solution has a price structure based on the total number of partner companies accessing the platform instead of user-based pricing. Band-based pricing in particular (which ZINFI offers) makes it easy for organizations to budget because all they need to do is estimate whether 100 or 250 or 500 partners will be using the portal.In almost every case, PRM beats CRM pricing by anywhere between 10 to 50 times (yes, 50 times!), depending on the size of the channel. The CRM providers simply can’t match this; if they tried, their core revenue in the direct sales market would drop dramatically. This is the fundamental reason most CRM companies have failed to actively participate in the PRM market.

Complexity: I noted earlier that purpose-built PRM offers applications as a suite to provide an integrated experience for partner recruitment, engagement, enablement and management. Unlike PRM, CRM requires that vendors either undertake a significant amount of customization or bring additional point applications into the mix. Either approach increases integration and implementation time dramatically, and the user experience and administrative experience tends to be highly complex. Complexity drives up costs, and performing upgrades to incorporate advanced features and capabilities can be become a nightmare. In almost every case, PRM beats CRM on ease of use, simply because all applications are integrated in much the same way Microsoft Office is. Think about the analogy to Microsoft Office for a moment: While Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, etc., are all independent applications, the navigational flow, menu structure, compatibility (cut/paste/edit) and many other functions are seamless across all of the applications. You simply can’t get this kind of integrated experience with a CRM platform that’s been patched up to perform PRM functions. Purpose-built PRM software like ZINFI’s partner relationship management platform, on the other, can deliver a completely unified and easy-to-use experience from the outset.

Connectivity: This is a huge issue. Most CRMs operate on an object-based architecture, where the CRM is used as a base platform, to which you then connect multiple discrete applications as needed. Setting aside cost and complexity, this patchwork of “connector” applications often slows down the platform dramatically. It also creates multiple security vulnerabilities that a purpose-built PRM application doesn’t have. Furthermore, as Internet connectivity moves from broadband to cellular, many of these connector applications fail to load properly on mobile platforms and tend to offer an unsatisfying mobile user experience. In general, CRM-based PRM systems almost always perform poorly compared to a purpose-built PRM software platform. One other consideration: If you want to add five or six different applications to a CRM—components like learning management, business planning, contracts, incentives, asset management and so on—for each one of these independent applications you will need to implement single sign-on and other field-mapping activities to make sure the information flows smoothly back and forth between the core CRM and the various point applications. This is truly a nightmarish situation for most organizations to manage. A purpose-built CRM needs only ONE connection to the CRM platform to provide seamless, direct and indirect connectivity, and it eliminates the need for you to continuously patch multiple applications together.

I could keep going and add more to this list. But I think it’s clear the hurdles can be overwhelming when you try to use a CRM system as a PRM platform. We have seen organizations save hundreds of thousands of dollars—even millions in some cases—when they switch from using a patched-up CRM system for partner relationship management to deploying truly purpose-built PRM software. If you are trying to reduce your operating costs by an order of magnitude and increase adoption of your automation tools and processes, purpose-built PRM is the only way to go.

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