ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

The most recent trend in channel marketing automation has been the rapid deployment of Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Software along with Partner Marketing Management (PMM) capabilities in multiple industry verticals. In this article, we will focus specifically on the value of Partner Profile Manager (PPM) as a core feature for PRM Software.

Before we begin, let's discuss the rationale for using a Partner Profile Manager (PPM) and how it can help. The primary use for a Partner Profile Manager (PPM) in PRM Software is to make sure the vendor selling through the channel has detailed records for each partner company and their team members. This functions almost like CRM software, but with a lot more data and search capability associated with a specific partner profile. We have discussed earlier how partner profiling can boost channel sales. The main objective of the Partner Profile Management tool in PRM Software is to give a vendor the ability to profile or segment their partner on a dynamic basis, and use that segmentation data to take different business decision and actions.

Partner Profile Management plays a very important role in PRM Software by helping users understand the following:

* Firmographics of the partner company – This typically covers how many employees the partner company has, the key office locations, the market segments they serve, how long they have been in the business, what their credit rating is, etc. This information can be collected dynamically in the PPM tool of the PRM software from various database sources that are publicly available in most developed countries. In developing countries, this information will need to be pulled together manually from various sources, including telephone research and surveys.

* Business mix – Once you know who your partners are, the next most logical parameter for profiling is to understand their business mix – i.e., product versus services. A partner's ability to sell services directly depends on their ability to understand a specific vertical. As a result, partners who sell services also tend to specialize in certain verticals. These partners tend to work with a group of vendors and carry their solutions as a bundle. The right PRM Software can capture this information for you.

* Technical competence – A specific partner may sell into multiple industry verticals, such as healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, manufacturing and education. If the product or solution the partner is selling varies by segment, then the partner will need specific marketing, sales and technical ability to sell that specific solution. It is crucial to dynamically track this data in PRM Software via the PPM tool.

* Sales velocity – One of the core capabilities of your PRM Software is the ability to access your point-of-sales data and dynamically show the sales velocity of your individual partners. Once you align this data with data about partner firmographics, business mix and technical competency, you will be able to see a storyline that will start making sense. Having this storyline allows you to differentiate partners by programs, capabilities, etc., so you can focus on partners with different storylines in different ways. This differentiated approach will not only help you increase your sales velocity, but will also enhance partner profitability by allowing them to differentiate from each other.

* Growth potential – Last but not least, the most important outcome of the partner profiling capability embedded in your P...

With the passage of every day, month and year, content marketing continues to take over marketing (branding and lead generation). Unfortunately, most channel marketers still remain stuck in the archaic 20th century model for lead generation, using appointment setting for their business-to-business (B2B) channel partners. This model still requires a phonebook, a telephone and a script-driven telemarketer. What's wrong with this picture? Actually, a lot. But there is a much better way.

Before we explore what the alternatives are, let's take a look at how we got here. Over the past three decades, as channel became an important asset to go to market in an efficient way, channel partners began to recognize they needed to build their own pipeline. In the 1980s, the proliferation of business database companies led to the evolution of a whole new segment of lead generation companies. They focused primarily on appointment setting, putting sales people behind a telephone and equipping them with a list and a script to cold call at random to find potential buyers. In the beginning this method worked quite well, because the market was not saturated and information was hard to come by before the advent and maturation of the Internet. Business buyers at this stage got hold of information to procure new solutions primarily via magazines, tradeshows, peer groups and random telemarketers calling them with offers.

Then the Internet happened. Buyers started to move online, and they began their buying journey by searching on Google and other content sources. This has now become the primary way that buyers find out about solutions. No one waits for a poorly trained, highly scripted appointment-setter to call. In fact, appointment setting is considered to be a nuisance when it comes to most business buyers.

But old habits die hard, so it's understandable that people who saw results a decade ago from appointment setting campaigns still hope the same strategy will yield similar results today. However, reality tells a different story. The good news is that there are many options for a channel marketer to use today to enable their partners to generate leads and develop the sales pipeline. While it's easy to repeat what we know, as marketers we must continuously ask whether what we know is relevant or not. And the reality is that telemarketing-based appointment setting is becoming less and less effective every day. Channel marketers must realign their thought process and go-to-market approaches around integrated inbound marketing instead of age-old telemarketing-based campaigns.

While it is understandable that a seasoned channel marketer may have doubts and may suffer, potentially, from withdrawal symptoms when moving from tactical appointment setting to more integrated strategic campaigns, the reality is that a state-of-the-art channel marketing automation platform can make lead generation using content marketing quite effective, and it can happen quickly and affordably with minimal implementation steps or roll-out risks. The question is how to provide an integrated marketing approach to hundreds – may be even thousands – of partners on a worldwide basis. The answer is that it can be done in seven easy steps.

1. Focus on a two-pronged approach:This should include the entire partner base with a focused fund and activity allocation:

a) Do-it-yourself: Enable partners who have market development funds and follow-up sales capabilities with an outsourced marketing services agency (MSA) model that can run integrated campaigns over multiple quarters for the partners and build their pipeline.

b) Do-it-for-me: Set up campaigns that partners can use with a few clicks, but make the campaigns simple and tactical – e.g., email, microsite, postcards, events, search and social.

2. Develop multitouch campaigns by segments and pick the right marketing tactics:

a) Small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) – If the transaction price of the solution is low, it doesn’t make sense to invest a lot on direct marketing using telemarketing at all. It's better to build an integrated marketing program (social, search, outbound email, etc.) as a primary marketing strategy.

b) Mid-market – If the solution pricing justifies direct marketing, then an SMB strategy can be adapted to include telemarketing, but it must be used properly. If the primary intent is to run appointment setting campaigns under the cover of an integrated campaign, then much of the potential will remain unrealized.

c) Enterprise – This is where appointment setting makes sense, provided the target prospect base has been nurtured over a period of time. No enterprise buyer wakes up today eager to receive a random telemarketer call and set up an appointment. However, when the prospect base has been nurtured, and leads have been scored and followed-up on properly, then appointment setting objectives can be realized with much higher marketing ROI.

3. Align the partner base across campaigns and segments:Once the partner base has been segmented by fund allocation and proper campaign tactics have been developed, the next step is to make sure both campaigns and funds are allocated properly based on partner competency: 

a) SMB – There are two types of partners who sell into SMBs. Most of them tend to be regional, but there are often some large national partners. It's important to align the campaigns between local and national partners. This does vary a bit by country, but nevertheless in most developed countries this pattern is consistent. However, in emerging markets, there must be country-by-country activity and funds allocation.

b) Mid-market – Partners selling into mid-market have a higher level of sophistication and by default tend to be larger organizations. This is where integrated programs, coupled with appointment setting campaigns, may make sense.

c) Enterprise – As I have discussed in my earlier articles, the buying process for enterprise is quite complex and involves multiple decision-making units. Therefore, target base awareness generation with focused appointment-setting campaigns may provide decent marketing ROI, but the focus needs to be on integrated campaigns and partners who are able to align resources over multiple quarters to harvest opportunities. Not all enterprise partners are willing or capable of doing this, but insist on fund and activity allocation. Vendors need to manage these dynamics properly.

d) Verticals – Last but not least, one of the most important ways to go to market is by aligning with partners that have deep expertise in various verticals.

4. Run programs for 6 to 12 months:Most organizations evolve around a 90-day operational cycle, known as the “business quarter.” It is highly difficult to run integrated campaigns with a 90-day time limit. By the time a campaign is launched and run for a while, the quarter is over. Nonetheless, a majority of organizations prefer appointment setting campaigns that can be turned on or off over 90 days. However, even in case of an appointment setting campaign the 90-day time limit hinders the realization of complete marketing ROI. Globally, we consistently see that clients who take a longer-term approach (6 to 12 months) to integrated campaigns realize five to eight times more ROI. Therefore, two rules to consider:

a) Don't do tactical for 90 days just because you’re used to it. If you are running SMB campaigns, you can run email, paid search and large regional events as tactical tools. If you are running mid-market or enterprise, it is better not to run any campaign over 90 days; rather, extend them to a minimum 6-month horizon. Lack of planning forces vendors to pick appointment setting campaigns, but with a little bit of planning and partner profiling, one can allocate funds and activities in a much more streamlined way.

b) Don't do a year-long program without commitment from partners and vetting. Just as you don’t want to run 90-day campaigns without vetting the campaigns properly, it’s a bad idea to run multi-quarter campaigns without making sure the partner will allocate dedicated resources for a longer period of time. Without lead nurturing and opportunity development, longer-term campaigns can also fall flat.

5. Align rewards and awards: Once campaign strategy has been aligned with segments, and campaign types and partner types have been properly selected, the next most important step is to align partner rewards and rewards structure. Most companies have stand-alone incentive programs that do not fully align with quarterly or annual objectives. This is similar to giving raises to employees without doing any performance review. It makes no sense, right? Therefore, taking some effort on an annual basis to align sales rewards and rebate structures should greatly enhance partner performance and drive results.

6. Promote success heavily: Sales is a competitive sport. So, instead of focusing on simple metrics like how many appointments were generated or attended or qualified by partners, turn your attention to a mix of activities and a results-based approach. Promoting programs, activities and results can harness a new level of execution engagement in the channel that can totally alter the performance curve.

7. Rinse and repeat success templates globally: I am great fan of the statement, “If it ain't broke, don’t fix it.” Too often programs are rolled out for the sake of rolling them out. On the other hand, if a company takes a step-by-step approach, figuring out what is working with their integrated marketing approach and focusing on repeating successful programs globally, it can substantially improve marketing ROI. The key is to have channel marketing automation and marketing concierge services that can enable rapid global deployment.

Over the past couple of decades, channel marketers have been obsessed with using appointment setting as a business-to-business lead generation tactic....

With the passage of every day, month and year, content marketing continues to take over marketing (branding and lead generation). Unfortunately, most channel marketers still remain stuck in the archaic 20th century model for lead generation, using appointment setting for their business-to-business (B2B) channel partners. This model still requires a phonebook, a telephone and a script-driven telemarketer. What’s wrong with this picture? Actually, a lot. But there is a much better way.Before we explore what the alternatives are, let’s take a look at how we got here. Over the past three decades, as channel became an important asset to go to market in an efficient way, channel partners began to recognize they needed to build their own pipeline. In the 1980s, the proliferation of business database companies led to the evolution of a whole new segment of lead generation companies. They focused primarily on appointment setting, putting sales people behind a telephone and equipping them with a list and a script to cold call at random to find potential buyers. In the beginning this method worked quite well, because the market was not saturated and information was hard to come by before the advent and maturation of the Internet. Business buyers at this stage got hold of information to procure new solutions primarily via magazines, tradeshows, peer groups and random telemarketers calling them with offers.Then the Internet happened. Buyers started to move online, and they began their buying journey by searching on Google and other content sources. This has now become the primary way that buyers find out about solutions. No one waits for a poorly trained, highly scripted appointment-setter to call. In fact, appointment setting is considered to be a nuisance when it comes to most business buyers.But old habits die hard, so it’s understandable that people who saw results a decade ago from appointment setting campaigns still hope the same strategy will yield similar results today. However, reality tells a different story. The good news is that there are many options for a channel marketer to use today to enable their partners to generate leads and develop the sales pipeline. While it’s easy to repeat what we know, as marketers we must continuously ask whether what we know is relevant or not. And the reality is that telemarketing-based appointment setting is becoming less and less effective every day. Channel marketers must realign their thought process and go-to-market approaches around integrated inbound marketing instead of age-old telemarketing-based campaigns.While it is understandable that a seasoned channel marketer may have doubts and may suffer, potentially, from withdrawal symptoms when moving from tactical appointment setting to more integrated strategic campaigns, the reality is that a state-of-the-art channel marketing automation platform can make lead generation using content marketing quite effective, and it can happen quickly and affordably with minimal implementation steps or roll-out risks. The question is how to provide an integrated marketing approach to hundreds – may be even thousands – of partners on a worldwide basis. The answer is that it can be done in seven easy steps.1. Focus on a two-pronged approach:This should include the entire partner base with a focused fund and activity allocation:a) Do-it-yourself: Enable partners who have market development funds and follow-up sales capabilities with an outsourced marketing services agency (MSA) model that can run integrated campaigns over multiple quarters for the partners and build their pipeline.b) Do-it-for-me: Set up campaigns that partners can use with a few clicks, but make the campaigns simple and tactical – e.g.,

With the passage of every day, month and year, content marketing continues to take over marketing (branding and lead generation). Unfortunately, most channel marketers still remain stuck in the archaic 20th century model for lead generation, using appointment setting for their business-to-business (B2B) channel partners. This model still requires a phonebook, a telephone and a script-driven telemarketer. What's wrong with this picture? Actually, a lot. But there is a much better way.

Before we explore what the alternatives are, let's take a look at how we got here. Over the past three decades, as channel became an important asset to go to market in an efficient way, channel partners began to recognize they needed to build their own pipeline. In the 1980s, the proliferation of business database companies led to the evolution of a whole new segment of lead generation companies. They focused primarily on appointment setting, putting sales people behind a telephone and equipping them with a list and a script to cold call at random to find potential buyers. In the beginning this method worked quite well, because the market was not saturated and information was hard to come by before the advent and maturation of the Internet. Business buyers at this stage got hold of information to procure new solutions primarily via magazines, tradeshows, peer groups and random telemarketers calling them with offers.

Then the Internet happened. Buyers started to move online, and they began their buying journey by searching on Google and other content sources. This has now become the primary way that buyers find out about solutions. No one waits for a poorly trained, highly scripted appointment-setter to call. In fact, appointment setting is considered to be a nuisance when it comes to most business buyers.

But old habits die hard, so it's understandable that people who saw results a decade ago from appointment setting campaigns still hope the same strategy will yield similar results today. However, reality tells a different story. The good news is that there are many options for a channel marketer to use today to enable their partners to generate leads and develop the sales pipeline. While it's easy to repeat what we know, as marketers we must continuously ask whether what we know is relevant or not. And the reality is that telemarketing-based appointment setting is becoming less and less effective every day. Channel marketers must realign their thought process and go-to-market approaches around integrated inbound marketing instead of age-old telemarketing-based campaigns.

While it is understandable that a seasoned channel marketer may have doubts and may suffer, potentially, from withdrawal symptoms when moving from tactical appointment setting to more integrated strategic campaigns, the reality is that a state-of-the-art channel marketing automation platform can make lead generation using content marketing quite effective, and it can happen quickly and affordably with minimal implementation steps or roll-out risks. The question is how to provide an integrated marketing approach to hundreds – may be even thousands – of partners on a worldwide basis. The answer is that it can be done in seven easy steps.

1. Focus on a two-pronged approach:This should include the entire partner base with a focused fund and activity allocation:

a) Do-it-yourself: Enable partners who have market development funds and follow-up sales capabilities with an outsourced marketing services agency (MSA) model that can run integrated campaigns over multiple quarters for the partners and build their pipeline.

b) Do-it-for-me: Set up campaigns that partners can use with a few clicks, but make the campaigns simple and tactical – e.g.,

Managing a direct sales force is tough, let alone managing an indirect (channel) sales force. The concept of a channel has existed since the existence of fire when one person bartered with another. While technology has evolved rapidly over the past few thousand years, for many companies the state of their channel maturity still resembles how the channel was managed in the Stone Age. That doesn’t need to be the case, however. If you are considering building a channel to sell your products and solutions or upgrading an existing one, channel marketing automation can significantly increase the efficacy of the deployment and management of your channel network globally.

I consider the Internet as the second Big Bang. Yes, really. It has transformed how we look at the distributed world, and now the evolution of cloud-based software solutions is automating distributed workflow at a rapid pace. Please refer to our article on “Channel Marketing Software – Why The Rapid Emergence?” where we talk about what is truly driving the adoption of channel marketing automation tools and solutions. However, as the great saying goes: Before you automate, think through the steps manually. With that principle in mind, I’d like to share with you a framework that every company must consider before they can deploy mature, end-to-end channel marketing automation that’s comparable to what we provide at ZINFI.

Based on our engagement with thousands of channel partners on a worldwide basis and our evaluation of how vendors deploy channel management, we have come up with a basic four-step framework for partner lifecycle management (or activities). We break down this lifecycle into four core areas: partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management.

As a part of the channel management maturity evaluation, it is essential to understand which phase a company is in when it comes to these four different areas of activities.

Phase 1: Laying the foundation – This is what I call the start-up phase of channel development. When you look at the activities at this level, it basically covers the following:

Partner recruitment – The company has some basic partner recruitment capabilities in place by running tradeshows, webinars, and call-out campaigns. Recruitment is ad hoc, and not really focused around partner profiling or competency development, but more opportunistic.

Partner engagement – The company knows how to provide a basic infrastructure. In many cases the following are homegrown:

Partner portal – Tends to be patched together using either open-source software, SharePoint, or some other web development tools. However, the portal is monolithic, not localized, and cannot offer personalized content. With that said, at this stage the basic content exchange capabilities are in place. Some companies in this phase deploy a basic level of channel marketing automation.

Partner onboarding – Signing contracts, training partners on how to sell, and putting business plans together are the core steps in this phase or in short - partner onboarding, but most of these activities are done manually and there are no systems in place to track the progress of partner engagement.

Partner communication –  A weekly or monthly newsletter goes out to partners, but communication is not broadly aligned with strategic initiatives and intent. Most content is highly tactical, and not necessarily controlled and aligned with broader corporate initiatives. Very rarely at this stage do we see deployment of channel marketing automation.

Partner enablement – The company provides a basic level of marketing and sales tools.

Marketing and sales enablement – Price lists, product data sheets, and marketing templates are available for partners to use. However, content is not mobile-friendly and not easy to search, tag, and find at this level.

Partner training – A basic partner certification and training mechanism is in place, but there is no structured learning management system (LMS) to digitally train, track and certify partners across multiple countries and languages.

Partner management – The company has a loosely defined partner incentive structure in place, primarily using market development funds.

Basic incentives – Incentives are available on an ad hoc basis, but no structured quarterly programs are in place, nor is there any competency alignment.

Phase 2: Refining the structure to scale – Companies entering this phase have a significant portion of their revenue (perhaps in excess of a few hundred million dollars) coming from the channel, and the channel is a strategic piece. Also, we see more prevalent deployment of automation to streamline multiple areas and workflows globally.

Partner recruitment – Partner recruitment is a strategic initiative – structured in a few countries, but ad hoc in others. Some partner profiling analysis is done to understand what territories need pruning, and where new partners needed to be added. Multi-quarter programs are rolled out.

Partner engagement – The company has a structured approach towards partner engagement by partner type, verticals, competencies, sales velocity, etc.

Partner portal – This becomes a strategic tool to provide segmented content to specific sets of partners, and channel marketing automation is used extensively.

Partner onboarding – The entire partner onboarding process is automated, and progress can be tracked dynamically using channel marketing automation tools. Complete partner relationship management (PRM) tools are deployed sporadically as well.

Partner communication – At this stage, communication tends to be more structured, regular and mature. Some level of communication personalization is achieved via partner profiles and usage of channel marketing automation tools.

Partner enablement – The company has built a set of structured tools that are deployed by countries in various languages.

Marketing and sales enablement – In addition to basic content, the company provides advanced, academy-level marketing and sales content. Integrated marketing tools and campaigns are available for partners to use. Many companies at this stage also use multi-partner demand-generation activities using some sort of a channel marketing automation platform.

Partner training – Both training and certification tend to be quite organized at this level, and also aligned with partner profiles (e.g., competency matching.). Training is also aligned to incentives and awards, and may even tie to strategic objectives.

Partner management – The company has put together an advanced performance management process, and is trying to implement that across multiple countries. Performance and incentive parameters are clearly defined and actively enforced.

Deal registration and protection – One of the core performance management and enhancement tools is deal protection and registration. The company may provide some basic level of automation and alignment with the rest of the programs.

Advanced incentives – In addition to market development funds (MDF) and/or co-op funds, the company may also provide additional rewards, rebates and incentives. However, these programs may or may not be fully aligned with other programs and initiatives. Channel marketing automation is used in an ad hoc way to create, deploy and manage incentive programs.

Phase 3: Optimizing the channel to excel – This is the most mature and advanced phase, where hundreds of millions, and may be even billions of dollars are flowing through the channel, and the entire existence of the company deeply depends on the success of the channel.

Partner recruitment – Partner recruitment is a strategic initiative, and highly organized. Partner profiling is done on a regular basis to understand strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats on a territory-by-territory basis. Regular partner recruitment activities are carried out to fill gaps, prune and align with growth strategies.

Partner engagement – The company fully streamlines its go-to-market activities behind competency-based profiling that aligns with end-user/customer segments. Allocation of resources is highly strategic, tied to overall sales objectives and initiatives.

Partner portal – channel marketing automation is deployed end to end to ensure structured, segmented and sequential engagement with partner companies and resources. The partner portal is a highly strategic asset that streamlines partner engagement and communication. Multiple functions and departments use the portal as a strategic tool for product releases, updates, pricing, program changes and enhancements.

Partner onboarding – This is recognized as one of the most critical phases of engagement. Ramp-to-revenue is considered a highly important metric, and channel marketing automation is used end to end to speed up onboarding, tracking and management of new partners.

Business planning – A structured business planning step is introduced and managed actively. Premier partners are required to submit detailed bi-annual business plans, which are reviewed with channel managers on a quarterly basis. channel marketing automation is used to track all business plans and their current status.

Partner communication – Segment-based partner communication plays a critical role in making sure the right content is available to the right partner at the right time. Partners can personalize content access and delivery. channel marketing automation is used end to end to keep partners informed and productive.

Partner enablement – This step takes center stage in mature channel organization. At the end of the day, it makes no sense to have a lot of channel partners who do not sell. Therefore, organizations that excel at partner productivity tend to have a highly structured and robust enablement program. channel marketing automation plays a critical role in making a robust enablement program a t

Managing a direct sales force is tough, let alone managing an indirect (channel) sales force. The concept of a channel has existed since the existence of fire, when one person bartered with another. While technology has evolved rapidly over the past few thousand years, for many companies the state of their channel maturity still resembles how the channel was managed in the Stone Age. That doesn’t need to be the case, however. If you are considering building a channel to sell your products and solutions, or upgrade an existing one, channel marketing automation can significantly increase the efficacy of the deployment and management of your channel network globally.I consider the Internet as the second Big Bang. Yes, really. It has transformed how we look at the distributed world, and now the evolution of cloud-based software solutions is automating distributed workflow at a rapid pace. Please refer to our article on “Channel Marketing Software – Why The Rapid Emergence?” where we talk about what is truly driving the adoption of channel marketing automation tools and solutions. However, as the great saying goes: Before you automate, think through the steps manually. With that principle in mind, I’d like to share with you a framework that every company must consider before they can deploy mature, end-to-end channel marketing automation that’s comparable to what we provide at ZINFI.Based on our engagement with thousands of channel partners on a worldwide basis and our evaluation of how vendors deploy channel management, we have come up with a basic four-step framework for partner lifecycle management (or activities). We break down this lifecycle into four core areas: partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management.As a part of the channel management maturity evaluation, it is essential to understand which phase a company is in when it comes to these four different areas of activities.Phase 1: Laying the foundation – This is what I call the start-up phase of channel development. When you look at the activities at this level, it basically covers the following:* Partner recruitment – The company has some basic partner recruitment capabilities in place by running tradeshows, webinars and call-out campaigns. Recruitment is ad hoc, and not really focused around partner profiling or competency development, but more opportunistic.* Partner engagement – The company knows how to provide a basic infrastructure. In many cases the following are homegrown:* Partner portal – Tends to be patched together using either open source software, SharePoint or some other web development tools. However, the portal is monolithic, not localized and cannot offer personalized content. With that said, at this stage the basic content exchange capabilities are in place. Some companies in this phase deploy a basic level of channel marketing automation.* Partner onboarding – Signing contracts, training partners on how to sell and putting business plans together are the core steps in this phase or in short – partner onboarding, but most of these activities are done manually and there are no systems in place to track the progress of partner engagement.* Partner communication –  A weekly or monthly newsletter goes out to partners, but communication is not broadly aligned with strategic initiatives and intent.

Managing a direct sales force is tough, let alone managing an indirect (channel) sales force. The concept of a channel has existed since the existence of fire, when one person bartered with another. While technology has evolved rapidly over the past few thousand years, for many companies the state of their channel maturity still resembles how the channel was managed in the Stone Age. That doesn’t need to be the case, however. If you are considering building a channel to sell your products and solutions, or upgrade an existing one, channel marketing automation can significantly increase the efficacy of the deployment and management of your channel network globally.

I consider the Internet as the second Big Bang. Yes, really. It has transformed how we look at the distributed world, and now the evolution of cloud-based software solutions is automating distributed workflow at a rapid pace. Please refer to our article on “Channel Marketing Software – Why The Rapid Emergence?” where we talk about what is truly driving the adoption of channel marketing automation tools and solutions. However, as the great saying goes: Before you automate, think through the steps manually. With that principle in mind, I’d like to share with you a framework that every company must consider before they can deploy mature, end-to-end channel marketing automation that’s comparable to what we provide at ZINFI.

Based on our engagement with thousands of channel partners on a worldwide basis and our evaluation of how vendors deploy channel management, we have come up with a basic four-step framework for partner lifecycle management (or activities). We break down this lifecycle into four core areas: partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management.

As a part of the channel management maturity evaluation, it is essential to understand which phase a company is in when it comes to these four different areas of activities.

Phase 1: Laying the foundation – This is what I call the start-up phase of channel development. When you look at the activities at this level, it basically covers the following:

* Partner recruitment – The company has some basic partner recruitment capabilities in place by running tradeshows, webinars and call-out campaigns. Recruitment is ad hoc, and not really focused around partner profiling or competency development, but more opportunistic.

* Partner engagement – The company knows how to provide a basic infrastructure. In many cases the following are homegrown:

* Partner portal – Tends to be patched together using either open source software, SharePoint or some other web development tools. However, the portal is monolithic, not localized and cannot offer personalized content. With that said, at this stage the basic content exchange capabilities are in place. Some companies in this phase deploy a basic level of channel marketing automation.

* Partner onboarding – Signing contracts, training partners on how to sell and putting business plans together are the core steps in this phase or in short - partner onboarding, but most of these activities are done manually and there are no systems in place to track the progress of partner engagement.

When selling through a channel, chances are every now and then you will need to run partner recruitment (existing and new partners) campaigns into your channel program. Automating your recruitment and onboarding activities via purpose-built partner relationship management (PRM) software will significantly increase your speed to revenue and reduce ramp-up costs substantially by streamlining many of the activities and eliminating manual steps.

Partner recruitment basically has five core steps: partner profiling, partner outreach, partner qualification, partner sign-up and partner onboarding. The focus of this discussion is on partner onboarding. Assuming that you have qualified a partner and are ready to onboard them onto your channel program, let’s explore how partner relationship management (PRM) software can significantly speed up sign-up and onboarding steps. We’ll talk about these two steps in sequence.

Partner sign-up – Most organizations today have some sort of a sign-up form, whether it is a Word document, a spreadsheet converted into a form or a PDF file that partners need to manually fill in. Once a partner has signed up, expressing interest, the next step is for the partner to sign a "terms and conditions" agreement, which has all the legalities.

Now comes the biggest challenge most organizations face when they have a manual process: If the terms of the channel programs change, and we all know they do, it is very hard to go back and re-enroll existing partners to make sure they have agreed to recently changed terms and conditions. If this is a manual process, it can take months to get some partners to sign it. This is where a partner relationship management (PRM) software platform can significantly help by automating the entire process.

If your partners have access to your partner portal, and if that partner portal is managed via a partner relationship management (PRM) software platform, then you can effectively control their access and make sure they always agree to the latest terms-and-conditions document before they can log in, or before they’re able to continue after logging in. As users, we are all accustomed to this "agreeing to terms" process with our own computers and mobile devices, and your PRM platform should be able to establish this same process for your partners in a seamless way.

Partner Onboarding – Once your partners have signed on to your agreement, the next step is to accelerate their ramp-to-revenue in the program that you have recruited them for. This is where purpose-built partner relationship management (PRM) software can significantly help reduce time to market and ramp-up costs. You can take your channel program and break it down over a 30-60-90-day cycle. Here is an example of how a PRM software platform can automate this workflow for you:

Partner mapping – Once a partner has signed onto a program, either the partner already reports to an existing territory manager, or you will need to map that partner under a specific territory manager. This is critical to make sure the territory manager has complete visibility into where the partner is and what they are doing during the ramp-up cycle.

Partner tracking – This is a critical capability of your partner relationship management  (PRM) software. It will allow you to see where your partners are in their training and competency development cycle, and when they are ready to complete their business planning and marketing activity planning.

Results tracking – The purpose of recruiting a partner into a program is to sell more products and services, and tracking results is critical. Having the right partner relationship management (PRM) software enables you to see which marketing and sales steps the partner has taken and what opportunities are being generated.

As you can see, having the right partner relationship management (PRM) software can dramatically reduce the number of manual steps you need to perform. It also gives you complete visibility during the onboarding cycle, providing a dynamic dashboard that shows where your partners are in the process at any given point in time. This not only reduces cost and complexity, but also significantly enhances the partner’s experience with your new program or company. It also speeds up time to revenue exponentially.

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When selling through a channel, chances are every now and then you will need to run partner recruitment (existing and new partners) campaigns into your channel program. Automating your recruitment and onboarding activities via purpose-built partner relationship management (PRM) software will significantly increase your speed to revenue and reduce ramp-up costs substantially by streamlining many of the activities and eliminating manual steps.Partner recruitment basically has five core steps: partner profiling, partner outreach, partner qualification, partner sign-up and partner onboarding. The focus of this discussion is on partner onboarding. Assuming that you have qualified a partner and are ready to onboard them onto your channel program, let’s explore how partner relationship management (PRM) software can significantly speed up sign-up and onboarding steps. We’ll talk about these two steps in sequence.* Partner sign-up – Most organizations today have some sort of a sign-up form, whether it is a Word document, a spreadsheet converted into a form or a PDF file that partners need to manually fill in. Once a partner has signed up, expressing interest, the next step is for the partner to sign a “terms and conditions” agreement, which has all the legalities.Now comes the biggest challenge most organizations face when they have a manual process: If the terms of the channel programs change, and we all know they do, it is very hard to go back and re-enroll existing partners to make sure they have agreed to recently changed terms and conditions. If this is a manual process, it can take months to get some partners to sign it. This is where a partner relationship management (PRM) software platform can significantly help by automating the entire process.If your partners have access to your partner portal, and if that partner portal is managed via a partner relationship management (PRM) software platform, then you can effectively control their access and make sure they always agree to the latest terms-and-conditions document before they can log in, or before they’re able to continue after logging in. As users, we are all accustomed to this “agreeing to terms” process with our own computers and mobile devices, and your PRM platform should be able to establish this same process for your partners in a seamless way.* Partner Onboarding – Once your partners have signed on to your agreement, the next step is to accelerate their ramp-to-revenue in the program that you have recruited them for. This is where purpose-built partner relationship management (PRM) software can significantly help reduce time to market and ramp-up costs. You can take your channel program and break it down over a 30-60-90-day cycle. Here is an example of how a PRM software platform can automate this workflow for you:* Partner mapping – Once a partner has signed onto a program, either the partner already reports to an existing territory manager, or you will need to map that partner under a specific territory manager. This is critical to make sure the territory manager has complete visibility into where the partner is and what they are doing during the ramp-up cycle.* Partner tracking – This is a critical capability of your partner relationship management  (PRM) software. It will allow you to see where your partners are in their training and competency development cycle, and when they are ready to complete their business planning and marketing activity planning.* Results tracking – The purpose of recruiting a partner into...

When selling through a channel, chances are every now and then you will need to run partner recruitment (existing and new partners) campaigns into your channel program. Automating your recruitment and onboarding activities via purpose-built partner relationship management (PRM) software will significantly increase your speed to revenue and reduce ramp-up costs substantially by streamlining many of the activities and eliminating manual steps.

Partner recruitment basically has five core steps: partner profiling, partner outreach, partner qualification, partner sign-up and partner onboarding. The focus of this discussion is on partner onboarding. Assuming that you have qualified a partner and are ready to onboard them onto your channel program, let’s explore how partner relationship management (PRM) software can significantly speed up sign-up and onboarding steps. We’ll talk about these two steps in sequence.

* Partner sign-up – Most organizations today have some sort of a sign-up form, whether it is a Word document, a spreadsheet converted into a form or a PDF file that partners need to manually fill in. Once a partner has signed up, expressing interest, the next step is for the partner to sign a "terms and conditions" agreement, which has all the legalities.

Now comes the biggest challenge most organizations face when they have a manual process: If the terms of the channel programs change, and we all know they do, it is very hard to go back and re-enroll existing partners to make sure they have agreed to recently changed terms and conditions. If this is a manual process, it can take months to get some partners to sign it. This is where a partner relationship management (PRM) software platform can significantly help by automating the entire process.

If your partners have access to your partner portal, and if that partner portal is managed via a partner relationship management (PRM) software platform, then you can effectively control their access and make sure they always agree to the latest terms-and-conditions document before they can log in, or before they’re able to continue after logging in. As users, we are all accustomed to this "agreeing to terms" process with our own computers and mobile devices, and your PRM platform should be able to establish this same process for your partners in a seamless way.

* Partner Onboarding – Once your partners have signed on to your agreement, the next step is to accelerate their ramp-to-revenue in the program that you have recruited them for. This is where purpose-built partner relationship management (PRM) software can significantly help reduce time to market and ramp-up costs. You can take your channel program and break it down over a 30-60-90-day cycle. Here is an example of how a PRM software platform can automate this workflow for you:

* Partner mapping – Once a partner has signed onto a program, either the partner already reports to an existing territory manager, or you will need to map that partner under a specific territory manager. This is critical to make sure the territory manager has complete visibility into where the partner is and what they are doing during the ramp-up cycle.

* Partner tracking – This is a critical capability of your partner relationship management  (PRM) software. It will allow you to see where your partners are in their training and competency development cycle, and when they are ready to complete their business planning and marketing activity planning.