ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

Before we delve into the reasons why you should consider insourcing your event marketing management activities, let’s take a moment to define clearly where this logic could apply and where it wouldn’t work.

In our experience, companies tend to outsource events because they have been working with a provider for a long time and think that’s the easiest way. But as a company using both our own marketing automation software and external agency services, our experience tells us that outsourcing may not always be the best option. While the prospect of managing an event may initially be daunting, the actuality is less so. Depending on the scale and frequency, many B2B events can be insourced quite effectively as long as you follow a few simple processes.

Of course, there are other events – like major trade shows or global sales or partner conferences – that need to be outsourced, until and unless you have a full-blown event management team. In these cases, it makes far better sense to outsource some or all of the related activity to a major event marketing management firm. However, if your events do not fall into the mega production category, there are some good reasons why you should consider insourcing them.

Begin with the end in mind - The purpose of most B2B events is demand generation or rewards and recognition. There are a very few – even the charity golf tournaments - that do not have a purpose. No one else but you and your marketing team has a clear idea of what you hope to achieve from each event. You need to know what success looks like before you start, and without this you won’t do any better by outsourcing to an event marketing management firm. If you want to run the event internally and are looking for ideas, there’s a lot of great advice on the B2B event organizers’ websites.

Skip the noise - People don’t come to a B2B event for bells and whistles, but for substance. They do expect seamless organization, a professional and well set up venue, interesting speakers and reasonable food. So, just make sure that the purpose and agenda of the event is reflected by the way you set it up. If it is a training event, for example, a venue in a 4 or 5 star hotel ball room with good meals and a projector would do the trick and the hotel staff will help with all the practicalities like basic audio visual equipment. The skill of the trainer or the speaker will determine the successfull of the event. An event marketing management company can’t add a lot of value to these smaller and less intricate gatherings, unless you don’t have any in house resources or are running a lengthy series in multiple locations.

Rely on automation - Five years ago it was hard to run an event all by yourself because you needed to pull so many pieces together, starting with the headache of invitation and registration. However, these days if you have an access to a great event marketing automation platform that can send outbound emails and manage responses automatically, as well as promote your event on various social networks, then you actually require far less support than you might think. Yes, you may have to hire a telemarketing firm to do some dialling-out for you, but if your event marketing automation platform has in-built rapid dialing capabilities then your inside sales team might even be able to drive traffic to the event without extra cost. And there is the added advantage that, since they understand your organization, they will do a much better job promoting your events than a scripted telemarketer.

Manage execution - There are three core pieces that require your close involvement and management, whether or not you have hired an event marketing management firm. These are, a) creating compelling content tied to the objective of your event, including the agenda; b) working with internal or external design teams to create the graphical themes and assets that you will use to promote the event; and c) if you are going to hold an awards ceremony at the conclusion, or that is the primary purpose of the event, then you’ll need trophies, certificates or other prizes. You have to be intimately involved with all of these aspects and you can’t outsource any of this decision making to an event marketing management company or not. Yes, an event marketing management firm may know more about where to source what you need, but as long as the event is not excessively complex you can take care of these actions with a little bit of online research. And, if you are worrying about the venue set up and catering - well, don’t. If you work with a reputable hotel or a great restaurant they will have an onsite event manager who will provide you the service and advice for free.

Tracking results - This goes back to my first point - begin with the end in mind. You have organized an event or a set of events for a purpose. No one else is more passionate about meeting these results than you. So, it is essential that your event marketing automation platform can dynamically track who attended, and who didn’t, and what leads or prospects or sales were triggered by the event. All of these results should be directly fed into your sales (CRM) system. This speeds up follow-up and helps build ensure attendee satisfaction, for those who have requested additional information and follow up.

To sum it up, if you are running an event for up to 100 potential attendees, the chances are you can do a good job yourself. This not only saves budget, as you will have to pay steep management fees to a professional outsourced event marketing management agency like ZINFI (yes there are cheaper options, but buyers beware). But can avoid these costs, provided you have some creative and management capabilities in place, and have an access to a great event marketing automation platform. Of course, if you have a good relationship with an event firm who knows your business as well as you do, or you are strapped for resources, it may be worthwhile to consider outsourcing - but we have seen many instances where companies, with a little bit of planning, can do most of these in-house.

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Before we delve into the reasons why you should consider insourcing your event marketing management activities, let’s take a moment to define clearly where this logic could apply and where it wouldn’t work.In our experience, companies tend to outsource events because they have been working with a provider for a long time and think that’s the easiest way. But as a company using both our own marketing automation software and external agency services, our experience tells us that outsourcing may not always be the best option. While the prospect of managing an event may initially be daunting, the actuality is less so. Depending on the scale and frequency, many B2B events can be insourced quite effectively as long as you follow a few simple processes.Of course, there are other events – like major trade shows or global sales or partner conferences – that need to be outsourced, until and unless you have a full-blown event management team. In these cases, it makes far better sense to outsource some or all of the related activity to a major event marketing management firm. However, if your events do not fall into the mega production category, there are some good reasons why you should consider insourcing them.* Begin with the end in mind – The purpose of most B2B events is demand generation or rewards and recognition. There are a very few – even the charity golf tournaments – that do not have a purpose. No one else but you and your marketing team has a clear idea of what you hope to achieve from each event. You need to know what success looks like before you start, and without this you won’t do any better by outsourcing to an event marketing management firm. If you want to run the event internally and are looking for ideas, there’s a lot of great advice on the B2B event organizers’ websites.* Skip the noise – People don’t come to a B2B event for bells and whistles, but for substance. They do expect seamless organization, a professional and well set up venue, interesting speakers and reasonable food. So, just make sure that the purpose and agenda of the event is reflected by the way you set it up. If it is a training event, for example, a venue in a 4 or 5 star hotel ball room with good meals and a projector would do the trick and the hotel staff will help with all the practicalities like basic audio visual equipment. The skill of the trainer or the speaker will determine the successf of the event. An event marketing management company can’t add a lot of value to these smaller and less intricate gatherings, unless you don’t have any in house resources or are running a lengthy series in multiple locations.* Rely on automation – Five years ago it was hard to run an event all by yourself because you needed to pull so many pieces together, starting with the headache of invitation and registration. However, these days if you have an access to a great event marketing automation platform that can send outbound emails and manage responses automatically, as well as promote your event on various social networks, then you actually require far less support than you might think. Yes, you may have to hire a telemarketing firm to do some dialling-out for you, but if your event marketing automation platform has in-built rapid dialing capabilities then your inside sales team might even be able to drive traffic to the event without extra cost. And there is the added advantage that, since they understand your organization, they will do a much better job promoting your events than a scripted telemarketer.* Manage execution – There are three core pieces that require your close involvement and management,

Before we delve into the reasons why you should consider insourcing your event marketing management activities, let’s take a moment to define clearly where this logic could apply and where it wouldn’t work.

In our experience, companies tend to outsource events because they have been working with a provider for a long time and think that’s the easiest way. But as a company using both our own marketing automation software and external agency services, our experience tells us that outsourcing may not always be the best option. While the prospect of managing an event may initially be daunting, the actuality is less so. Depending on the scale and frequency, many B2B events can be insourced quite effectively as long as you follow a few simple processes.

Of course, there are other events – like major trade shows or global sales or partner conferences – that need to be outsourced, until and unless you have a full-blown event management team. In these cases, it makes far better sense to outsource some or all of the related activity to a major event marketing management firm. However, if your events do not fall into the mega production category, there are some good reasons why you should consider insourcing them.

* Begin with the end in mind - The purpose of most B2B events is demand generation or rewards and recognition. There are a very few – even the charity golf tournaments - that do not have a purpose. No one else but you and your marketing team has a clear idea of what you hope to achieve from each event. You need to know what success looks like before you start, and without this you won’t do any better by outsourcing to an event marketing management firm. If you want to run the event internally and are looking for ideas, there’s a lot of great advice on the B2B event organizers’ websites.

* Skip the noise - People don’t come to a B2B event for bells and whistles, but for substance. They do expect seamless organization, a professional and well set up venue, interesting speakers and reasonable food. So, just make sure that the purpose and agenda of the event is reflected by the way you set it up. If it is a training event, for example, a venue in a 4 or 5 star hotel ball room with good meals and a projector would do the trick and the hotel staff will help with all the practicalities like basic audio visual equipment. The skill of the trainer or the speaker will determine the successf of the event. An event marketing management company can’t add a lot of value to these smaller and less intricate gatherings, unless you don’t have any in house resources or are running a lengthy series in multiple locations.

* Rely on automation - Five years ago it was hard to run an event all by yourself because you needed to pull so many pieces together, starting with the headache of invitation and registration. However, these days if you have an access to a great event marketing automation platform that can send outbound emails and manage responses automatically, as well as promote your event on various social networks, then you actually require far less support than you might think. Yes, you may have to hire a telemarketing firm to do some dialling-out for you, but if your event marketing automation platform has in-built rapid dialing capabilities then your inside sales team might even be able to drive traffic to the event without extra cost. And there is the added advantage that, since they understand your organization, they will do a much better job promoting your events than a scripted telemarketer.

* Manage execution - There are three core pieces that require your close involvement and management,

Consumer and business buyers all go online to do their research before committing to a purchase, reading peer reviews and comparing products as a normal part of their decision making process. The entire sales cycle has turned upside down: now it’s a buying cycle. This dependence on online research has made web content syndication critical for content marketers. In the B2B and B2C spaces, sales success is no longer dependent on how you reach out to prospects, generate leads and forecast your pipeline. These days, your sales pipeline only begins at the last stages of buying, so if you are to have a prayer of influencing the process, your marketing cycle must be in complete alignment with the buyers’ buying cycle. A strategic approach towards web content syndication is of great benefit in helping to manage this cycle.

In the old days, content marketing essentially consisted of creating advertising, packaging, promotional flyers, tradeshow materials, and maybe issuing occasional press releases. The advent of the Internet changed the way the business world viewed the distribution of content, and press releases took more importance. About a couple of decades ago we started to hear the word web content syndication, but it primarily meant distribution of press releases, along with some occasional blogging. However, during the past couple of decades, buyers’ behavior changed - especially with the evolution of search engines and advent of social media. Therefore, it is very important to understand the impact of the following two critical factors:

Evolution of Search Engines- Let’s talk about the evolution of search engines, and importance of web content syndication first. Most buyers - starting with consumers - started to search online about fifteen years ago. This enhanced Google’s advertising revenue growth, and an entire industry evolved to support keyword-based content optimization and web content syndication. Today it is taken for granted that your website must be keyword optimized unless you are to rely on expensive and – frequently – untargeted advertising campaigns. Websites are most commonly seen as a dynamic platform for web content syndication and a vehicle for a web content syndication based content marketing strategy.

Impact of Peer Influenced Buying- The second major wave that has now changed how we buy is social media, and it is not just through sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, but through peer review sites and content. Peer influenced buying has become the most critical influencing factor in purchasing, a trend that has been led by customer reviews on Amazon, Yelp, eBay and others - including most recently the evolution of G2Crowd for the B2B software space. Many organizations today use web content syndication to distribute customer reviews, comments, and technical observations via various social media sites to differentiate themselves from the competition. It is easy to imagine, as the years go by, that the influence of market and industry analysts will wane; to be superseded by crowd sourced reviews as the key influencers of the solution research phase before purchase.

So, the critical question is how do you win in this age of search and social media driven buying? The answer is very simple - with great content. But what does that mean? Well, great content can be categorized into three primary categories:

A clear web content strategy- It is about developing a website strategy that is focused on optimizing your entire web content around a set of keywords for which your buyers are constantly searching. You need to attend to this as a priority, before applying your thoughts to web content syndication.

Content distribution strategy- Once you have optimized your web content, the next step is about distribution of content using your choice of a variety of web content syndication engines. Some of the social media and blog management tools allow you to post and stream content from your own site, but you need a clear strategy on how you will do that in order to obtain the beset results.

Building a network effect- The third and final critical component is, if you are selling through the channel, allowing your channel partners to use web content syndication to promote your content via their websites. This can significantly amplify your reach to a significantly wider audience, and will also help you to control and enhance your brand presence, and generate real time leads.

The world is moving inexorably towards a completely digital business experience, both for consumers and business buyers. Your priority today should be to focus on content marketing and web content syndication, both of which will play a critical role in your success as a marketer. If all you do is optimize your site for keywords, without leveraging the power of content syndication, you will leave much of your sales potential unrealized. On the other hand, if you take an integrated approach towards content marketing, leveraging content optimization and web content syndication as well, then you can significantly increase your reach, reduce your advertising cost, and influence your buyers in a positive and holistic way.

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Consumer and business buyers all go online to do their research before committing to a purchase, reading peer reviews and comparing products as a normal part of their decision making process. The entire sales cycle has turned upside down: now it’s a buying cycle. This dependence on online research has made web content syndication critical for content marketers. In the B2B and B2C spaces, sales success is no longer dependent on how you reach out to prospects, generate leads and forecast your pipeline. These days, your sales pipeline only begins at the last stages of buying, so if you are to have a prayer of influencing the process, your marketing cycle must be in complete alignment with the buyers’ buying cycle. A strategic approach towards web content syndication is of great benefit in helping to manage this cycle.In the old days, content marketing essentially consisted of creating advertising, packaging, promotional flyers, tradeshow materials, and maybe issuing occasional press releases. The advent of the Internet changed the way the business world viewed the distribution of content, and press releases took more importance. About a couple of decades ago we started to hear the word web content syndication, but it primarily meant distribution of press releases, along with some occasional blogging. However, during the past couple of decades, buyers’ behavior changed – especially with the evolution of search engines and advent of social media. Therefore, it is very important to understand the impact of the following two critical factors:* Evolution of Search Engines– Let’s talk about the evolution of search engines, and importance of web content syndication first. Most buyers – starting with consumers – started to search online about fifteen years ago. This enhanced Google’s advertising revenue growth, and an entire industry evolved to support keyword-based content optimization and web content syndication. Today it is taken for granted that your website must be keyword optimized unless you are to rely on expensive and – frequently – untargeted advertising campaigns. Websites are most commonly seen as a dynamic platform for web content syndication and a vehicle for a web content syndication based content marketing strategy.* Impact of Peer Influenced Buying– The second major wave that has now changed how we buy is social media, and it is not just through sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, but through peer review sites and content. Peer influenced buying has become the most critical influencing factor in purchasing, a trend that has been led by customer reviews on Amazon, Yelp, eBay and others – including most recently the evolution of G2Crowd for the B2B software space. Many organizations today use web content syndication to distribute customer reviews, comments, and technical observations via various social media sites to differentiate themselves from the competition. It is easy to imagine, as the years go by, that the influence of market and industry analysts will wane; to be superseded by crowd sourced reviews as the key influencers of the solution research phase before purchase.So, the critical question is how do you win in this age of search and social media driven buying? The answer is very simple – with great content. But what does that mean? Well, great content can be categorized into three primary categories:* A clear web content strategy– It is about developing a website strategy that is focused on optimizing your entire web content around a set of keywords for which your buyers are constantly searching. You need to attend to this as a priority, before applying your thoughts to web content syndication.* Content distribution strategy– Once you have optimized your web cont...

Consumer and business buyers all go online to do their research before committing to a purchase, reading peer reviews and comparing products as a normal part of their decision making process. The entire sales cycle has turned upside down: now it’s a buying cycle. This dependence on online research has made web content syndication critical for content marketers. In the B2B and B2C spaces, sales success is no longer dependent on how you reach out to prospects, generate leads and forecast your pipeline. These days, your sales pipeline only begins at the last stages of buying, so if you are to have a prayer of influencing the process, your marketing cycle must be in complete alignment with the buyers’ buying cycle. A strategic approach towards web content syndication is of great benefit in helping to manage this cycle.

In the old days, content marketing essentially consisted of creating advertising, packaging, promotional flyers, tradeshow materials, and maybe issuing occasional press releases. The advent of the Internet changed the way the business world viewed the distribution of content, and press releases took more importance. About a couple of decades ago we started to hear the word web content syndication, but it primarily meant distribution of press releases, along with some occasional blogging. However, during the past couple of decades, buyers’ behavior changed - especially with the evolution of search engines and advent of social media. Therefore, it is very important to understand the impact of the following two critical factors:

* Evolution of Search Engines- Let’s talk about the evolution of search engines, and importance of web content syndication first. Most buyers - starting with consumers - started to search online about fifteen years ago. This enhanced Google’s advertising revenue growth, and an entire industry evolved to support keyword-based content optimization and web content syndication. Today it is taken for granted that your website must be keyword optimized unless you are to rely on expensive and – frequently – untargeted advertising campaigns. Websites are most commonly seen as a dynamic platform for web content syndication and a vehicle for a web content syndication based content marketing strategy.

* Impact of Peer Influenced Buying- The second major wave that has now changed how we buy is social media, and it is not just through sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, but through peer review sites and content. Peer influenced buying has become the most critical influencing factor in purchasing, a trend that has been led by customer reviews on Amazon, Yelp, eBay and others - including most recently the evolution of G2Crowd for the B2B software space. Many organizations today use web content syndication to distribute customer reviews, comments, and technical observations via various social media sites to differentiate themselves from the competition. It is easy to imagine, as the years go by, that the influence of market and industry analysts will wane; to be superseded by crowd sourced reviews as the key influencers of the solution research phase before purchase.

So, the critical question is how do you win in this age of search and social media driven buying? The answer is very simple - with great content. But what does that mean? Well, great content can be categorized into three primary categories:

* A clear web content strategy- It is about developing a website strategy that is focused on optimizing your entire web content around a set of keywords for which your buyers are constantly searching. You need to attend to this as a priority, before applying your thoughts to web content syndication.

* Content distribution strategy- Once you have optimized your web content,

Organizations selling via networks of channel partners (resellers, VARs, distributors, wholesales, agents, or other third party arrangement need to have a systematic approach towards partner relationship management (PRM) if they are to achieve long term success. This starts with the three primary stages of partner recruitment, partner enablement and partner management, all of which require a set of internal processes, structure and tools.

Today, almost all organizations selling through the channel have deployed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) automation platforms for both direct and indirect sales teams. If you are in an organization that hasn’t yet deployed a purpose-built PRM software platform, and do not have a budget to do so in the near term, then you may want to consider configuring your existing CRM platform to support your PRM efforts in the following way.

Partner Recruitment – The first step in deploying PRM is to employ a step-by-step approach to partner recruitment and onboarding. Partner recruitment activities typically entail an outbound reach to or inbound engagement with potential new partners who are willing to carry your solutions and resell. The two most important elements of this process are Partner Profiling (please refer to our article How Partner Profiling Can Increase Your Channel Sales) and Partner Onboarding (our article on 7 Critical Factors for Partner Recruitment).If you are using a CRM application to manage lead flow for your end-user marketing, then you can create a separate lead type called ‘Prospective Partners’ and assign all new partner leads into that category. This is a roundabout way of overcoming gaps in partner marketing automation, but if you don’t have a partner relationship management platform it helps you to get by for a while until budget or other issues are resolved.Also, in addition to inbound lead management for the Prospective Partner category, you can require your inside sales team or channel account managers to update the status of the partner as go through a 30-60-90 day onboarding process and you ramp the partner to their first revenue.Needless to say a purpose-built PRM platform would automate the process, making this process significantly easier, but if your organization is not ready to commit, you can certainly demonstrate the value of automating PRM workflow by reconfiguring your CRM platform.

Partner Enablement - The two most important areas of partner enablement for partner relationship management are - partner training and demand generation. Both training and demand generation automation are critical to make sure your partner organizations are capable of generating leads and closing them. This applies to any organization that is selling through the channel using your channel partners as your indirect sales force.Regarding automating partner training, if your organization has a learning management system (LMS) for the internal sales team, you can create a separate group called ‘partners’ that you can leverage for partner training. You may have to procure additional licenses per user; however, if you do not have an LMS platform then you will have to figure out if you can use the documents module, which most CRMs have, that can be used for uploading videos, documents or other assets, to train your partners on your products and services. Again, a purpose-built partner relationship management platform will give you the desired ease of use for rapid deployment of an end-to-end partner training process, but you can work around this using the point tools available within your organization.When it comes to demand generation activities, it is essential to decide what lead generation campaigns you want to make available to which countries and partner types. Once you have determined what’s going to work for you, then again you can use your CRM application. If you have a documents module you should be able to upload campaign assets (email templates, landing pages, etc.) to set up campaigns-in-a-box for partners to use.

Partner Management - This entails automating four major activities - deal registration, rebates & rewards and market development funds. This is where it gets a bit sticky if you are trying to use a CRM for automating your partner relationship management workflow. The primary issues arises from reporting hierarchy, i.e. mapping the partners by territory to territory managers and then to their managers, and aligning them to a dynamic alert and notification management system. Most organizations waste an enormous amount of time in managing partner activities via email, spreadsheets and documents. While you can certainly configure your current CRM to automate some of these steps, a purpose-built partner relationship management software platform will always accomplish the task more easily.So, while you can use your current CRM for deal registration, partner rewards and rebates and finally market development funds management, the time saving and management insight that you would get from a purpose-built partner relationship management platform may demonstrate to your management why the investment in a full PRM system is worth while.

Last but not the least, one of the most important aspects of partner relationship management software is the ability to run effective sales and marketing metrics to see what is working and what is not. Your current CRM system can certainly give you a lot of good insights. While a CRM cannot fully compete with a purpose-built PRM platform (please see our article on Why CRMs Don’t' Work As Partner Relationship Management), it would at least allow you to automate some steps and demonstrate value of automation to your executive team, allowing you to invest to reduce cost and increase profitable revenue.

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Organizations selling via networks of channel partners (resellers, VARs, distributors, wholesales, agents, or other third party arrangement need to have a systematic approach towards partner relationship management (PRM) if they are to achieve long term success. This starts with the three primary stages of partner recruitment, partner enablement and partner management, all of which require a set of internal processes, structure and tools.Today, almost all organizations selling through the channel have deployed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) automation platforms for both direct and indirect sales teams. If you are in an organization that hasn’t yet deployed a purpose-built PRM software platform, and do not have a budget to do so in the near term, then you may want to consider configuring your existing CRM platform to support your PRM efforts in the following way.* Partner Recruitment – The first step in deploying PRM is to employ a step-by-step approach to partner recruitment and onboarding. Partner recruitment activities typically entail an outbound reach to or inbound engagement with potential new partners who are willing to carry your solutions and resell. The two most important elements of this process are Partner Profiling (please refer to our article How Partner Profiling Can Increase Your Channel Sales) and Partner Onboarding (our article on 7 Critical Factors for Partner Recruitment).

If you are using a CRM application to manage lead flow for your end-user marketing, then you can create a separate lead type called ‘Prospective Partners’ and assign all new partner leads into that category. This is a roundabout way of overcoming gaps in partner marketing automation, but if you don’t have a partner relationship management platform it helps you to get by for a while until budget or other issues are resolved.

Also, in addition to inbound lead management for the Prospective Partner category, you can require your inside sales team or channel account managers to update the status of the partner as go through a 30-60-90 day onboarding process and you ramp the partner to their first revenue.

Needless to say a purpose-built PRM platform would automate the process, making this process significantly easier, but if your organization is not ready to commit, you can certainly demonstrate the value of automating PRM workflow by reconfiguring your CRM platform.* Partner Enablement – The two most important areas of partner enablement for partner relationship management are – partner training and demand generation. Both training and demand generation automation are critical to make sure your partner organizations are capable of generating leads and closing them. This applies to any organization that is selling through the channel using your channel partners as your indirect sales force.

Regarding automating partner training, if your organization has a learning management system (LMS) for the internal sales team, you can create a separate group called ‘partners’ that you can leverage for partner training. You may have to procure additional licenses per user; however,

Organizations selling via networks of channel partners (resellers, VARs, distributors, wholesales, agents, or other third party arrangement need to have a systematic approach towards partner relationship management (PRM) if they are to achieve long term success. This starts with the three primary stages of partner recruitment, partner enablement and partner management, all of which require a set of internal processes, structure and tools.

Today, almost all organizations selling through the channel have deployed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) automation platforms for both direct and indirect sales teams. If you are in an organization that hasn’t yet deployed a purpose-built PRM software platform, and do not have a budget to do so in the near term, then you may want to consider configuring your existing CRM platform to support your PRM efforts in the following way.

* Partner Recruitment – The first step in deploying PRM is to employ a step-by-step approach to partner recruitment and onboarding. Partner recruitment activities typically entail an outbound reach to or inbound engagement with potential new partners who are willing to carry your solutions and resell. The two most important elements of this process are Partner Profiling (please refer to our article How Partner Profiling Can Increase Your Channel Sales) and Partner Onboarding (our article on 7 Critical Factors for Partner Recruitment).If you are using a CRM application to manage lead flow for your end-user marketing, then you can create a separate lead type called ‘Prospective Partners’ and assign all new partner leads into that category. This is a roundabout way of overcoming gaps in partner marketing automation, but if you don’t have a partner relationship management platform it helps you to get by for a while until budget or other issues are resolved.Also, in addition to inbound lead management for the Prospective Partner category, you can require your inside sales team or channel account managers to update the status of the partner as go through a 30-60-90 day onboarding process and you ramp the partner to their first revenue.

Needless to say a purpose-built PRM platform would automate the process, making this process significantly easier, but if your organization is not ready to commit, you can certainly demonstrate the value of automating PRM workflow by reconfiguring your CRM platform.

* Partner Enablement - The two most important areas of partner enablement for partner relationship management are - partner training and demand generation. Both training and demand generation automation are critical to make sure your partner organizations are capable of generating leads and closing them. This applies to any organization that is selling through the channel using your channel partners as your indirect sales force.Regarding automating partner training, if your organization has a learning management system (LMS) for the internal sales team, you can create a separate group called ‘partners’ that you can leverage for partn...

A significant portion of both B2B and B2C sales are made through a network of partners and resellers. Even today, however, most companies have antiquated channel management tools that do not live up to the full promise of their partner network. Only a very few organizations adequately invest in upgrading their channel management infrastructure, due to certain channel management misconceptions. In this article we will explore some of the common myths that impact not only the operational efficiency but also undermine the real truth about all channel networks.

Partners are my indirect sales team - Nothing could be further away from the truth. While partners do have sales capability and most organizations tend to treat their partners as if they are an extension of their sales force, the reality is that partners are customers. While partners are certainly vocal and their feedback is critical because they run their own businesses, they do not regard a vendor as their equal. Maybe this is not the case if you are running a multi-outlet franchise, but when it comes to a traditional, two or three tier distribution channel, partners are their own bosses. There is no question that they do not work for their vendors. They work for their customers and for themselves. It follows that the way you manage your direct sales force as opposed to this indirect sales force should be planned and executed differently. This is where you need state-of-the-art channel management infrastructure.

My partners are loyal - Yes, it is true to some extent, but their loyalty is really directed towards their own customer base and their employees. At the end of the day, their loyalty to a vendor comes last. Organizations that perceive their partners’ lack of receptiveness to competitors may perceive this as loyalty are completely misreading how the partner truly feels about the relationship. Yes, they may be engaged, and sell a lot of products, but their loyalty is to themselves and their relationships are based on the logic of what works for them. They are running a business, but not a frat house. Building partner loyalty requires deeper understanding, based on a structured approach towards channel management - starting with partner profiling, offer alignment, partner enablement and incentives management. Just as, if you want to build employee loyalty you need to think about their needs, in the same way it is critical to understand and deliver what partners care about. Most channel initiatives tend to be company centric vs. partner centric, and this is why they tend to fail.

Partners will drive demand - Until and unless your partners are large distributors or national retailer/retailers, do not expect your partners to have the marketing capability to drive demand. Mature channel management organizations do not expect their sales people to drive their own demand; rather they deploy fully capable marketing processes, automation, programs and people. Similarly, your partners are your fulfillment arms, so you have to bring either a fully integrated marketing capability to them or provide them with sales-ready leads. The general expectation is that if a partner is getting commission they will naturally generate leads and close deals. This is a fallacy, but one which most organizations are not willing to relinquish. This expectation is not realistic, because it’s outside the resources and competency of most partners.

The partner council knows it all - Most vendors selling through the channel tend to create partner councils to stay connected with the market place. While this is certainly an appropriate channel management approach in that it helps keep a pulse on the channel, it should also be kept in mind that this is only a small cross-section (and may not be a true and complete representation) of the entire channel. We have seen companies making grave mistakes in product pricing and distribution strategies when they listen to a small group of highly influential partners and use this as a basis for changing their go-to-market approaches. At the end of the day, everyone on the partner council wants to protect their own interests. While there may be some good Samaritans that watch out for others, in reality it is the company's responsibility to truly determine what the ENTIRE market wants rather than listening to the demands of just one group of people.

Deploy point tools for channel management - Most organizations today tend to use a set of discreet channel management and automation tools. The common belief is that if you have cobbled together the best-in-class point solutions the result will be a great channel management platform. The irony is that this is rarely the case. Data does not flow seamlessly from one system to another, channel teams end up relying significantly on IT configuration teams, and both deployment and operating costs increase substantially. Setting aside the issue of costs, discrete sets of tools also cause problems in ease-of-use and as a result most people do not use all the tools within different modules. The only way to overcome this is to use a best in class, unified partner management platform.

We all recognize that channel management is not an easy task. However most of the time organizations’ investments in this area are barely adequate. They rarely make significant investments either in automating the workflow or in creating a partner experience that is up to the expected level of any customer and provider relationship today. If your organization lacks an understanding and acceptance of the nature of the relationship with your partners, the chances are that most of your channel management infrastructure is likely to be outdated and not insufficiently upgraded. When a company takes the correct steps in defining the channel management workflow and automating some or most of the processes, and are able to manage based on data and facts, they tend to see a significant increase not only in channel productivity but also in revenue growth and partner satisfaction rates.