All you need to know about partner relationship management

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All You Need to Know about Partner Relationship
Management
Partner relationship management is a collective
term that refers to a set of strategies
and techniques that mostly B2B organizations use
to streamline relationships with their marketing
partners and selling partners. Partner
relationship management can range from a simple
approach to managing co-marketing relations to
even more complex programs that include data
management and more. As the business grows in
size and the number of partners increases,
partner management via CRM can become tedious.
This is where a PRM portal comes in handy and
helps you make your partner management seamless
and efficient. First things first, lets start
with the basic definition of a PRM portal. A
partner relationship management portal, or PRM
portal, is a web-based application. It provides
your channel partners with access to various
resources, including sales and marketing info,
product info, training and certification, lead
management tools, performance management tools,
and more. If you are also a B2B business looking
to manage your partners effectively, here is the
post for you. In this post, youll learn the
benefits of partners management, its challenges,
and the best practices to follow to overcome
them. Youll also learn how a PRM portal can help
you with partner management. Benefits of
Partner Relationship Management 1. Scaling
Partnerships Most organizations have partners in
large numbers that take care of their products
sales and marketing. Providing a dedicated
channel manager for every partner in the network
is neither feasible nor cost-effective. Proper
partner management with a portal enables small
partners to
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• locate and order products themselves, allowing
  channel managers to focus on big deals and
  greater
• strategic partnerships.
• Easy Selling to Customers and Partners
• Effective partner management helps companies grow
  their business via indirect channels while
  keeping a common view for the customer. A PRM
  portal allows both customers and partners to
  access order histories and other details via a
  common centralized view.
• Streamlined Ordering of Products
• Effective partner management helps cut down on
  the time partners need to perform routine
  activities like ordering products and parts.
  Lets say a customer orders a product from your
  channel partner. Your channel partner can also
  order the product from your company in the same
  way and as instantly as the customer does, with
  a PRM portal.
• Improved Partner Relationships
• A partner portal makes it easy for you to
  interact with your partners. With centralized
  communication, you can gain better insights into
  sales data and activities to assess sales
  performance. Accordingly, you can create a
  strategy to support your partners in boosting
  their sales cycles and strengthening partner
  relationships.
• Looking for a PRM portal to make your partner
  relationship management better and efficient? Our
  PRM portal can be the right fit for you. You can
  integrate it as it is or gets the customization
  you need to fit your business logic with our
  teams assistance.
• Challenges of Partnership Management
• There are a few common challenges that partner
  relationship management can pose

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• Generally, the level of control over employees,
  consultants, or contractors is higher than that
  on
• partner companies. This is because channel
  partners are not individuals but companies. And
  they again consist of different departments,
  including sales, technical, marketing, and
  others.
• Managing them as a single entity rather than
  individuals increases the complexity of partner
  relationship management. A PRM portal can help
  you overcome this complexity by giving individual
  partners a centralized view of your companys
  relevant data.
• No Clearly Defined Hierarchy
• In the case of a direct sales force, there is a
  proper hierarchy that everyone follows. This is
  not the case with partners and they dont report
  to you or your vendors directly. As a result,
  lack of visibility of sales and progress leads
  to unwanted issues and roadblocks over time. This
  may lead to poor performance and sales via your
  channel partners.
• Gaps in Priorities
• Sometimes, your partners may have their
  priorities differ from yours and your vendors. It
  may happen that if you are trying to expand into
  a new marketing vertical or launch a new product
  or service, your partner may not show interest
  in that. Both you and your partner need to
  understand each others priorities and mutually
  find a sweet spot in these cases.
• Dispersed Data
• With so much data from different partners
  incoming, there may be times you find yourself
  swamped. Dispersed data can be time-consuming to
  analyze and also lead to errors. A centralized
  dashboard where you can easily view and update
  your partners details, track performance, and
  perform other tasks, is necessary to resolve this
  issue. A PRM portal can help you and your
  partners by allowing them to log in individually
  to access data relevant to them and update it.
• Poor Forecasting

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Poor forecasting is a challenge some companies
often face due to a lack of skills and tools to
set it right. It is essential to understand your
partners, their sales strategies, and speed and
use the right technology to drive more accuracy
in forecasts. 6. Low Efficiency Without a
proper technology in place, collaborating with
partners for every small detail becomes too
tedious and time-intensive. Your partners may
need to call or email you now and then for a
small query and await your response. However, a
partner relationship management portal can help
you eliminate this issue by providing what they
need via a simple login. Do you also relate to
the above challenges and are looking for a way to
overcome them? Our PRM portal can save your day
by giving you and your partners a centralized
overview for better visibility and easy exchange
of information in real-time. Best Practices of
Partner Management There are some practices that
you can follow to make your partner management
better. Analyze and Pick Your Partners
Wisely Before thinking of any partner
relationship management strategy or portal, know
your partners first. Before you finalize a
partner, find out who they are, how they work and
earn money, how they stand out in the
marketplace, etc. Without a complete knowledge of
these things, you cant get a genuine engagement
from your partner. Besides considering these
fundamental drivers, also find out how your
products or services fit their product
portfolio. Also, keep in mind not to end up
signing more partners than you require. This
approach can backfire and create challenges like
over-distribution, lawsuits, channel conflicts,
unhappy customers, etc. So,
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understand how you will distribute your products
and hire only as many partners as you need to
hit your business goals. Consider Training and
Incentive Requirements The training you may need
to give to a channel partner may be more than you
need to give to your employees. This is because
your direct sales force has ample time to learn
about your products, unlike your partners. The
reason is that partners are not partners of just
your company. They may be partners for several
different vendors and manufacturing companies
with a wide range of products. As a result, they
may end up consuming a larger amount of time in
understanding your products than actually
selling. That is why you must be clear about your
training strategy. Plan well in advance about
how you will train your new partners about your
products and the time and budget you need for
that. Also, decide on the incentives you will be
giving to your partners well in advance. Manage
Partners Loyalty A partners primary loyalty is
their customer base and employees. Keep this fact
in mind and respect it. It means that no matter
how valuable your products and services are, your
activities shouldnt undermine your partners
relations with their customers. Hence, even
though you sell your products through your
partners, ensure that your end customers get the
white-glove approach they want. This helps you
build your reputation with your partners. Even
though your business may be transactional,
partners look to build their businesses on
relationships first and transactions later. Cut
the Under-Performers Out Despite giving your
best, some partner relationships dont work out.
This is where you need to chime in and take a
tough stance. If your partners arent delivering
or showing interest in learning your products or
services or your support costs are too high,
rethink your relationship.
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• Dont let the grass grow under your feet for too
  long.
• Have a straightforward conversation with your
  under-performing partners and ask them the
  reasons for that. Find out if there is any way
  that you and they can mutually think of to bring
  the performance back on track.
• Even if nothing seems to work after all this, be
  ready to swallow a bitter pill - part your ways!
  Dont be under the false impression that things
  will improve Nope, they hardly ever do. Rather
  than putting up with poor-performing partners,
  focus on a few well-performing partners that can
  deliver better.
• Want our help to elevate your partner
  relationship management with the right
  technology? Our PRM portal comes with
  centralized database management, lead management,
  and more that you seek in an ideal PRM portal.
• Integrate our PRM Portal - Upgrade Your Partner
  Management
• If you are fed up with managing separate channels
  for each partner and collaborating with them
  individually, heres your panacea. Our PRM portal
  can help you eliminate the burden of managing
  every partner and their communications
  separately.
• There are several next-gen features that our
  partner relationship management portal has as
  below.
• Database Management - Whether you have CRM or
  not, our PRM portal enables you to fetch leads
  into the database and integrate them with your
  workflow.
• Secured Access - With our PRM portal, you can
  provide role-based access to your different
  partners and team members and ensure the security
  of your companys sensitive data.
• Sharing Confidential Business Data - If you want
  certain product installation videos,
• use-cases, or other confidential data to be
  available only to a limited group of confidants,
  you can do that with our PRM portal.

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• Purchase Invoicing - Our partner relationship
  management portal lets you manage special
• discounts for partners, generate purchase orders,
  invoices, or payments, etc. It ensures that you
  achieve the end goal of any partnership agreement
  - commercial gains.
• How CRMJetty Can Be Your Ideal PRM Portal
  Development Partner
• We believe in numbers - not just verbal
  assurances. And you can see that. With over a
  decade of portal development experience, we hold
  a track record of 70 custom portal integrations
  across 80 countries. Coming to CRM systems we
  develop portals for, they are Salesforce,
  Dynamics, Suite CRM, and SugarCRM.
• Talking of our work methodology, we follow a
  flexible portal development approach. We provide
  both custom-build and build-from-scratch services
  to customers depending on their needs. First of
  all, our team gets in touch with you to collect
  your requirements and then analyzes them. If we
  find that our ready-to-integrate PRM portal can
  fulfill all your requirements, we offer you our
  portal as it is. If there is a need for minor
  customization, we do them in our PRM portal to
  fit your business logic. In case your
  requirements are far different from what we have
  to offer, weve got you covered. We can build a
  portal exclusively for you - from the ground up.
  Besides, we provide maintenance and support
  services for your current portal to match the
  latest market standards. We offer technology
  migration, technology, and platform upgrades,
  re-development of your current solution, repair
  and maintenance, and more.
• So, just make us your partner in getting your PRM
  portal off the ground and take your first step
  towards success!
• The Article is Originally Published On
• https//www.crmjetty.com/blog/all-you-need-know-pa
  rtner-relationship-management/

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