After attending ChannelCon 2019 in Las Vegas, a commonality became quickly apparent about what companies are looking for when they think about building or expanding their channel partner program. The issue was the quality of the partner portal. Everyone was aware that a channel program is only as good as the portal that partners are using. Here’s my takeaway of the major features that attendees felt were key to partner portal adoption by their channels.
Ease of Use
No matter who I talked to, one of the first things attendees mentioned was the need for an organized, easy-to- use platform that would get their users engaged. The big two issues under ease of use were:
Versatility: Applicable for All Partner Types
Most vendors are interested in the ability to include all types of partners on the platform regardless of tier, industry, sales model, etc. This calls for one platform that supports different dashboard designs, with multiple roles and permissions so that every type of partner can log in and see what is relevant to them. This makes it easy from the vendor perspective, as they can monitor the activities of all partners and leads from various sources via one platform.
Organized Asset Library
Asset management was absolutely critical to all of the channel managers I met with. It is crucial that your asset library is not only organized for your own sake, but so that it can be properly used by partners to easily access and download the materials they need to make a sale. An effective partner portal allows all assets and features to be made available and managed in one platform.
Asset Management
I found that under the realm of asset management, channel managers are looking for two things for their partner portal
Customizable asset sharing according to partner type
After speaking with numerous channel managers, it became very clear that not all partners are created equal. Customizable sharing allows the vendor to share only what each partner needs so they are not overwhelmed with assets that don’t pertain to them. Each partner can access the right material at the right time. A relevant partner portal should have the ability to customize the needs of each program and the variety of partner types that are participating.
Dynamic co-branding
Too often, channel managers spend a lot of their time co-branding materials for each partner. This is a lot of work. However, with dynamically co-branded assets, partners can access materials on their own and automatically create customized assets, branded just for them. This is crucial for any effective partner portal as it removes a time-consuming burden from the channel manager, freeing them up to spend more time enabling the partners in other ways. Dynamic co-branding is a critical aspect to any partner portal.
Sales Tools
So, now your partners have the materials they need to sell, but, knowing how to use them is a different challenge.
Training and Certifications
What makes channel managers more excited than an engaged partner? Getting a partner trained and engaged. Training and certifications are critical to vendor-partner relationship success. Only when the partners are well versed with the vendor product and services, can they sell them effectively. Partner portals can play a key role here by automating training and certification tasks that were once on the channel manager’s plate. In addition to training, automated reminders to engage partners in the training or alerts close to certification expiry, orongoing campaigns to encourage partner buy-in to the portal, etc., keeps everyone in the loop and increases partner participation.
Deal Registration
In the channel industry, partners typically submit their leads to a channel manager to be approved to ensure that multiple partners aren’t going after the same lead. A functional deal registration feature can virtually eliminate channel conflict and make the whole lead registration process faster and is hence a must-have feature for channel managers evaluating different partner portal options.
Guided Solution Selling Training Playbooks
In addition to training and certifications and deal registration features, Channel managers are finding that a partner portal should have the ability to provide guided solution selling playbooks so partners get a clear action plan for selling the vendor’s products. Solutions such as this ensure more partner success and thus more ROI for the vendor.
Marketing Tools
Finally, I found that the following marketing tools were an added benefit for channel managers as it made their jobs easier.
Partner Recruitment
A relevant portal portal should include more than just benefits for the current partners. Channel managers want the ability to expand their program by recruiting new partners through marketing material, promotions and partner registration forms.
“On Behalf-of” Marketing
Finally, a partner portal shouldn’t stop at just engaging partners with the vendor’s brand. With on-behalf marketing, channel managers can engage end leads via marketing and sales campaigns that they control and run on behalf of the local channel partner and drive leads to the partner to close. This helps in strengthening vendor-partner relationship, makes it easier for channel partners to sell and also ensures the vendor’s brand and messaging stay on point.
As Channel Managers searched ChannelCon 2019 for a relevant channel platform and shared with us their most pertinent needs, the most impressive aspect about what was shared at Channelcon was the challenges we heard about and communicating the ways in Mindmatrix address these challenges. Thank you CompTIA for my first ever Channelcon experience, and providing a flourishing environment for these conversations to take place.
Guest blog by Laura Estes
