An Overview of Partner Relationship Management Software

B2B brands are constantly exploring opportunities to make strategic partnership alliances with other businesses to reach new target audiences, close bigger deals, and increase revenue. The best partner relationship management software will be an effective tool for big businesses that have an extensive network of partners.

According to a report by EY approximately 71% of the respondents suggest that business ecosystems are crucial to the organization’s success.

Enterprises initially do not need any tools to launch a partnership program. However, once the partnership program scales, a PRM solution will be necessary to attribute sales and streamline payments for an increasing partner network. In this article, let us look at partner relationship management, tools used to streamline operations, their benefits, and usage.

What is Partner Relationship Management (PRM)?

PRM is an amalgamation of tools, work processes, and techniques that enterprises can leverage to ensure a frictionless relationship with their sales channel partners. A partner relationship management software is a tool that helps organizations seamlessly manage and scale their partner programs, such as affiliate, referral, and reseller programs. It also enables companies to seamlessly track leads, revenue, potential opportunities, and sales metrics.

PRM solution is usually a cloud-based tool that has a client database and portal for partners to log in and access the portal. This tool manages inventories, pricing, discounts, and operations.

Major Advantages of PRM

Various enterprises have partnered with multiple partner channels to sell their products on their behalf. Businesses collaborate with various system integrators, independent software vendors, managed service providers, consultants, resellers, and retailers instead of growing a direct distribution network.

Integrating the top cloud-based partner relationship management software in the enterprise tech stack will enhance the partner sales processes and eliminate duplication within the organization.

What are the Differences Between CRM and PRM?

The functionalities of PRM software are similar to customer relationship management (CRM) software. Organizations use CRM tools to track their pre-sales, sales, and after-sales processes to enhance client relationships. CRM focuses on managing the relationship between businesses and their clients. Right from client acquisition to retention, the CRM software serves as a single source of truth for the workforce to access the entire customer journey.

While managing partner relationships, businesses should focus on strengthening their relationship with their partners to achieve their revenue targets. Businesses need a different management approach to build and evolve partner relationships. Dealing with various partners might require some negotiation in the selling process. A partner relationship management software serves as a single source of truth for businesses and their partners to access all the required information about their alliance.

Also Read: 8 Must-Track Sales Analytics Metrics For Your Business Growth

What are the Best Partner Relationship Management Practices?

Integrating a robust PRM solution will streamline the collaboration between multiple dealers, vendors, and channel partners. It is one of the most effective ways to ensure a frictionless collaboration that is profitable and grows according to the needs.

Business decision-makers should consider implementing a web-based partner relationship management software that seamlessly integrates with the current enterprise tech stack. Additionally, it is critical to train the workforce, stakeholders, and channel partners to ensure it is effectively used.

Working with multiple partners can be intensive. Tracking various information, partner expectations, and target goals manually can be a tedious task. Integrating a cloud-based PRM software enables organizations to stay updated in real-time to have better transparency to grow their relationships with the channel partners.

What Is the Use of Partner Relationship Management Software?

Following are a few ways that businesses can leverage PRM software in their operations:

1. Manage All Channel Partners

PRM tools enable organizations to track their business partner’s details, pipelines, and progress in a single pane of glass. Instead of going through multiple spreadsheets, CRMs, and emails, PRM solutions can serve as a single source of information. Business decision-makers can track their activities and performance metrics to make strategic partnership decisions.

2. Streamline the Onboarding Process

A scaling partnership program will always have new partners getting onboarded. Onboarding new partners and maintaining existing partnerships manually, can be a tedious task. A cloud-based partner relationship software automates the onboarding process. All new and existing partners can have all the required information about the rewards, payments, and other frequently asked questions about the alliance on the PRM tool.

3. Seamlessly Manage Partner Interactions

Apart from managing the data of the partnership programs, PRM software enables resources to interact with the partners. Based on the functionalities integrated into the partner relationship software, it can allow businesses to interact with partners individually or send a blast message to all of them included in the programs.

4. Monitor Leads Referred By Partners

One of the most significant uses of partner relationship management software is that it allows businesses to track all channels’ affiliate, referral, and closed deals. Depending on the partner program, organizations can customize the software that fits their needs. Several PRM solutions can allow companies to track multiple program types. It is crucial to check if the tool allows businesses to track the different programs simultaneously or not.

5. Offer Training

Instead of manually sending all the necessary assets every time a new client is onboard, an online partner relationship management software can be the central repository for all the assets. The top PRM solution vendors would seamlessly integrate with the learning management system (LMS) to offer training to all the new onboarding partners.

6. Optimize Partner Payments Processes

Payment management with different partners can be a time-consuming process, which can lead to late payments or miscalculated payments. In order to enhance the partner relationship, businesses need to ensure timely and accurate payments. The best partner relationship management software will remind the accounts payable to process the payments and partner commissions in a timely manner.

7. Motivate Partners with Rewards and Incentives

Businesses can leverage a PRM solution to design a reward structure for existing partners. Decision makers can set stringent criteria about who can avail of the rewards and incentives. Additionally, offering incentives depending on performance will boost the partners’ morale to achieve better results.

8. Experiment, Evaluate, and Evolve

Implementing a partner relationship management solution can streamline the work process by automating the majority of the tedious tasks. Hence, implementing the right PRM tool will open more opportunities for businesses to experiment and be innovative in the program. The workforce can spend more time with the partners and focus on developing a long-lasting business alliance. The partner relationship management solution will have AI integrated to assist businesses in experimenting, evaluating, and evolving the campaign based on their needs.

Taking Everything Into Consideration

In today’s constantly evolving world, businesses are constantly looking for ways for strategic partnerships with other organizations to grow. For enterprises that want to focus on selling their products through a partner channel, integrating the best cloud-based partner relationship management software in the tech stack will help them to track all the partners in a single pane of glass.