Partner relationship management is a term often heard in both business and marketing, but the concept of what it actually is can seem alien to those who aren’t involved with it on a daily basis. So, what is partner relationship management, or PRM, and how can it help you with your indirect sales?
Partner relationship management is the link between a company who makes a technology product and the company who deals with the end customer.
Why is partner relationship management important?
Why is this relationship important? Because if someone else sells your product, if someone else markets your product, if someone else communicates with your customer, then you need to have a very good relationship with them.
Having a channel of resellers, or partners, can exponentially increase your sales volumes – globally, if you effectively enable those partners. If you want a technology product to explode all around the world (and who doesn’t?), then you need partners. Most technology companies sell a huge volume through trade and channel, far more than their direct sales teams will ever sell, although they should handle highly complex technology configurations through their own internal teams.
Partner relationship management encompasses the systems and platforms for the relationship between manufacturer and partner businesses. This includes deal registration, lead management, sales incentives and marketing materials, as well as training, certification, margin share and marketing funding from the manufacturer to the company selling the product.
Usually manufacturers empower a team of field agents to communicate with the partners. Pre-Covid, they used to run, or fund, face-to-face events, focusing spend and attention on the partners (and their customers) with the biggest potential for financial reward. As Covid descended and we found ourselves in a socially distant world, this relationship needed to be handled very carefully. And since the pandemic, the manufacturer-partner relationship has been given – quite rightly – a lot more attention.
The ‘relationship’ in partner relationship management explained
The word ‘relationship’ in partner relationship management is crucial. Because the interdependency between manufacturer and partner is, in every sense, a relationship. It should be collaborative, as trust increases over time, with information, support and feedback increasing as that relationship grows.
Traditionally, partners are tiered into something like bronze, silver and gold, to indicate the levels to which that partner is technically certified by the manufacturer, or to indicate the volume of product that the partner sells – are they really a specialist in that product? A gold partner means yes, they are.
Partner relationship management today
But today, these kinds of metrics for classification seem outdated and crude. Instead of ‘bronze, silver or gold’, think of your business partners as ‘acquaintance, friend or family’.
Putting your trust into another business to handle your customer and sell your product is a big deal. Paying another business margin share to deliver a poor customer experience is business suicide.
Segmentation needs to be more intelligent than just sales volume or classification (such as ‘value added reseller’, or ‘installer’, ‘B2B sales’ or ‘call centre’), because there are different kinds of sales organisations. Some can only sell an out-of-the-box product but they can shift millions of them. Others are much more consultative, designing solutions around their customer needs and blending technology to fit.
Also coming into play is the position of the partner in their business cycle. Are they at the end of their life with semi-retired owners and old systems, or are they ambitious and energetic? And what are their business values? Your customers will experience their values and associate them with your brand. If they only value margin and have no people-first culture, the people speaking to your customer are unlikely to put their needs first.
At Blueprint, we bring more than 25 years of partner assessment to the table. We can audit, assess and pair up the right manufacturer with the right partners, facilitate that relationship and keep it wonderful – as it should be – over time.
We can also help you stand out in a crowd. There are lots of other manufacturers wooing partners with their partner margins, exciting support programmes and grand promises. We understand what your potential and existing partners want, and help to cement that relationship.
At the start, like at the start of any relationship, usually there has to be a big effort to get some attention. High margins, rapid onboarding, simple proposition and even customer leads to follow up with straight away.
If you want a brilliant partner relationship management programme that delivers huge sales and revenues, then, above all, you must listen, learn and adapt, as well as speak. Read our top 10 tips for partner relationship management.
Your partners are having to change their businesses faster than ever before. They are fighting in the trenches. Be the manufacturer who gives them what they really need and, what’s more, be willing to then change it a moment later as the battle changes. Then we all win.
Blueprint is here to help. We’re on your side, we move fast, we have the answers and experience you need. We can help you overcome the obstacles in your own organisation so that you can achieve success.
