For enterprise vendors, managing channel partner marketing programs at scale is both a strategic priority and a challenge.
A key reason is the growing channel partner ecosystem – the network of traditional partners such as managed service providers (MSPs) and value added resellers (VARs), as well as newer non-transactional partners such as influencers – all serving different needs of diverse market segments. A one-size fits all approach to channel partner relationship management no longer works, as each partner expects tailor-made programs for their unique context. Several channel partners also represent multiple brands, and prefer to prioritize vendors that make the end-to-end selling process as smooth, efficient, and predictable as possible.
Another important factor transforming the vendor-partner relationship is the transition from ‘product – license-based’ to a more ‘solution-value-retention’ based approach to selling, especially in the context of B2B technology. This means channel partners expect – and need – more than product literature and financial incentives to succeed. To sell collaboratively and co-own the customer relationship, vendors must enable their partners with skills, tools, training, and of course data and campaigns. These help to sell and build relationships, grow value, and drive renewals.
There are also new challenges with attribution and measuring ROI from channel marketing and sales. This is because the buying collective (at the customer end) and the channel partner ecosystem are both expanding; and the factors impacting the buyer’s journey and influencing buying decisions are growing.
Managing all of this complexity and diversity at scale is impossible without automation. As vendors and their partners collaborate to create a seamless customer experience, the right tools can simplify, standardize, and institutionalize key processes, and drive efficiency and effectiveness.
The Power of the Channel Marketing Tech Stack
There is a tool to manage every channel marketing process – from designing to executing and measuring complex tier-based programs, to reporting outcomes, intelligent decision-making, and campaign management through the channel. This set of tools form your channel marketing tech stack, and Forrester estimates that it generated $2.8 billion in pure software revenue in 2020.
That puts a number on just how much enterprise channel marketers recognize the value of automating multiple channel marketing workflows. As investments in engagement, retention, and incentivisation of diverse channel partner segments grow, managing the relationships manually is impossible. There are just too many moving parts and elements to bring together. Without sufficient automation, integration, and scale, there is no way to execute efficiently.
Key components of an enterprise channel marketing stack would include:
- Partner relationship management (PRM) software: helps manage the channel partner lifecycle – from onboarding to growth, measurement, and offboarding
- Through-channel marketing automation (TCMA): enables seamless access to data, marketing and sales campaigns, content, and collateral for partner-led demand generation
- Channel partner program management: helps execute tier-based channel partner loyalty programs across the partner ecosystem. Offers self-serve options and helps manage allocation and distribution of MDF and other financial and non-financial incentives
- Specialized solutions: more mature enterprise-scale operations often opt for more specialized tools to manage channel sales performance data, channel enablement (skills, learning, readiness and certifications), and managing sales via indirect channels such as e-marketplaces and app exchanges
Factors to Consider When Building Channel Automation
Despite the growing scale and complexity, the best performing channel programs and partnerships are built around relevance, ease-of-use, efficiency, and flexibility. Automation plays a crucial role in getting various front- and back-end systems ready for accelerated programs and future scale. Success often depends on three critical factors.
- The right use cases: while an end-to-end workflow automation would be ideal, a good starting point is to identify where automation can be most effective with the shortest time-to-value. Ultimately, investments in automation depend on the current business maturity, priorities, and realities.
The end result of automation investments for any use case should be about the fundamentals:
– Are you enabling ease-of-use, speed, predictability, and responsiveness for key workflows?
– Where can automation add the most value in the context of your business strategy?
– Which tool would be the best fit for that need?
For example, if your current priority is building a differentiated partner experience, then a TCMA enables easy and secure self-service to access data, tools, content, collateral, and incentive information, automates partner-led lead generation workflows, and reduces partners’ cost and effort of doing business with you.
- The right channel partner program structure: different kinds of partners have different needs and respond to different incentives. A one-size-fits-all approach would not only be an inefficient use of budgets and resources, but the outcomes would be sub-optimal too. Instead, channel marketers today are exploring many different ways to structure their channel partner programs. It could be by value-based tiers, outcome-based categories (e.g., influencers, sales, retention) or by customer type, geographies, and specializations by solution type. It depends on what works best in your industry and context. Program structures help strike the right formula to ensure that each partner is getting what they need to succeed, including appropriate access to whatever data and content is relevant, and appropriate recognition for their value to the business. Automation choices will depend on your program architecture, helping evaluate what workflows can be automated, what data can be connected, the degree of self-serve needed, and the degree of intelligence and scale you want to build into the operations.
- The right data: most channel marketers have limited visibility into end-to-end data beyond the purely transactional. Getting access to the right data that is generated across different front- and back-end systems not only helps channel marketers understand current realities, but helps connect the data for more intelligent and informed decision-making. Identifying the right data sources and building access into automated workflows not only helps manage programs better in terms of efficiency, but also helps performance effectiveness on the vendor and partner side. For more mature channel marketing organizations, co-creating and co-owning customer relationships is completely dependent on the smooth and secure flow of data between stakeholders. It can also lead to real competitive advantage when more advanced AI-powered technologies are leveraged. For optimal outcomes, the data should also integrate with the broader marketing and sales organizations.
In conclusion
As a channel marketer, you are looking for ways to build both – efficiency and effectiveness into your operations. Starting with automation that builds operational efficiency (improved productivity and lower costs) is critical. Building scale for proven workflows puts you on the path for optimal, end-to-end channel partner operations as you build out the full channel marketing tech stack. There are many challenges – choosing the right tools, integration for data flows, skills to activate data-powered campaigns, questions of data privacy and security (since external partners such as channel partners and agencies are involved), and alignment with sales and marketing. However, if your goal is to build a truly competitive and sustainable enterprise channel partner business, there is no way around workflow automation, data integration, and scale. Interested in learning more about channel marketing? Check out our tips to help channel partners grow amid disruption.