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featureed image Published 2015-01-18, by Seth Jacobsen

5 Reasons To Invest In PRM Software

Like most companies, yours probably has too many software systems to keep track of. Just about every business operating in the digital age has countless digital assets it relies on to stay competitive. While you’re right, therefore, to be skeptical about adding yet another to your company’s long list, keep in mind that not all forms of software are the same and some can make all the difference where your results are concerned.

This is especially true for any company selling their products through an indirect sales channel. Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software gives you the ability to consolidate multiple systems and provide a more simplified means of supporting your channel partners. Here’s are some of the top reasons to consider investing in this technology.

1. Quick Growth for Channel Partners

If you have aggressive goals for your company, it will make a big difference if you also have a large number of channel partners to help you reach them. However, for many businesses, stocking up on channel partners without the tools to support them proves to be counterproductive. Once you identify companies that would make beneficial partners, you then have to go through the process of educating them on what is required to be successful. PRM software can make this much easier.

The platform provides you with one central area for training and on-boarding your channel partner’s sales and management teams. However, this is just one way this type of software streamlines communication for better results.

2. It Keeps the Learning Curve Low

In the future, your partners will, no doubt, hire new employees. When they do this, those employees will need to be trained in on how your company works and what is expected of them.

When you use PRM software, this is easy enough to do because there is a solution in place  for your partners to provide access to new hires that gives them information specific to their job role.

3. More Effective Marketing   

All of your channel partners are helping to market your business in some capacity. If they’re not, they should be! As such, they are serving as a direct reflection on what your business stands for. It makes sense, then, that you’d want your partners to have all the best materials available for marketing purposes.

This can be as simple as providing easy access to the marketing materials they need, through implementation of an MDF program, or by delivering co-branded marketing materials with a formal marketing playbook for deploying specific strategies.

In any case, you want to me be in control of the messaging to maintain brand consistency while still providing your partners with the materials they need to be successful.

READ MORE: Enabling Channel Partners To Sell With Market Development Funds

4. Real-Time Feedback

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of utilizing this type of software is that it provides for real-time feedback from your channel partners. After all, in most cases, they’ll be much closer to the front line than you are. Even if you also have a direct sales department, your channel partners probably have some very unique insights you’d benefit from knowing about.

Social forums are a great way to promote sharing of best practices; the insights gleaned by your partners can be yours in seconds making it possible to adjust your approach to better meet your customer’s needs.

5. Better Oversight

Unless you’re already using Partner Relationship Management software, it’s very unlikely you’re getting the oversight you need to truly monitor your channel partners. It can be extremely difficult to make sure they’re making the most of the resources you provide them. As a result, partners may be falling short of expectations simply because you’re not recognizing this in time.  

The up-to-date reporting and analytics that come from relationship management software can provide the critical information you need to make decisions related to your channel strategy.

This helps ensure a level of accountability within your partner network that is hard to achieve otherwise. The end goal is to make smarter decisions and help keep your partners working harder on your behalf.

These are just five of the many reasons that companies like yours are using software to monitor their channel partners. Depending on your business’ unique needs and the software you choose, there are countless more. Don’t let your channel partner relationships suffer simply because you’re failing to use the right tools.