The holiday times are upon us, and this is the season of giving. Of course, in the business world, it’s best if you can give and receive! Gifts you give to your ecosystem can pay themselves back many times over, from increased sales as well as increased partner loyalty and mindshare.
We’re not just talking about bonuses and other incentives, although your partners would be happy receiving a little something extra in their “stockings” at the end of the month. There are plenty of ways you can upgrade your ecosystem that will make everything run more smoothly and inspire more ecosystem growth in the year to come.
1. Create more marketing materials
It’s relatively rare for a local sales partner to have much in the way of a marketing department, and they certainly don’t have as many resources as you for making new materials. As a vendor, one of the best things you can do for an ecosystem is provide plenty of marketing materials – for both online and offline use – so that they’re easily available for your partners to use and repurpose.
Plus, this has a secondary benefit of helping to keep all your messaging on-brand. If you’re leaving marketing to your partners, chances are they’ll be outsourcing it to local marketing companies, and then there’s no telling what kinds of messages they’ll come up with. Instead, you can set the standard.
2. Improve your internal communications
How easy is it for your partners to get in touch with someone within your company, if they need more info? More importantly, how easy is it for their sales staff to get answers fast? Sales cycles are shortening, and buyers often don’t have patience to wait around for days on an answer to a tricky technical question.
Anything you can do to streamline communications, and make it easier for salespeople to get fast answers, is going to significantly improve sales potential.
3. Incorporate more polls
Who doesn’t love sitting in front of a crackling fire and doing a research survey? No, but seriously – partner companies want to feel like they have some input, particularly involving vendors they have close ties with. The end of the year is the perfect time to send out a poll to your partners and their sales staff, gathering feedback and getting info about what they think are the best and worst aspects of the partnership.
Then you’ve got the rest of the year to show them that you’re taking their suggestions seriously!
4. Upgrade with Partner Relationship Management software
Perhaps the single best all-in-one upgrade you could make to your ecosystem is tying it all together with partner relationship management (PRM) software. PRM is like a CRM on steroids, built to streamline every aspect of vendor/partner relations while also including all the CRM-style functions you need like a shared customer database. PRM is modular, and can be outfitted with everything your ecosystem needs to thrive: centralized communications, training programs, shared analytical systems, marketing and documentation repositories, and more.
PRM can make you the easiest partner they’ve ever worked with, and that’s a gift worth more than even what Santa could bring.
LogicBay provides the world’s premiere solutions for improving and streamlining indirect sale ecosystems. Contact us directly to learn how we can grow your channels throughout the new year!
