Partner Networks Blog
Partner Networks Blog - Channel Planning
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Use salesforce.com to make channels SMB ready
Mar 20, 2007Have you ever wondered how big companies (and small) tackle the small
medium business (SMB) space? It seems as though everyone is talking about SMB. In recent articles published by Computer Reseller News, we see a lot of activity, bundles, and partner programs designed for SMB. Here are two examples: 1. VMWare rolls out virtual center SMB bundle. Click here for full article.
2. Xerox CEO eyes agressive channel expansion. Click here for full article.
If you're looking at the SMB market as a key segment of your business, consider the following salesforce.com tools....Use web 2 lead to grow your partner base and recruit, qualify, and ramp up partners....Use lead assignment rules and the Partner Portal to distribute leads quickly and with scale....Define workflow rules to track progress and empower partners to be successful. How has salesforce.com helped you tackle the SMB market?
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Salesforce.com speaking at Channel Focus conference
Mar 2, 2007Over the next month Elay Cohen, Sr. Director of Products, will be speaking at the Channel Focus conferences on the topic of "building a best practice closed loop lead distribution program."
Channel Focus UK: March 7 and 8 2007
Channel Focus Latin America: March 14 and 15 2007
Channel Focus North America: April 24 and 25
This is a great conference and worth the time. I look forward to seeing you at the conference.
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How many portals should you have for PRM
Nov 21, 2006Many customers are wondering what is the right balance between number of portals and number of profiles. The source of the answer should be based on your partner program. Here are some rules of thumb:
1. Portals are used for branding and profiles are used for permissions and tabs.
2. You can have multiple profiles and one portal or multiple profiles and multiple portals.
Consider how your partner program is designed as a gage for your PRM configuration. If you have a three tier program with platinum, gold, and silver partners and if you want to customize communications / branding for each tier you should have three profiles and three partner portals.
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Learn more about Salesforce PRM
Sep 4, 2006Are you aware that Salesforce launched the first integrated and on-demand Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) service? Our new service, Salesforce PRM (aka Partnerforce), offers companies the following benefits:
· Comprehensive visibility across all channels
· High levels of partner adoption
· Complete partner lifecycle management
· Reduced channel conflict
If you'd like to learn more, here are three ways:
1. You can listen to a recorded demonstration by clicking on this link.
2. You can listen to one of our customers talk about how Salesforce Partner Edition drives incremental channel revenues and reduced channel conflict. Access this pre-recorded webinar called Capitalizing on On-Demand PRM by clicking on this link.
3. You can participate in the Channel Executive conference at Dreamforce. Click here for more details.
Or you can contact your Account Executive to schedule a personalized demonstration and channel consulting session.
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Tools for Business Planning...Even With Partners
Jan 17, 2006Business planning is always a hard task and business planning with partners is even more difficult. To solve this problem, we've just launched a business planning tool that you can use with your partner communities. Many companies are managing their business planning processes using Salesforce. Today, you're probably using word docs or spreadsheets to manage your plans especially with your partners. Some of you are even using email as a method to collaborate with partners. The Partner Business Planning Application enables you to leverage bes
t practice planning methodologies to track all types of objectives (revenues, employee development, demand generation and more). Here is a screenshot of a dashboard measuring business plan and partner ROI. These plans can be created by partners or by channel managers and company to company collaboration is managed through Salesforce and the Partner Portal. The application is available to test drive and "GET" from the AppExchange. Let us know what you think of the application and if it's helping align your partners' business objectives with your own company's business objectives. Imagine collaborative planning with measurement based checks and balances. -
Partner Management Tools To Measure ROI
Jan 14, 2006How are you tracking the ROI on all of your partner sales and marketing expenditures? Are you running marketing development or coop advertising programs? Do you have visibility to the effectiveness of the money you are allocating to your territories and/or your partners? A new tool is available today to help you manage all of your channel marketing programs. Visit the AppExchange and either test drive or get some of the applications designed specifically for companies that sell through distributors, resellers, VARS, or agents. The Partner Relationship Management applications are best practices in channel management. Budgets
are created, managed, and allocated. Fund Requests are submitted and approved and claims are submitted, approved and processed. The entire process is supported with reports and dashboard to track ROI and fund effectiveness. A sample dashboard is included for your review. For many customers, once the application is viewed, there is no need to rely on spreadsheets to track sales and marketing expenditures. The information is now centralized and tied to users, accounts, campaigns, and opportunities. All of the Partner Relationship Management applications are available to test drive and install. Start with the Channel Funds application and see how all of your budgets, request, and claims processes are now consolidated using Salesforce.com. -
Best Practice Channel Management Tools Now Available on the AppExchange
Jan 8, 2006We’re excited to bring to you a set of best practice channel management tools to help your organization more effectively manage your partners and drive incremental channel revenues. We launched 6 new PRM (partner relationship management) applications. The applications include: Channel Finance, Funds Management, Rebates & Promotions, Channel Plans, Partner Communications, and Special Pricing. The release of these applications is a direct result of the AppExchange and Salesforce’s flexible platform. Our team has leveraged years of PRM expertise to bring you tools to download and use immediately in your channel organizations.
Consider the Funds Management application. Budgets are created, approved and managed. Fund requests are created, approved, and tracked. And then, proof of performance is verified through the claims process. All transactions roll up to global channel marketing budgets. Companies today are using spreadsheets and home grown solutions to solve these problems and now Salesforce is offering them to you for free. To test drive or download any or all of these applications, please visit the AppExchange.Here are the direct links to the URLs to test drive and download these applications.
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Build your own PRM program using Custom Objects?
Sep 8, 2005Many of our customers today are leveraging custom objects to build PRM applications to manage, track and measure their partner programs. Companies engage with their partners through sharing of Leads and joint selling with Opportunities. This part is straightforward and already managed through core Salesforce SFA and Partner Portal. Other companies are also enabling partner management processes through Salesforce’s Custom Objects. Some types of partner management applications needed by channel managers worldwide include: co-marketing funds, special pricing authorizations, certification tracking, deal registration, certifications, and channel account planning. The Dashboard inlcuded in this post shows how Custom Objects have been designed to support rebates, market development funds (MDF), and coop.
The dashboard is presented on top of marketing request and claim objects modeled against best practice PRM processes. Now channel managers, inside of Salesforce, can easily track the marketing requests and claims submitted by their partners. These objects are easily exposed to partners using Salesforce’s Partner Portal Toolkit. Have you created PRM processes using these objects? Have you exposed these objects to partners? Share your PRM successes and questions.
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