Effective Partner On-Boarding

Lately it seems that many technology vendors are focused on partner recruitment. They know what types of partners they want to attract and have plans in place to meet their recruitment targets. The vendor signs partners with the expectation that they will play a major role in helping the vendor achieve their revenue goals. But if you sign them, will they sell? In most cases the answer is no - unless the vendor also has a well defined and well executed new partner on-boarding process in place.

Signing the partner is only the start. To meet their revenue targets vendors need to turn the partners they sign up into knowledgeable, productive resellers. And the first step in the process is engaging with the partner immediately after the contract is signed because that is when the vendor has the partner’s focused attention.

One of the first activities in the on-boarding process is to get the partner logged onto the vendor’s partner portal and become familiar with the materials and resources available to them. The portal is (or at least should be) the single resource, available to all partners, where they can find everything they need to effectively sell and support the vendor’s products. A well-designed partner portal is an engagement tool that includes not only information resources such as datasheets, whitepapers, news, etc. It should also automate important programs and processes like opportunity registration, obtaining marketing funds, demo and NFR requests and contract renewals. The best partner portals even automate the process of populating the vendor’s partner directory with the partner’s content and enable access to other tools like online training, knowledgebases and submission of technical support incidents. Once a vendor has their partners in the habit of using the portal from the start, they are more likely to develop into active and productive sales partners.

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SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT

Amazon Consulting Releases Multi-language Version of Popular PartnerPath® Solutions

PartnerPath® Solutions are now available in a new multi-language platform enabling content to be presented in several localized languages: English, French, German, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Earlier this year, Amazon Consulting launched PartnerPath®, the industry’s first Partner Management Automation (PMA®) portal solution designed to enable resellers and influencers of IT products and services to work more effectively with technology providers and manufacturers.

To read the press release, click here.

New online demo tours of PartnerPath solutions are now available! Take 5 minutes to view a tour of the following solutions:

• Deal Registration
• MDF Management
• Resource Center
• Contracts and Renewal Management
• Product Requests
• Partner Profile Manager