What is Partner Management?

Also known as partner management, PRM or partner relationship management is an innovative business strategy that companies use to improve communication with their channel partners. Most companies use web-based software applications to streamline and customize administrative tasks such as shipping schedules and enable their partners to have online access to this information.

A number of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems providers have included useful partner management features in their software applications - web-enabled spreadsheets that can be shared through extra net, for instance. While PRM is often considered to be a part of CRM, channel partnerships are complicated relationships that need to be considered as separate entities in their own right.

Effective partner management helps to maintain brand consistency, retain customer loyalty and reduce revenue leakage.  Here are six effective tips to manage your channel partners for better results:

1. Choose quality not quantity

Reduce the number of channel partners and only rely on those niche partners who really drive all the transactions. Cheap affiliate programs do nothing to add value to your business. Even Amazon - the big fish of affiliate marketing - is adopting the 80/20 partner management rule: 80% of business comes from 20% of your total channel partners. It’s a fiercely competitive market out there but it’s the niche partners who target well-trafficked niche communities who bring in most of your business.

2. Regain control over channel partners

The world of affiliate marketing is a chaotic one in which companies find it difficult (if not impossible) to track their channel partners’ activities. In most cases, companies find it difficult to even identify who their channel partners are. Effective partner management is particularly tough in industries where new comparison sites and agents pop up every day. Companies need to take stock of all the affiliates who claim to have some kind of channel partnership with them and assess the usefulness of the relationship.

3. Educate channel partners through partner training

Once you take stock of your channel partners, you’ll find that many if not most of them do not comply with corporate guidelines and play havoc with your brand image and positioning. As the owner of the brand, you need to make your channel partners undergo partner training to make sure they do things right.

4. More content equals better partner management

You need to ensure that your partners comply with regulations and follow your directions about branding your products on their sites. A good way to do this to give them tools and sticky content to make their sites robust and strengthen your relationship. This also helps to increase channel partners’ level of support and involvement.

5. Stop fraternizing with the enemy

Find out if your channel partners are also promoting your competitors. If you do, you have two options

(a) Negotiate for a higher bounty or an exclusive contract to displace your competitors from that site.

(b) Withdraw from the partnership and go to sites where there’s no competition.

Hopefully, these tips should make it easier to manage your channel partnerships.