As technology vendors constantly look for ways to attract channel partners to their latest products, offering new discount deals and incentive programs, partner portals have become increasingly popular in creating a strong bonding across the IT channel.
According to Webopedia, partner portal can be defined as “A web-based application that allows a company’s established distributors, resellers, installers, services providers and other strategic stakeholders to obtain direct access to marketing resources, pricing and sales information along with technical details to serve customers is a partner portal.”
Why use partner portal?
As understood from the above definition, partner portals as the connection point that constantly keeps the partner engaged with the vendor. It can be used for promotions, sales, public relations and for record maintenance.
From a partner perspective, partner portals can be integral to the success of the relationship between vendors and their partners. Vendors, meanwhile, aim to simplify channel interaction, as it makes sense for them to introduce an online ‘one-stop shop’ to help streamline activity in support of the channel.
IT vendors can leverage partner portals in several ways, including training and educating technical, business consulting, sales and marketing strategy, lead generation and marketing automation, to name a few.
Portals can also help vendors gauge the popularity of their products/services among partners while having a clearer view of their inventory, pricing and distribution across the supply chain.
In addition, gathering actionable information on products and services through a portal helps vendors build trust and loyalty – the two most important ingredients for businesses.
Features of partner portal
A partner portal can have many features that can bring great return on investment in a short span of time. It has the power to streamline projects uniformly. It allows for complete control over users. Partner software allows for a single dashboard to perform several actions and tasks effectively.
To engage channel partners, experts believe that portals should have several key features, including the price of products, the ability to order products online, a section on helping channel partner sell the product or service and a mechanism in the portal to track subscriptions and other relevant information.
Advantages of partner portal?
If implemented correctly, partner portals can ensure measurable results both for cost and time savings. Here are some key advantages:
– A well tested and mobile responsive partner portal can help stakeholders access and track related activities through their mobile phones with just a touch.
– Partner can be trained through real-time on activities such as pre-sales, post-sales along with a certification to help them excel.
– The unified dashboard can help in easy access for information retrieval to receive, assign or evaluate leads through one click.
– Collaboration is key, as partners and vendors collaborate on a single unified platform in order to boost information sharing activities and loyalty programs. This in turn helps them drive sales, promotion and marketing activities.
Conclusion
A dynamic portal that shows everything a partner is entitled to — it eliminates confusion and encourages partners to do repeat business with the vendor. Whether it’s about increasing partner engagement, deal registration, or ease of lead distribution, harnessing the power of ‘partner portal’ enables organizations to boost their revenue, performance and profitability.