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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Why should I Care about Partner Loyalty?

For any business owner, managing your own business is hard and it only gets tougher when you also have to care about other people’s business. I am taking about partners and not exactly their partner profiles. Its basic knowledge in any channel management strategy that administering some of your partner’s operations is a given, especially if your company is considered the parenting one. The channel distribution network is dependent on the performance of the partner. However, just knowing that they are important to keep the business flowing is not enough.


Whether you like it or not, partner loyalty actually plays a big role in this triangular, web relationship. If loyalty is strong within the partners, that would imply that the members are committed enough or sometimes more than willing to make the business work for everyone in the relationship. The more they are loyal to the relationship, the more you can expect your productivity and sales to increase. However, this is often not the case.

So what do we do? If you are someone who ranks high within the organization, there is only one thing to do: inspire them. Although this is easier said than done, there are a lot of ways to do this.

First, putting incentives in various aspects of their performance such as a perfect attendance or a “beat the record” kind of incentive would definitely boost their performance. Competitions that promise and guarantees huge prizes or rewards within the company will also help them in increasing their efficiency at work. Although be aware though, as this type of strategy is a double edge sword because some workers may put down their skills if they usually see the same people winning the contest. Add benefits or privileges to their work. Everybody loves working when they know that their work has something to offer that other people can’t have or do outside the company. Even freebies are a good push to the will when it comes to the labor of hard selling.

The bottom line of this is that the overall business relationship will strengthen, hold and grow if the members are more than willing to improve the status of the company. So for all you managers out there, be more sensitive and understanding to your partners and employees and not merely pay attention to their partner profiles.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

My Tips on Making a Good Partner Portal

As a newbie associate manager, I have learned today that designing partner portals wasn’t that easy of a task. I’ve come to realize that partner portals have become an integral part of any channel management program, not that all software focusing on management needed one

However, I think such portals have an essential role in solving conflicts between channels. I can imagine how hard it is just to think about manually handling these types of organizational arrangements within the company. My boss said there are certain characteristics which I have to follow in order to gauge if a portal would be efficient enough for the business. Now, I figured, I should make my own tips on making a partner portal simple but good.

http://pdginnovates.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/handshake.jpg
channel management solutions

First, I think a portal should ensure a free flowing content and that it should be free from any complex sentences since this type of sentence is sometimes more than a hindrance to the reader. Simple sentences give much more emphasis as well as memory retention. The portal should be simple and easy to read but should still convey the accurate meaning of any data or information shared. As they say, less is more.

Being exhaustive of the data is also a factor to be considered in designing a portal. The inclusion of important matters regarding the company, like certain policies found especially in the company, should be given and readily explained. The comprehensive details of the organization should also be given in order to tell clear information and avoid problems at later stages of any business relationship. Being clear about the sales and shipping facts are also a must if they are to be involved in the information exchange.

And of course, lastly, is the security option. Only authorized personnel should be allowed to enter and roam the premises of the portal. I understand that some companies give out more vital information to their partners which should sometimes be kept secret from their competitors. That is also why some companies pay big just for security of their portals particularly if they have many partners. The link to the portal should be found on the main website where it would entail the representative of each company in the partnership to login their credentials.