Emergence Of PRM And Channel Incentive Programs.

Emergence Of PRM And Channel Incentive Programs - Learn about the growing importance of Channel Incentive Programs in Partner Relationship Management (PRM) strategies.

1. Emergence Of PRM And Channel Incentive Programs
Ecosystem Drives PRM Evolution There is no doubt globally, channel partner businesses
have suffered significantly since the pandemic started. Lower B2B demand, disruptions
on the global supply chain, and lack of appropriate digital infrastructure have further
compounded the problem for the channel partners.
Even though there were signs of digitalization advancement before the pandemic
started, it was slow and limited to specific customer segments, markets, and
industries. As digitalization lagged in the B2B market in general and the Channel
network in particular, the impact during the pandemic has been significant and
profound. The pandemic brought forward three critical effects on the channel
ecosystem.
• Changes in buying patterns of B2B customers
• Channels’ approach to doing business in future
• Convergence of PRM and Channel Incentive programs
Sounds apparent in many situations, but these are significant changes to how the
channel ecosystem will function in the future. This will also redefine how the brands
need to engage the channel partners and find new ways to enhance the partner
engagement models.
To better understand how these impacts will influence the PRM of the future, let’s look
at each of these above challenges in detail.

Changes In Buying Patterns Of B2B Customers

2. The buying patterns of B2B customers are changing with increased digitalization within
B2B organizations. The past decades’ traditional channel ecosystem has been changing
to keep pace with brands’ go-to-market strategies. As a result, the market faces a
significant transformation in channel relationships between vendors, distributors,
partners, and customers.
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Channel Incentive programs can play an
essential role in bridging the buying behaviour and digitalization gap and bringing closer
interaction with the brands.
Channel ecosystems are facing unprecedented transformational challenges more than
ever fuelled by several important factors such as
• More and more business buyers are involved due to changing corporate
structures and decision-making process
• New business models such as cloud and various “as-a-services” emerge, and
the business model between brands and channels needs realignment
• Strong midmarket demand continues to be the focus of growth for the next
decades
• Increased globalization and open market policies will impact brands’ reliance on
extended channel networks for go-to-market and B2B customer support
• structure and role of vast channel networks evolve as businesses decentralize
functions and bring efficiency to operations
To address some of these issues, PRM programs will play a crucial role in defining,
enabling, and supporting both the organization and the channel partners to function
efficiently. New generation PRM programs require:
• Providing an integrated commerce environment
• Help partners order faster and easier
• Define and transition partners to operate in a service-driven environment
• Establish KPIs and measurements appropriate for each partner segment
• Scale to support wider breadth and depth of extended partner network
geographically and hence lowering the cost of operations while having improved
efficiency
PRM programs need to evolve to address the challenges due to the pandemic and
develop a cohesive ecosystem of operating models to bring enhanced value to the
brands and markets to create a sustainable future.
Channel Marketing And PRM

3. Modern marketing is digitally integrated, proactive, personalized, and multichannel.
Traditional channel marketing remains fragmented, non-scalable, and resource-
intensive, making it complex and, to some extent, also complicated. Channels and
channel partners are less technology savvy and digital-oriented. With rapid
digitalization, organizations are under pressure to find ways to enhance partner
marketing efficiency.
PRM can address the marketing complexities by establishing agile program design,
integrated platforms, and operational execution to bring excellence to partner
relationship management. As the partner ecosystem changes, channel marketing must
transform to stay relevant to partner needs. Channel Marketers can help partners adapt
to new go-to-market models and leverage data, insights, and personalization to drive
engagements. At each stage of the partner journey, the channel marketers set targets
based on objectives and partner potentials, activating triggers to action, incentives to
motivate, and helping take measures to achieve KPIs.
Long-term and robust channel relationships can be established through PRM and
Channel Incentive programs based on transparency, trust, and outcome. A well-
designed PRM and Chanel Incentive program will help track, measure, and
communicate the goals and objectives with partners and achieve the results by
incentivizing the correct behaviour. These are possible with a high degree of
personalization, individual or group goal settings, competitions, and gamification.
With new technologies, PRM programs have started incorporating Artificial Intelligence,
Machine Learning, and advanced Data Analytics to provide dynamic segmentation,
predictive content, and deep personalization. This helps channel marketers utilize
valuable information on partner behavior, potentials, and insights to make better
decisions.
Convergence Of PRM And Channel Incentive Programs
Most B2B organizations depend heavily on indirect channels to accelerate growth and
market development. Channel marketing teams in the organization operate various
initiatives such as marketing and incentive programs. Each program runs on its own
objectives and goals. It is not uncommon to find that many different channel marketing
and incentive programs operate in an organization simultaneously using multiple
platforms, processes, and structures. These create inefficiencies and, most
importantly, consume organizational resources such as time and money and make
redundancies.
In fact, on many occasions, these programs pursue overlapping objectives, data inputs,
and worse, even over incentivizing for the same actions. Due to the lack of integrated
and centralized PRM systems, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to track,
measure, and consolidate the overall impacts each program delivers.

4. Channel marketers realize that having an integrated PRM platform, a set of well-defined
channel processes, and access to industry best practices will bring significant
advantages to channel engagement, such as:
• Unified channel view – access initiatives past and present
• Avoid redundancies – leverage information and assets available
• Partner experience – simplify processes and messages
• Better ROI – reuse and consolidate to save cost
• Consolidated data – comprehensive analytics and insights
Well-designed PRM and Channel Incentive programs help manage and achieve these
objectives faster. Further, these solutions integrate with commerce, sales, marketing,
and services to give a unified front to the channel partners to interact with the brands
seamlessly.
As organizations plan their channel strategies for the 2020s, a few key areas need
alignment:
• Flexible program design
• Comprehensive data strategy
• Compliances with corporate and regulatory requirements
• Adherence to social, ethical, and environmental responsibilities
As distribution channel management goes through technological and digital
transformation, PRM and Channel Incentives solutions bring a competitive advantage
for brands in their channel relationships. Channel marketers play a pivotal role in
engaging, designing, and driving great channel programs in the future. PRM programs
will help redefine the new channel ecosystems, which positively impact the
organization, society, and environment for the greater good.