A structured and Well-Organized Partner Deal Registration Program Can Offer Numerous Benefits for Manufacturers
Deal registration programs provide a vital factor in a vendor’s value proposition. Deal Registrations provide vendors the measure to reward partners who are driving growth in their market share. Vendors are regularly looking to implement a deal registration program that increases channel revenue. Most vendors achieve this by enhancing their partners’ visibility and program participation.
However, implementing such a program requires a methodical and detailed approach. A strategy that focuses on encouraging, educating, and rewarding channel partners rather than exploiting their productivity and success as a means to gain a competitive and monetarily advantage.
But for manufacturers, they view their channel partners’ burden of closing leads as an opportunity. That’s because, in order to retain interest within their channel, manufacturers often place a deal registration program to incentivize partners to remain customers via monetary and business priority benefits.
Deal registration programs are arguably the most in channel partner marketing.
Why you ask?
Well, for one, deal registration demonstrates the power of blending sales and marketing into a closed-loop singular vehicle. The perfect catalyst to efficiency and lucratively instigate partner pre-sale activity as well as “off the shelf” productivity.
The combination of eradicating reseller pain points (i.e., channel conflict) and solidifying the bond of partner enablement (i.e., b2b longevity) makes deal registration an easy choice for manufacturers and vendors to implement repeatedly.
5 Key Characteristics of Deal Registration Programs:
1.) Secure communication with a distributor’s desired lead (with a reseller).
2.) Eliminate channel conflict for distributors. Or, exterminate the threat of stealing customers (either from the manufacturer’s in-house sales team or manufacturer’s affiliate channel partners).
3.) Increase profitability for a manufacturer’s channel partner.
4.) Clarify (and identify) a manufacturer’s target demographic or sales funnel.
5.) Generate transparency and longevity within the manufacturer/channel partner relationship.
Deal Registration Programs Are not Immune to Failure
However powerful and obvious deal registration may be, it is not immune to failure. Effective deal registration programs require a methodical approach; a partner program that is designed with thorough dedication and objective guidelines; an incentive that is transparently offered to all partners and done so without mandating endless loops or unreasonable requirements for eligibility.
Although deal registration is a channel industry best practice, a substantial percentage of to facilitate partner participation.
Here are a few reasons why:
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Unclear Margin Advantage
When a tangible, numerical percentage for registering deals is not provided or clearly stated, you can expect resellers to disregard your juicy incentive. Remember, channel incentive programs are marketing strategies. So, use terminology that is visually enticing to capture the interest of resellers.
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The inadequacy of Resources
Ultimately, your resellers represent an extension to your own internal sales team. And like your in-house team—who received comprehensive training on product functionality, customer FAQs, go-to-market strategy, executive support, and technical consultation—your resellers mandate the same or similar treatment. An inability to provide resellers with competency for registration risks not only program failure but demotivation to sell.
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Questions on Eligibility
What are the rules and objective parameters established by your company in order for resellers to participate in deal registration programs? Having an “all applies” approach to deal registration risks a catalog of potential and harmful issues; for example, erroneously submitted registrations, unwarranted partner compensation; channel and territory conflict; incapability to distinguish end-user and/or market trend of a product; etc.
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Poorly Designed Partner Portal Platform
Like you, your partners are exceptionally busy. If your incentive is more of an inconvenience and less of an incentive, you can expect your deal registration programs to suffer. Confusing partner portal platforms are largely to blame for this common b2b dissatisfaction. Therefore, it’s important that your user interface is easy-to-use and highly intuitive; in addition, registering opportunities should be simple and preserve an “A to Z” formula.
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Elongated Turnaround Time
Within any moment, an opportunity can vanish into the channel abyss. Partners depend on a timely, methodical process where their proposals are quickly reviewed and responded with a “yes or no.” So, if a registered deal is not responded within a 24 hours’ window it shouldn’t be an available incentive.