Today, increased competition and the hunt for attention are driving partnership and affiliate marketing every single year. PRM software is helping brands realize these opportunities by providing the best marketing automation tools and sales channels that exist.
Now to understand which and how these partnership portals work and which are suitable for you, we have listed down the best PRM software for businesses based on their pricing, features, integrations, support, knowledge base, and more.
So let’s get started.
What is the Best PRM Software?
Here are some of the best PRM software to use this year.
1. Salesforce PRM
Salesforce PRM is a partnership management portal managing onboarding, and sales, offering personalized partner experience and collecting performance statistics. Plus, it offers you a quick-start tool that includes support and training to partners to sell more products.
The partner ecosystem designed by Salesforce is to help partners discover necessary files and recommended content they need as fast as possible. The AI system developed makes sure that the partner spends more time on sales and not on digging for information.
Salesforce also provides AI-generated personalized connections to groups based on needs, behavior, community participation, etc. Furthermore, you can integrate this with Salesforce CRM to monitor sales and analyze MDFs distributed.
Key Features
- Detailed Insights – This allows you to distribute reports to your partners to help them track their KPI for cross-selling opportunities and upselling.
- Seamless Collaboration – Offers a smooth team collaboration by providing easy access to feature updates, subject expert content, trends, and more. Plus, people can integrate videos, records, and other valuable information to share with fellow team members.
- Knowledge Portal – This allows you to create a knowledge base that resolves most of the customer queries. Through this customers can solve their queries on their own by raising tickets.
- Pre-built Campaigns – Salesforce allows you to add content from your current content management system (CMS) to create a guided setup for your partners. You can also later customize this information access that partners need to sell.
Pros
- Deal registration and lead distribution
- Operates on a centralized information-sharing system.
- Manages MDF and allows to co-develop marketing strategies
- Provides multiple third-party integrations
- Automates claims and fund request processes for your partners
- Helps build and track distributed marketing campaigns for your partners
- Provide you access level controls to different data sources for your partners
Pricing Plans
Salesforce PRM is available as an add-on with the Sales Cloud and costs $25 per member per month. However, the tool is only available with the Enterprise and above plans.
2. Impact Partnership
Impact partnership focuses on partners’ engagement across all digital platforms and tracks their performance. It supports nearly all types of partnerships like channel programs, non-profits, sponsorships, ambassadors, marketers, affiliates, etc.
The tools discover all potential partners that are completely aligned with your brand and goals. Then once there is an agreement reached between you and your partner the tools generates an electronic contract that pays according to each partner’s contribution.
Furthermore, the tool offers features like current offers, product details, recent catalogs, and marketing strategies. etc. to allow partners to promote the brand easily.
Key Features
- Protect Monitor – Detects and deletes unwanted bots and fraud to maintain a high-quality partnership.
- Partner Rewarding Program – This feature allows you to reward partners based on real-time data of profits, customers acquired, etc. Plus, it is equipped with cross-border transactions to make sure there are no payment hassles.
- Performance Reports – Provides 40+ performance reports to give partners performance insights. This performance can be sorted based on their high-value customers, promo code, SKU, geolocation, etc.
Pros
- Social Promotion
- Affiliate management and tracking.
- Supports payments in 70+ currencies
- Integration with APIs allows tracking across all platforms.
- Allows you to send hundreds of personal messages to engage partners.
- Partner drip campaigns with an automated email system
- Commission and banner management
- Allow you to form an association with global giants like Lenevo, Uber, etc.
- Perform partner evaluation
- Provides a centralized repository of marketing assets
Pricing Plans
Impact offers two pricing plans:
- Pro Plan – Starting at $500 per month (Includes onboarding, custom contract management, cross-device tracking, automated payouts, etc.)
- Enterprise Plan – Starting at $2500 per month (Includes all in PRO plus buyer journey reporting, fraud protection, partner CRM, triggered emails, etc.)
You also have to pay a one-time setup fee that depends on the technical resources you require.
3. Impartner PRM
Impartner is a SaaS-based PRM solution that provides customized partnership portals to attract suitable partners. It allows you to run referral programs, optimize partners’ performance, and drive sales decisions for partners.
Other features offered by them are deal registration, upselling, marketing, partner tracking, managing partner performance, automated onboarding, etc. Moreover, the software offers multiple triggered workflows and pre-made templates to help you with the onboarding process.
You are allowed to create different journeys for multiple partners along with setting time-frame and activities for the assigned journey. Plus, it gives you the option to create certification courses and digital training for your partners.
Also, it helps you manage the performance of indirect sales channels of the partners. You even get access to all of the pipelines, conversations, etc from the software.
Key Features
- CRM integration – Facilitates integration with your current CRM and streamlines all-important customer data into the Impartner PRM solution.
- Lead Closure – This allows you to allocate the leads to the most appropriate partners and sales team. You can track closure rates, ROI, and even delegate leads.
- Performance Tracking – Offers real-time insights on the partner’s activities and incentives them based on their performance.
- Impartner Locator – Impartner Locator and Solutions Marketplace connects potential customers to the most suitable channel partner. Also offers partners the to self-promote their abilities along with relevant search filter options.
Pros
- Provides automated MDF solution
- Offers a Single Sign-On (SSO) Feature
- Supports International languages
- Salesforce Integration
- Allows customers to choose channel partners based on services, geolocation, certification, etc.
- Provides the ability to co-brand and personalize content
Pricing Plans
Quote-based plans
So now let’s cover the basics.
What is PRM Software?
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software is a set of software and strategies that enable companies to conduct a smooth business partnership with the existing partners as well as help them discover new potential partners.
The entire process is automated and every functioning of the partner-management process is taken care of by the software. This includes partner onboarding, sales payout, performance incentives, improvement suggestions, and more.
Companies that manage partner relationships using these systems also include a customer database, contact management tools, and a personalized partner portal. This portal contains all the information needed by the partner like training content, product, pricing, etc.
The primary objective of PRM software are as follows:
- Managing marketing development funds.
- Offer certification and training for partner onboarding
- Manage content and digital marketing strategies.
- Provide visibility to the partnership program
- Maintain distribution system and retain important information
- Analyze profits and sales using reporting tools
- Provide relevant improvement suggestions to the partners
- To eliminate redundant manual tasks like training, data entry, onboarding, etc.
- Provide a communication channel between partners’ network
- Scale partnership program by recruiting suitable partners
Additionally, this PRM software can be integrated with third-party CRM tools to further boost sales and revenue growth.
What Features Do You Need in PRM Software?
Every PRM Software comes with its own unique features with different functions and different costs. This all depends on what are your current requirements for your business partnership program.
However, here are some of the essential features to look for in your PRM platform:
1. Sales and Performance Tracking.
An ideal PRM software is capable of offering real-time analytics about sales and tracking progress and intervenes when something goes out of track.
Additionally, this analytical data should allow you to clearly understand the performance of your partners and channels. This will help you derive your future marketing strategies based on the future trends that the data is predicting.
Apart from this, it should offer other functionalities like deal registration, branding abilities, fraud prevention, etc. Plus, it should allow you to set up goals for your partners and incentivize them to keep them satisfied and motivated.
2. Automatic Partner Onboarding
PRM tools should take care of the automatic onboarding of suitable partners into the business. It should offer essential learning tracks and navigate the onboarded partner with the entire process.
Also, it should provide relevant training resources for each partner at the various development stages in the partnership program. Moreover, it should equip them with the right knowledge and skills to sell the products.
3. Resources Portal
The job of the resources portal should be to provide authentic information about the business instead of leaving partners to rely on unauthorized sources. They should be able to access essential brochures, documents, and other information once they login into their partner portal.
This is will help to avoid confusion and further smoothen the sales process for all partners.
4. Marketing Development Funds (MDF) Program.
MDF is designed to help partners that might require additional resources to achieve the targeted goal of sales. Partner management software with built-in MDF tools allows you to allocate these funds without much paperwork and uses automated payouts.
Plus, it offers a mechanism to check whether the funds are really directed towards sales or have just been squandered. Moreover, there will be an option to revoke funds once you find some unsuitable conditions.
Best PRM Software – Final Summary
This wraps up my list of the best PRM software. I will keep updating the list with other good PRM software available in the market.
These tools will surely help you discover and track your partner’s progress allowing you to incentivize them based on their performance. Before you choose any platform make sure it fits all the requirements that you are looking for in building a partnership program.
The ideal platform is the one that helps you in all of your partnership management lifecycle. Moreover, it should offer other crucial features like personalization, data sharing, the knowledge base for essential resources, filtering, and more.
Most of the above platforms are suitable for businesses of all different sizes and cater to all types of partners.
Which of these PRM software tools are you planning to use? Let me know by commenting below.
More from Smashitbuck: Do check out my other articles on remote access software, process manager software, and leadership traits to read this year.
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