What can throw a lot of people in the first instance is that they don’t even understand the source of those headaches. Being able to identify whether any (or all) of these problems apply to you is a good first step in addressing the pain points that keep you up at night:
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Conflicts Between Partners
We have a competitive industry by nature, and partners and vendors often compete for the same deals. This is healthy and good for all when it works, however, it can easily lead to confusion around who holds the rights to a customer account. When the systems are inadequate, it’s hard to address this confusion efficiently. Consequently, your channel experiences low morale and inefficiencies.
Unfortunately, it only gets worse as your channel program scales.
For this reason, it’s important to establish clear processes for deal registration and conflict resolution as early as possible. Partners must feel confident that the rules are fair and consistently enforced. Otherwise, they’re unlikely to stay engaged long-term.
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Portal Clutter and Poor Navigation
It’s the proverbial needle in the haystack: When content is not personalized or segmented, partners struggle to find what they need or understand the next steps. Incredibly, too many vendors have PRMs that allow that to happen.
It should be a priority to offer a well-organized, user-friendly portal tailored to each partner’s individual needs. Do that and you ensure that partners can focus on driving results rather than navigating unnecessary complexity.
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Lack of Visibility into Partner Activity
Channel managers are typically time poor and shouldn’t have to rely on constant follow-ups or logging into multiple platforms to gather updates.
A robust PRM solution should centralize this data, offering real-time visibility into partner activity. This approach not only saves time for the poor channel manater, but also empowers managers to focus on strategic decision-making rather than administrative tasks.
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Limited Insight into Partner Influence
Here’s another area where limited analytical capabilities can cut deep into the effectiveness of a channel program: Many channel managers lack the tools to measure how effectively partners drive sales. Determining credit in multi-partner deals is particularly challenging, leading to missed opportunities and inefficiencies.
Again, the answer is relatively straightforward. You need a platform with a data-driven approach to tracking partner contributions to properly understand your channel’s performance.
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Difficulty Measuring ROI
No one likes to play guessing games, let alone with something as important as ROI. Yet channel managers constantly find themselves funding partner participation in an event and simply hoping that it was worth the spend without tangible evidence of success.
One of the priorities of any modern PRM strategy should be to collect metrics that show which activities and investments are delivering the greatest returns. Suddenly the channel manager will be more confident in allocating funds, and the partners will also appreciate the clarity in understanding why funds get allocated the way they do.
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Lack of Integration Between Systems
Finally, data silos are another common cause of migraines. We all know this at this point – it’s one of the great drum beats in technology. When systems don’t communicate seamlessly, it leads to inefficiencies, errors, and extra manual work.
Yet silos still exist everywhere, particularly in areas where channel managers go looking for data.
An integrated system ensures accurate, up-to-date information flows across platforms, enabling smarter decisions and reducing administrative burden.
The Simple Solution to All These Challenges: Vartopia
Once you know where the common pain points are, you can start to look for solutions. There is a platform that can address all of them. Vartopia, a purpose-built channel management solution, is designed to tackle these issues head-on.
Here’s how Vartopia can transform your channel program:
Overcome PRM Challenges with Vartopia
Vartopia simplifies partner relationship management, helping you overcome common challenges while boosting efficiency and results. Ready to see how Vartopia can revolutionize your channel program?
