Here’s a great quote to get you thinking, from the inventor of the ‘money-back-guarantee’, John Wanamaker:
Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.
Most marketers have a fixation with a particularly potent question: What’s actually working? It’s a tricky one to answer. Even the sharpest minds of Madison Avenue’s Mad Men era, like Don Draper, couldn’t definitively pinpoint which campaigns drove results.
The stakes are even higher in the complex world of channel marketing, where a strong CRM or marketing automation platform alone isn’t enough to solve the problem. There’s no need to lose sleep mulling the question, though. When paired with the right tools, these systems can do what once seemed impossible: accurately measure the return on marketing investment (ROI) and reveal the true drivers of revenue growth.
The Complexity of Channel Sales
In most offices that you’ll walk into, the CRM operates as a “single source of truth” for managing customer relationships and sales opportunities. The challenge is that things aren’t quite so simple in the world of B2B technology sales, because there’s rarely a single, unified truth—especially when channel partners are involved.
Most analysts estimate that 65–70% of B2B technology sales are made through indirect channels, like distributors and resellers. These partners operate their own CRM and marketing tools, which rarely integrate with vendor systems. As a result, vendors rely on manually collected sales data from partners—a process prone to errors and inconsistencies.
So, with that in mind, ask yourself: How can vendors accurately measure what’s driving revenue growth? Is it direct marketing campaigns, trade shows, or channel partners’ efforts? And how can they gather reliable data across all these disparate sources?
It isn’t actually a difficult question to answer. By integrating partner relationship management (PRM) tools, deal registration platforms, and marketing automation systems with CRMs, vendors can connect the dots between upstream marketing efforts and downstream sales outcomes.
Here’s how:
1. Partner Management
The first thing to understand is how to extract the most value from that PRM investment. While all PRMs and partner portals help track contacts, segment partners, and monitor activity, many vendors fail to use this data effectively.
Incorporating a deal registration platform into a partner portal can change that. These platforms allow partners to share pipeline data directly with vendors, creating a streamlined, automated process. This integration boosts efficiency, reduces costs by eliminating manual data collection, and improves accuracy.
The result? Vendors can prioritize investments in high-performing partners and market segments, setting the stage for more strategic growth.
2. Customer and Opportunity Mapping
The single most significant reason to integrate your deal registration platform with your CRM is opportunity mapping. This powerful function directly links reseller marketing activities to leads, opportunities, and, ultimately, sales.
With automated data capture, vendors gain visibility into their partners’ pipelines and can forecast revenue with greater precision. This isn’t possible with a standalone CRM, which lacks the depth of information needed to connect marketing efforts to outcomes.
By enabling opportunity mapping, vendors can finally measure the ROI of partner marketing initiatives and tie them directly to their bottom line.
3. Closing the Attribution Loop
Finally, you need to properly close the attribution loop—connecting vendor marketing efforts with partner activities to drive opportunities.
This process involves linking the vendor’s marketing automation system with the partner’s systems, using the deal registration platform as a bridge. The result is a unified view of marketing performance, often described as a “single pane of glass.”
In the past, this level of integration was only achievable through labor-intensive partner marketing automation tools and vendor-managed market development funds. It’s much more straightforward today thanks to the advanced technology available. In no time you can seamlessly align both systems, providing a comprehensive view of how partner marketing contributes to sales and revenue.
Beyond ROI: Building Smarter Partner Programs
Of course, measuring ROI is just the beginning. Vendors can maximize their partner programs by leveraging additional PRM tools, such as:
Content Distribution Modules: Share targeted, co-branded content with partners.
Training and Enablement: Equip partners with the knowledge and resources they need to succeed.
Advanced Reporting: Gain deeper insights into partner performance and refine strategies accordingly.
By combining these elements with a deal registration platform, vendors can transform their channel programs into a strategic advantage.
