A partner portal can make it so much easier to manage, enable and engage partners and distributors. Here, we’ve added everything you need to know about partner portals – and what they can do for you and your partners.
A partner portal is a digital space where you partners can get access to everything they need to sell your product. Which, in turn, means that partners will be able to find resources, tools, infomation, marketing -and sales content in one single place. Really great partner portals will also allow partners to collaborate with you, to have a direct line of communication and be notifed when new products are launched or when new product material is available.
The question is how to find the right partner portal for you, and what features it should actually include…
What should you look for in a partner portal?
Based on our experience, on data and customer interactions, we’ve compiled an easy checklist with the features that we’ve seen are valuable. If you’re talking to vendors, you can use this checklist to see what you need – and whether or not the vendor has what you’re looking for.
What are the benefits of using a partner portal?
While the benefits will differ depening on your unique organization and situation, we’ve seen that many companies can:
1. Save a lot of time
Partner managers and distributor sales reps can spend countless hours emailing partners, answering questions etc. If this is you, a partner portal with chat capabilities and notifications can help you and your team save an enomous amount of time – by letting you quickly see who needs help, answering questions without delay and not missing a question because an email disappeared in the inbox.
2. Control the product message
If your partners get your material via email, or download it right from a drive, it’s pretty much impossible to know what material they end up using when talking with customers. It can be an old version. It can be something they made themselves or a piece of material that just accidentally happened to be shared with them. With a partner portal that allows you to control and update material to the latest version, and see exactly who shares what with whom, you can escape this bad loop and finally gain control of your message.
3. Make data-driven decisions
The difficult part about partner sales is that you’re a few steps removed from the action: you don’t know exactly what your partner is doing, who is putting in the work and how customer interactions go. This makes it extemely difficult to make the right decisions, to expand in areas where you’re getting traction, help partners who are struggling and reward those who are truly engaged. A partner portal that lets you track interactions and actually see what is shared with customers – and when – can help you solve it. It can even let you make tuly data-driven decisions that help you strategically expand you reach and grow larger than ever.
4. Boost partner engagement and performance
You know how it is. You’ve shared a gigantic folder of material with partners, you keep calling or emailing but the partners’ attention is elsewhere. They don’t see it, and they don’t actively go look for news and updates. This, in turn, makes it difficult to keep them engaged and active, which translates to a loss of mindshare and lower perfomance. A partner portal that lets you engage partners, pull them back to the portal with functions like video messages, dynamic notifications and a nice design, can make this so much easier. It can ensure that partners don’t just know where to look for material, answers and information – but that they constantly come back for more.
5. Build a smooth experience that translates to results
If it’s hard to reach you, difficult to find the right material, it can halt your partners’ sales momentum and even make them lose a sale. This is especially common if your partner simply gets access to a gigantic chunk of information, instead of the actual material they need. By giving them a partner portal where you’ve added the relevant information, where they can ask questions and receive prompt answers, you can solve this quickly – and get results just as fast.
The SP CE Partner Portal
If you’re after any of the benefits above, or struggling with the daunting task of managing, enabling and engaging a large volume of partners, the SP CE Partner Portal is here to help. It will let you manage all partners from one place, give them personal, dedicated portals filled with the right material and answer any questions they have in an easy-to-use chat. And when it’s time to update material to a new version, you can do so everywhere at once – simply by clicking a button.
Curious to learn more? Contact us today to see how SP_CE works in action or read more in our Partner Portal FAQ
