What Is Partner Relationship Management (PRM)?

What is partner relationship management (PRM)?

Partner relationship management (PRM) is software for managing the companies that sell for you: resellers, distributors, managed service providers, referral partners and other channel partners. It does for partners roughly what a CRM does for customers: it keeps the records, runs the processes and shows how each relationship is going.

The term can also mean the practice behind the software: how a company recruits, supports and grows its partners as part of its channel marketing and sales. When people search for PRM, though, they usually mean the system, also called PRM software, a PRM platform or partner management software. The glossary's short version is under partner relationship management.

What does PRM software do?

It runs the partner lifecycle, from application to renewal. The usual pieces:

• Recruiting: a partner application, screening, agreements and a profile for each partner.
• Onboarding: welcome steps, required documents and a checklist that gets a new partner ready to sell.
• Training and certification: courses, tests and a record of who is certified on what.
• Deal registration: a partner claims an opportunity, you approve it, and that partner is protected from others chasing the same deal.
• Incentives: rebates, discounts, sales bonuses and program levels tied to performance.
• The partner portal: one sign-in for news, price lists, sales tools, support and the rest of the program.
• Reporting: pipeline, revenue and activity by partner, often rolled into a scorecard.

Onboarding and training are a big part of what people call partner enablement, which we cover in what is partner enablement?

Is a PRM the same as a partner portal?

Not quite: the partner portal is the part of a PRM that partners see. The PRM also includes everything behind it that your channel team uses, like partner records, tiers, approval workflows and reporting.

Some companies run a portal without a full PRM, often a website section with logins and downloads. That works until you need to track deals, certifications or tiers, which is usually when the PRM conversation starts.

Who uses PRM software?

Mostly companies with a formal partner program and a sales channel they need to manage closely. It's most common in technology, software and telecom, where resellers, VARs and managed service providers sell alongside or instead of a direct sales team. Manufacturers that sell through distributors use it too, especially for deal registration and rebates. See channel partner marketing for how technology companies run those programs.

Inside the company, PRM is usually owned by channel sales or partner operations, with channel marketing as a heavy user. Franchise systems and agent networks tend to manage their partners in other systems, like franchise management or agency and licensing software, and may never call anything a PRM.

What is the difference between PRM and CRM?

A CRM manages your customers and your own sales team's deals; a PRM manages your partners and the deals they bring in. A CRM is built for people inside your company. A PRM is built for outside companies who sign in, see only their own data and follow your program's rules.

The two are usually connected. Partner records and registered deals sync into the CRM, so your forecast includes partner pipeline, and some PRMs are built on top of a CRM for exactly that reason. A CRM that gives partners limited logins can get you part of the way, but tiers, certifications, incentives and deal registration rules are where a CRM alone gets stretched.

How is PRM different from through-channel marketing automation?

PRM manages the relationship with partners; through-channel marketing automation runs the marketing partners do for you. PRM gets partners recruited, trained and paid. Through-channel marketing gets them launching approved, personalized campaigns, ordering print, using marketing funds and showing results.

Put another way, most of PRM is to-channel marketing: you communicating with your partners. Through-channel marketing works through them, to their customers. Many technology companies run both, connected by single sign-on. The full comparison, including which to buy first, is in TCMA vs. PRM.

What are the benefits of PRM?

• One place for partners. They stop hunting through emails and shared drives for price lists, training and forms.
• Faster onboarding. A standard path gets new partners selling sooner, with less hand-holding from your channel team.
• Less channel conflict. Deal registration makes clear who owns an opportunity, so partners don't undercut each other or your direct team.
• Clear incentives. Partners can see their tier, their rebates and what it takes to move up.
• Better forecasting. Partner pipeline sits next to direct pipeline instead of in spreadsheets.
• A view of partner health. You can see who's certified, who's registering deals and who has gone quiet.

What are the signs you need a PRM?

The clearest sign is that your partner program runs on email, spreadsheets and the memory of a few channel managers. Others:

• Onboarding a new partner means someone forwarding the same documents again.
• Partners argue over who found a deal, or a partner and your direct team both quote the same customer.
• Rebates and incentives are worked out in spreadsheets, and partners dispute them.
• You can't say which partners are certified, active or growing.
• Partners ask your channel managers for things they could find themselves.

If your real problem is that partners don't market, go off-brand or leave funds unspent, a PRM alone won't fix it. That's a marketing problem; see why partners don't use your marketing.

What are the common challenges with PRM?

Most come down to adoption and upkeep:

• Partners don't log in. A portal built around your processes instead of the partner's day gets ignored.
• Heavy setup. Complex tier rules and workflows take a long time to configure and longer to change.
• Stale data. Partner records drift out of date unless someone owns them, and everything else depends on them.
• Another login. Partners who sell for many vendors juggle many portals, so every extra step costs their attention.
• Marketing left out. Content libraries fill up with files partners still have to edit and launch on their own.

What should you look for in PRM software?

• A partner experience simple enough for someone who signs in once a month.
• Recruiting, onboarding and training that match how your program actually works.
• Deal registration with clear rules and quick approvals.
• Tiers and incentives you can change without a long project.
• A two-way connection to your CRM.
• Single sign-on and shared partner data with the other tools partners use, including partner marketing.
• Reporting your channel team will actually use: pipeline, activity and partner health.
• Onboarding and support for both your team and your partners.

Bring a few partners into the evaluation. Watching a partner try to register a deal tells you more than any demo from the vendor's side.

Where does OnBrandify fit?

OnBrandify is the Marketing Hub for brands that sell through partner networks. It isn't a PRM: it handles the marketing side (campaigns, materials, funds and fulfillment) and connects with the PRM or portal you already run, so partners find their marketing where they already work. See integrations and reporting, or request a demo and we'll show you how it would fit your program.