How Do You Measure Partner Performance?

This blog series explores topics laid out in our free white paper:? 12 Essential Tips for Socializing the Channel

partner performanceOne of the most challenging aspects of building a successful partner channel is managing and monitoring partner performance. Many channel marketing executives describe MDF programs as funneling resources to partners with high expectations but little accountability for results. Sure, you can track the funds partners receive and the sales they produce in a Salesforce app, but everything in between is a black box obscuring vital information that could dramatically improve performance management.

* Which partners are actively executing programs?
* What topics are driving customer interest?
* Which partners are leading customer engagement?
* Which media channels are delivering results?

SocialRep provides visibility into partner marketing performance.

With this kind of information channel managers can make informed decisions about how to cultivate partners. More often, however, decisions are driven by a much simpler strategy: big partners get attention and resources because their success would move the needle, while smaller partners get cookie-cutter campaigns.

What this strategy ignores is really the biggest problem in channel marketing: regardless of size, some partners will aggressively execute your MDF programs to drive sales, but far too many will happily consume your resources and hope for the best. If the results are weak, well hey, everyone’s overworked and the campaign wasn’t that great anyway.

Visibility into partner performance means seeing how partners are marketing, what kinds of reaction they’re getting, what kind of market influence they can generate, and what quality of leads they can produce. That’s right.? What quality of leads your partners can produce.? When you can look beyond big and small partners, when you can see which partners are productive and which programs are effective, you can invest selectively in partners that engage markets, generate leads and deliver sales.

These kinds of partners are hiding plain sight in every channel community. They’re often small and hungry, and they will kick, scratch and claw they’re way to the next sale. They’ll leverage every dime of MDF funds to grow their business along with your bottom line, but they’re invisible amid a sea of other small partners pushing cookie-cutter campaigns.

Are you? measuring partner performance? in a way that allows you to invest your resources intelligently?

To learn more about SocialRep’s approach to measuring partner performance and download our white paper,? click here.

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