At Zift Solutions, we see partner relationship management’s (PRM) role in channel ecosystems as being the functionality that enables partners to most effectively interact with a supplier’s offerings, including services, other partners, or resources. This functionality helps partners get everything they need from one place–or provides a place that ties every offering together.
With ZiftONE, and through features like Provider Locator, we directly connect members of the channel ecosystem to one other. Our goal is to deliver technologies to suppliers to better manage their ecosystems. We do that through three features:
1) Partner Finder
ZiftONE’s Partner Finder feature provides an entirely new way for partners to find other partners to work with. Through the feature, channel partners can look for a specific partner that will meet their needs. Partners can also promote themselves to other partners by creating a profile that highlights the skills, services, and complementary products they can bring into a deal. From there, partners are able to directly contact each other.
As an example, one of our customers is a semiconductor chip manufacturer. Their partners require assistance designing these chips and then need further help locating someone to build the boards for their chips. All in all, our customer’s partners are responsible for accessing many other partners to get their jobs done. Partner Finder provides a simpler way for all partners to locate each other and create a finished product.
Partner Finder is the first step in enabling partners to evaluate each other and identify the best partner for them. This feature generates distributed leads that give suppliers visibility into who is contacting who. The partners can then convert those leads into deals, further providing visibility into how partners are getting connected.
2) Multi-Partner Deal Registration
Multi-Partner Deal Registration offers a way for partners to document when other partners are collaborating with them on deals. By enabling and rewarding stronger partner collaboration, suppliers provide an environment where one partner can work with another to close business. This adds value to the partners while also working to improve the end customer’s experience.
For example, imagine a hardware manufacturer. They sell through many partner types. One of their partners might have a strong relationship with a customer; following a merger, this customer now has a location across the country where the partner doesn’t have a presence. The manufacturer can reach out to a partner in that location to help close the deal or take on the installation and servicing of the product. With Multi-Partner Deal Registration, they can also document this collaboration and make it visible to the hardware manufacturer, who can then reward each partner’s participation in a deal accordingly.
Multi-Partner Deal Registration also allows partners to create a more accurate representation of a deal to show all the partners involved. This includes non-transacting partners who have had a huge influence on the deal closing, giving ZiftONE customers a more accurate picture of who is actually influencing customer decisions.
3) Provider Locator
The Provider Locator feature is focused on connecting channel partners with the service providers they need to best sell a supplier’s product. By connecting partners with approved providers, suppliers can have peace of mind that the listed agencies will maintain foundational brand and market understanding. Within the ZiftONE portal, partners are empowered to search for whatever they need within their geographical area–and then connect with the appropriate providers.
Curious about the use case of Provider Locator? Picture a large global technology company that operates in many regions and many languages. After finding that partners using their own agencies were creating sub-par marketing materials, they were able to use Provider Locator to make available the agencies that their corporate teams worked with in each region. Doing so made it clear who could provide the highest quality services for their brand.
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If you’d like to learn more about Zift Solutions and the ZiftONE features that can provide harmony within your channel ecosystem, contact a member of our team at this link.
