Channel Partner Experience (also known as CPX) is defined by each and every interaction your channel partner has with your organization throughout the entire partnership.
CPX is integral to the success of all organizations involved. With great CPX you can attract and retain the very best partners to grow with. You can stand out amongst the competition and increase market share. IRF case studies have shown that non-cash channel programs can increase total revenues by 32%, increase market share by 30%, and increase net operating income to 19% of revenue.
So, the question arises, how does your organization create a great Channel Partner Experience?
- Develop a strategy that aligns with your business goals
- Have a clear earning structure / concrete qualifiers
- Create a compelling communication campaign
- Prioritize product education and skill training
- Central Hub – Everything in one place
Develop a strategy that aligns with your business goals
Start with outlining your businesses key objectives. Common business objectives would be to grow revenue, increase sales in a specific category or product line, or to gain mindshare. You can deliver an exceptional partner experience by aligning go-to-market activities, growth goals, and corporate strategy in partner programs.
Have a clear earning structure /concrete qualifiers
Incentive programs stem from the theory that rewards drive behavior. Applied to the Channel setting, incentive programs enable organizations to produce targeted results by rewarding partners who are responsible for those results. Earners should feel that their goals or objectives are attainable.
If there is a qualifier to start earning in the program, it must be clear and simple. When your program earning structure is clear, partners know what activities earn rewards. Unnecessary complications reduce motivation and discourage participation.
Some examples of earning activities include growing sales, increasing adoption of new products, and engaging in learning initiatives.
Create a compelling communications campaign
Communicating with partners who interact with customers is essential to understanding their challenges and providing the right support. When distributors feel supported, they remain more engaged in programs and are more likely to think of your products first when helping customers solve problems and address needs. Every campaign needs a plan and every touchpoint needs to engage, delight, and compel your specific audience.
A rewards platform, like ours, provides a cadence of regular communication, impactful promotions, and fresh content, which all work together to gain mindshare with dealers because you’re motivating them to sell more and making it easy to serve their customers.
Prioritize product education and skill training
Providing them with the knowledge and skills needed allows them to adjust quickly to market changes for continued success. Additionally, working directly with your partners on strategic planning and alignment allows them to be more adaptable. Adaptability is a key performance indicator for your dealers and distributors. Offering learning modules reps can easily access is incredibly useful for helping them adapt to keep pace.
Vendors often bombard dealers offering marketing materials and vying for attention; simply being easy to do business with can promote your brand above others. Providing uncomplicated tools, understandable messaging, essential training, and collaboration increases your mindshare with dealers. Offering a learning platform that helps to deliver all of this makes a difference. But only if it’s easy to learn, intuitive to use, and allows reps to find what they need quickly.
Central Hub - Everything in place
How are you supposed to coordinate and execute all of this without juggling many excel files and different software apps? Enter Core Rewards and our enterprise-wide communication, recognition, and reward redemption platform. Our rewards platform makes it easy to offer a wonderful Channel Partner Experience, providing insight and ROI to stakeholders with full visibility of all data, key metrics, and reporting.
1WorldatWork and Vivient Consulting. (2021, July). Incentive pay practices: Privately held companies. Retrieved from https://worldatwork.org/media/CDN/resources/surveys/2021_Incentive%20Pay%20Practices-Privately%20Held.pdf
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