Channel Management - Using Deal Registration to Reduce Conflicts

Partner channel sales account for majority of the total sales with an estimated 70% compared to 30% of direct sales from technology, manufacturing and consumer goods in the United States. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 5M sales people were responsible for the 70% indirect sales in the high tech, manufacturing and distribution industry.

Conflicts with partners
With complex business processes like channel management, challenges are expected. Vendors can have many channel partners around the world, not just in their countries. Managing them includes ironing out channel conflicts that are bound to come up sooner or later. Conflicts arise because of major competition between resellers or resellers and vendors. With high value products or vertical markets, competition is fierce because of the limited number of customers. A reseller may have their potential lead stolen under their noses by another reseller from the same vendor at anytime before a deal is finalized. There are cases where the vendor itself would compete with the partner to claim the entire profit for themselves. Fortunately, there are software solutions or web based applications that are available to channel managers that can help facilitate channel partner activities.

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Importance of deal resignation
Deal registration is an important module of every channel partner portal or software. The objectives of deal registration are to enable partners to register leads, improve workflow and turn leads to sales opportunities. The deal registration is initialized when a channel partner submits a potential deal to be reviewed by the channel manager. The module finds duplicate deals and when a duplicate is located, the system automatically sends notification to the channel partner that the deal is rejected. If however, the deal is unique, then it is approved and the sales cycle can begin.

With multiple channel partners in a local area, conflict would arise because of too much competition. Assigning unique deals to each partner ensures that the market is covered but is not oversaturated.

Since 2005, deal registration software have moved from a fancy tool for big vendors into a must have tool for majority of vendors. It has been proven to be the best solution to channel conflicts especially for companies with Value Added Resellers or VARs, and platinum to gold resellers. However the system is only effective depending on the managers and resellers that actually use it.

Implementation and execution
In the integration of deal registration in the channel management process, managers must be consistent with the new implementation. It is important that the executives, with the sales department, are clearly briefed on the objectives of the vendor in investing on this tool. Be honest and fair in dealing with the channel partners. If the channel partner feels that the system is fair, then they would be further motivated to sell.

Managers have to make sure that the partner portal has a user-friendly interface the reseller can easily use. Having a complicated interface would only dissuade the reseller from registering; therefore, the system would result in failure. It is important to choose the right deal registration module that will eliminate most of the paperwork associated with sales reports. A fully automated partner portal would guarantee that the resellers won't spend valuable time manually compiling reports, vouchers, etc.

Channel Management - Using Deal Registration to Reduce Conflicts

A computer graduate and loves to travel. Reading current news in the internet is one of his past times. Taking pictures of the things around him fully satisfies him. He loves to play badminton and his favorite pets are cats and walk with them in the park with some dogs.

You may want to take a look at a Channel Management web page for more information and details or you may call us directly at 877 226 2564 (TOLL FREE).

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Reduce Operating Costs, Gain efficiency, and Compete Effectively with VoIP

Imagine phones (that look like regular phones as we-know-it-today) connecting to the Internet via an Ethernet jack (similar to a PC) instead of the phone plug on the wall. These are called IP-based phones. These phones do not use analog phone lines - instead they get connected to the Internet. One would pick up the receiver and make a phone call just as it is done today and VoIP converts the human voice into IP packets (data similar to email data) and pushes it out through the Internet to the phone switch where it is terminated. In a nut shell, VoIP digitalizes voice into data packets, sending them and reconverting them back into voice at destination.
What are the benefits of VoIP and why you should consider it? To compete effectively in the eWorld, a decent businesses infrastructure MUST HAVE two essential components: A High-speed Internet connection and a sophisticated phone system.

Up until now, to build a solid infrastructure, small businesses had to spend lots of money for having multiple phone lines, perhaps an 800 line, fax line, credit card machine, to name a few. These days the ONLY essential component to worry about is having a reliable high-speed Internet connection. Connectivity can be addressed with either cable or DSL service (typically 0 per month) through cable providers such as Comcast, RCN, etc. and DSL can be provided through the Verizons of the world. The good news is that with the arrival of VoIP, there is no need to pay a dime for multiple phone lines, any phone system (PBX), any local/long distance calls, phone maintenance, etc. At 30% to 50% less than the cost of a typical phone system, a VoIP system will provide a more sophisticated system with increased functionality than any analog phone system. It offers an enterprise-level system that was affordable ONLY by fortune 500 companies. Now small businesses can compete like big corporations at a fraction of the cost!

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Small businesses are beginning to realize that IP-based phone system streamlines their communications needs and their call flow in ways that was not possible a year ago. As a result they can improve the customer experience and combined with wireless IP communications, employees can become completely mobile. The beauty of it is that IP enables the phone to be anywhere - this is a perfect solution for companies with remote/satellite offices who wish to have one uniform phone system for all employees regardless of their location.

There's a whole list of benefits unlocked by VoIP beyond the obvious. One of the most important advantages of using VoIP is reliable continuity. Imagine having a system that can stay operational through the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, or the August blackout and a whole list of building failures by the central phone system. In a typical VoIP system the main elements of the network are offsite, they're automatically protected from these sort of issues. Another benefit is, unlike a traditional phone system [Time-Division Multiplexed TDM], where the environment is a common point of failure, in a VoIP it is very easy to put in redundancy in which all clients connect to the outside world by more than one path. This guarantees phone connectivity and no call is ever lost.
IP telephony lowers the costs of communications system tremendously while increases productivity in more ways than one. Consider a world where ALL communications, including eMail, voice messages, conference calls, and/or even wireless devices can be integrated through a single system where employees, no matter of the location, can be contacted. For companies with multiple locations, VoIP system can eliminate the need for several receptionists - which is growing in popularity.

The benefits of VoIP are endless. It eliminates the need for having an expensive PBX system; it saves time and resources associated with the maintenance & supporting such systems; it removes the hassle of dealing with phone companies; on and on ... while offering a superior phone system at 30% to 50% of the cost.

Reduce Operating Costs, Gain efficiency, and Compete Effectively with VoIP

About the Author: Hadi Shavarini is the co-founder of Blue Robin Inc. – an eBusiness Infrastructure company located in Waltham Mass. He can be reached at hadi@bluerobininc.com

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