What is PRM Software?
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) software is an important tool that helps in affiliate and partnership marketing. It is a combination of the software, strategies, and processes that businesses use to streamline their business processes with partners who sell their products.
PRM software or systems are usually cloud or web-based and it comes with a partner portal and customer database. Most PRM software comes with a tool that allows companies and business owners to easily manage revenues, leads, and track sales metrics.
Partner relationship management software is an important tool all businesses need to manage and scale their brand’s partnership marketing.
How to Choose the Right PRM Software
Now that we know what a PRM software is, we will take a look at what PRM software should be able to achieve, and the kind of solution it should offer. A good PRM software should be able to do the following;
- Support customization, this will allow companies and businesses can personalize their software for their clients or partners.
- Access management feature to decide who can view what.
- Dashboards with partner performance management tools to measure and monitor goals using key performance indicators.
- Create partner portals for vendors to communicate and exchange data with other partners in the channel.
- It should be able to integrate easily with other contract management, project management, content management, and time management tools.
The Best PRM Software
Now that we know the functions and capabilities of a good PRM software. Let us take a look at some of the best PRM software around.
#1 Impact Partnership Cloud
Impact Partnership Cloud is such a great PRM software that will help you to keep your partners through effective communication across all social media platforms. It provides you with tools that will enable measure your impact of engagement. This is one efficient software that supports all partnership types, including ambassadors, affiliates, marketers, sponsorships, channel programs, and non-profits among others.
It helps to automate every area of your partnership by helping you to:
- Automate payout and contracting.
- Track and manage your progress.
- Source and recruit the right partners based on your goals.
- Optimize your decision-making process to achieve your predetermined goals.
- Groom and engage partners.
The way Impact Partnership Cloud work is that once your partner agrees to collaborate with you, it sets up an electronic contract that pays depending on your partner’s contribution.
You can share your recent catalogs, product details, and offers with your partners so that it is easy for them to promote your business. The key features on Impact Partnership Clouds are as follows;
- Protect Monitor: This helps you to maintain high-quality partnerships by easily detecting and cutting out frauds and cookies in your channel.
- Performance Reports: Impact helps you to track performance through the generated performance reports. Performance tracking will help you sort how well you are doing based on geolocation, promo codes, and SKU.
- Partner Rewarding Program: This is a feature that allows you to distribute monetary rewards electronically. Profit generated in real-time can be sent cross-border.
Advantages of Impact Partnership Cloud:
- You can settle payments in over 70 countries.
- You can send multiple messages to engage your partners.
- Affiliate tracking and management.
- It offers partner drip campaigns
- Social promotion.
- Automated email system.
- Commission and banner management.
- You can track across all platforms as it easily integrates with APIs.
- You can partner and form associations with global brands like Lenovo, and UBER when you use Impact
- Easy evaluation of partners and paying them accordingly.
- Offers a library of marketing assets that is centralized.
#2 Salesforce PRM
Salesforce PRM is the most suitable for training and partner onboarding. It is a partner management tool that helps you personalize onboarding, partner recruitment, and performance data collection. It also comes with a quick-start guide to support and train partners to increase sales.
You can recommend content to your partners and also let them know which files apply to them using the partner ecosystem on Salesforce. With the AI-generation information, your partners can focus more on selling as the stress of sourcing for the right information is taken away from them.
Salesforce can easily integrate with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software so that you can easily manage and analyze sales.
The important features on Salesforce PRM are as follows:
- Easy Collaboration: It allows you to have quick access to feature updates, subject experts, and you can align with your team members by sharing important information, videos, or integrate records.
- Pre-built Campaigns: You can add content from your Content Management System (CMS) to create detailed setups for your partners. This helps to give partners access to the information they need to sell.
- In-depth Insights: This feature allows you to send reports to your partners so that they can track KPIs for cross-selling and upselling.
- Knowledge Base: This is a feature with which you can create a knowledge base that will provide answers to all frequently asked questions. This will help your customers or clients to solve their problems by themselves or in extreme cases raise tickets.
Advantages of Salesforce PRM
- Deal registration and lead distribution.
- It can easily integrate with many third-party apps.
- It serves as hub for information-sharing.
- Automates claims processes and funds requests.
- You can help your partners build, manage, and track marketing campaigns.
- Provides authorized access to certain partners while restricting data.
- Helps to manage MDF and Co-develop marketing campaigns.
#3 Impartner PRM
This is a PRM software that is well-suited for allocating leads that are quote-based to the right partners. It is a SaaS-based PRM tool that will help you to boost sales through partners and also referral programs. You can customize and update your portal so that you can attract the right partners.
Impartner allows you to create multiple partner journeys and also set completion time for each step and processes within the journey. It is a PRM software that also enables you to create certification courses and training for your partners.
You can manage and track partner performance of your indirect salespersons using Impartner. It also gives you access to all conversions and pipelines.
The key feature in Impartner PRM are as follows;
- Impartner Location: The Impartner locator helps to connect customers to the most appropriate partners so that their needs can be met. It allows search filters that streamline what is right for your partners so that they can market their abilities efficiently.
- Lead Closure: This feature allows you to share your leads with the sales team and your partners. With this, you can choose the most appropriate partners for each of the leads. Lead delegation and tracking are also easy with this feature.
- Performance Tracking: This is to allow you to have insights into your partner’s performance in real-time, so that you can provide incentives where applicable.
- CRM Integration: The Impartner PRM software makes it easy for you to integrate your CRM for efficient management of customer data.
Advantages of Impartner PRM:
- MDF solutions that are automated.
- Easy integration with Salesforce.
- Single Sign-on (SSO).
- Supports several international languages.
- It can co-brand and personalize content.
- It allows customers to select the right channel partners with regards to certification, services, and geolocation.
#4 Allbound PRM
This software is most suitable for learning to guide your partners and it is also quote-based. Allbound is a PRM software that provides a central portal where both partners managers and partners can work together as a team.
Allbound also provides Customer Success features that help with co-branding, onboarding, channel insights, deal registration, and marketing collaboration among others.
The central portal can be customized to suit your brand and to provide answers to all partner questions. It will also allow you to set the security actions for maximum confidence in your partner’s portal.
Allbound PRM software has pre-designed templates that can help you collect required information, request for MDFs, and track ROI. It also has a content library that helps you streamline your search for certain partner’s needs, industry, and role.
The actions that you can control and set in your partner’s portal include the following;
- Maximum session length.
- Session inactivity timeout.
- 2FA (Two-factor authentication).
- Partner portal to incorporate customized features that align with your brand.
- Customize and create Single sign-on pages.
Important features on Allbound PRM include the following;
- Tracking Partner Engagement: It has a partner dashboard that offers insight into your partner’s performances; it is there for planning. From this dashboard, you can track and analyze metrics such as spend returns, marketing returns, joint initiatives, quiz results, referred pipeline, and performance among others.
- Identify Engaged Partners: This feature allows you to use certification tests to determine the level of your partner’s education.
- Educational Tracks: This is a feature that allows you to build educational tips that will put new partners through the goal of the team. You can use this tool to also create a learning sequence based on the partner tier, type, or location.
Advantages of Allbound
- The portal has gamification features.
- Training modules generated by AI.
- Content library to make self-help readily available.
- You have control over your partner’s portal.
- It can easily integrate with marketing automation tools like Marketo, Hubspot, and Pardot among others.
- Calendar and contact management to manage your partners across board.
- You have the access to analyze how much engagement your content is attracting.
- It has a centralized communication platform to organize important features and emails.
#5. Channeltivity
Channeltivity is a PRM software that is perfect for big or large businesses. It is a cloud-based PRM software that simplifies deal registration, management of channel leads, MDF requests, and training among others. It can integrate seamlessly with Salesforce CRM and Hubspot.
Its integration with Salesforce CRM enhances data flow, deal registration, lead flow automation and reduces channel conflict. While on the other hand, its integration with Hubspot CRM enhances real-time pipeline visibility, data flow, and order management.
You can also create a self-services knowledge center where your partners can find important information. You will also have access to the MDF dashboard that offers visibility into funding. Your partners can easily request funds, generate revenue, and track usage using Channeltivity.
Important features on the Channeltivity PRM software include;
- Channel Lead Management: This is a feature that allows you to assign leads to partners, track their progress, and help your partners grow leads.
- Automated Messaging System: This feature helps you stay connected to your partners. With this feature, you can set reminders or notifications for deals that require your attention, for unopened deals and expiring MDF among others.
- Create Templates: Channeltivity is a system that allows you to create profiles, templates, and documents for all your partners. These pages can even be customized to show the order of interest.
Advantages of Channeltivity
- It allows you to manage your referrals and commissions.
- You can send email reminders to your partners in real-time.
- You can control and restrict access to documents and templates.
- It is capable of connecting with Zapier to integrate with many websites.
- It provides data analytics to monitor sales, workflow, and performance among others.
- All partner gets the accurate data at every point in time.
- It has both social sharing and collaboration options.
- It allows you to strategize on business ideas with your partners.
- It offers a single sign-on and it is GDPR-compliant.
#6 TUNE
TUNE is a PRM software that is most suitable for advertisers who work directly with influencers. TUNE is a powerful partner management tool that helps you source and manage new partners. You have control over all areas of the partnership cycle including payouts and onboarding.
TUNE has two editions; one is for networks, while the other one is for advertisers. This software is good for all kinds of partners whether publishers, affiliates, resellers, app makers, or business development relationships, you are good to go with TUNE.
Its tracking tool is one of its unique features. It offers you great tracking methods, cookieless tracking, postback tracking, and clickless tracking. It can easily integrate with most Mobile Measurement Partners (MMP) which enables it to get insights into installs, in-app purchases, and lots more. Its easy integration with MMPs also takes away the need for SDK.
Important features on TUNE include the following;
- Consolidate and Automate Workflows: This feature of TUNE helps you to automate processes and workflows like payouts, fraud prevention, and performance optimization.
- Partner Discovery Tool: The partner discovery feature helps to streamline your search for the right partner for your brand. TUNE provides a list of partners across all fields.
- Performance Tracking: With this feature, you can track the progress of your partners and also follow up on their performance.
2.6.1. Advantages of TUNE
- It has an in-built fraud prevention tool.
- SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II certified.
- It offers intelligent dashboards and granular reporting.
- You can set up actions that are event-triggered.
- Two-way API functionality for real-time decision-making and third-party integrations.
- It provides automated payouts and invoicing.
- It sends automated emails to your partners telling them about new promotions and campaigns.
- Targeting and server-side tracking.
#7 Magnetrix
Magnetrix is quote-based and is best suited for collaboration and data sharing with partners. Magnetrix is a PRM software that provides portals to help you increase productivity, collaboration and sales. It is capable of helping you automate several tasks such as onboarding, data entry, incentive management, leads sharing, and partner recruitment among others.
Other functions that are automated on Magnetrix include channel sales enablement, deal support, spreadsheets management, and pipeline management. It also offers you the chance of sourcing for collaboration in real-time, high-value sales opportunities, and gives you access to tracking performance data.
Magnetrix also has a gamification feature that helps you boost productivity and to engage your partners. You can give points based on performance and reward performing partners.
The top features on Magnetrix are as follows;
- Allows Feedback: It allows your customers or clients to give you feedback which will help you to analyze and adjust where necessary.
- Self-registration: It allows you to organize and automate your onboarding process which gives your partners the chance to register on their own. You have total control over the registration process as you can include terms and conditions that your partners must agree to.
- Streamlining MDF: This feature helps you to automate and manage Market Development Funding (MDF) to provide support for partners with the right marketing funds. This tool can also help you with approval, submission review, manage expenses, and processing of payouts.
Advantages of Magnetrix
- In-built content management tools.
- On-demand certification and training.
- It allows you to measure, track, and optimize your partner’s performance and progress.
- It offers details into channel management.
- It helps you organize training programs for different tiers.
- It helps you organize important data that can be beneficial to your partners.
Summary
Whichever PRRM software you want to get; you must put its capabilities to do certain things as a priority. The following are some of the important features to consider;
- Automated partner onboarding.
- Centralized resource portals.
- Marketing Development Funds (MDF) program.
- Performance and sales tracking.
These are some of the features you should watch out for when settling for a PRM software for your brand.