Channel Partner Management and Expanding to International Market

There is no question that manufacturing companies or parent companies put great efforts into selecting the best partners, and establishing a lasting and fruitful business relationship with them. But the challenge doesn't stop there. Once an agreement is settled between the two parties, it is important for the manufacturing company to design and implement an efficient channel partner management platform.

A management platform seeks to maintain a rewarding business relationship between a parent company and its partners, or to resolve an inefficient or unproductive partnership and increase revenue or investment returns. Effective channel management is a critical component of a supplier's business tasks since it ensures many benefits, such as extended geographic reach, savings on operating costs, and lesser risks when entering a new market.

Expanding to an international market is an exciting opportunity for growth, but it also poses greater management challenges for supplying companies. While looking for channel partners may be relatively easy, managing a business relationship with them could be difficult. There may be obstacles that are unique to the target regions, and may therefore require greater efforts to reach out to partners.

Part of lessening the risks that come with international expansion is carrying out a well-planned and documented research. How is the market like in your target country or region? What are the possible geographical or cultural challenges you will encounter, and how do you plan to resolve them? Do you have any prospect networking contacts that you can ask for recommendations and advice? Do you have an idea about what your target partners are looking for in a manufacturing company? What could possibly motivate these resellers into establishing a partnership with you as their supplier instead of the competitors?

After completing the research work and eventually sealing the joint venture with international partners, the next big step is to come up with an efficient management platform. This is the part where manufacturers may need to enlist the help of channel partner management specialists. Some of the key management tasks stated by experts include analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their resellers, determining profitability of the partnerships, identifying resellers with the best and worst performance, and calculating necessary management efforts in the future.

Specialists also mention that an organized sales process is necessary, and that it should have an appropriate reporting arrangement for the partners. Although resellers will have their own sales force that will not be directly under the parent company's supervision, the partners' supervisors will be handing over progress and performance reports. Figures from such reports will be helpful for the manufacturers in determining whether the partnership is successful or needs to be developed.

With an international partnership venture, all these are affected by geographical or cultural barriers that are all part of challenges involved in channel partner management. To address this, supplier companies look for solutions such as partner portals and regular call conferences to communicate with partners. Portals are often web-based applications which give partners exclusive access to all the resources and tools provided by manufacturers. Technological advancements have made it easier for suppliers to create portals with multimedia features and foreign language support to ensure effective communication with their resellers.



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