Staffing your PRM for Success

PRM Implementation is easy, but resourcing is critical. Just like your partner program, the key to a successful PRM system is having trained and competent people in charge. Partner portals are an important component of your channel program, but they do not run themselves. It is crucial that you’re properly staffed for your channel’s long-term success.

Documenting PRM Responsibilities

So how do you know what your PRM team should look like? The answer really depends on your short- and long-term program goals. Here are some questions to think about.

Partner Relationships:

• How many partners do you have?
• How many partners are you looking to add?
• Who will be responsible for reviewing and approving new partner applications?
• Who will handle the onboarding of new partners and what will that look like?
• What level of relationship do you wish to have with each partner?
• How much time per month do you wish to spend cultivating your relationships with each partner? Does it vary by tier?

Channel Program Details:

• What’s your current and expected deal registration flow?
• How involved is your channel team with individual deal registrations?
• Will you be doing joint business planning with your partners?
• What other programs (lead distribution/MDF/referrals) will be part of your channel?

Channel Marketing:

• What kind of communications will you have with your partners?
• Who will upload and manage your partner content?
• What kind of content do you have and where are the gaps that need to be filled?
• What do your ongoing content needs look like?
• Who will create the roadmap for content/program updates?
• Will you automate the creation of co-branded collateral?

Portal Administration:

• Who will administer your portal?
• What kind of automation can you leverage?
• Who is reviewing usage and analytics?
• How will you measure success?

Sizing Your PRM Team

Once you’ve answered the questions above, develop a plan that includes:

• The skills required to perform each responsibility
• The time required for each responsibility per week. Does it depend on the number of partners? Number of deals?
• Who will be responsible for each task and how long will it take.

This should give you a general idea of the team you’ll need to operate your PRM.

Filling the Gaps on your Team

Now for the hard stuff: Time to take a step back, identify the gaps in resourcing and determine how to plug those gaps:

• Do you have the bandwidth to step into those areas?
• Do you have others that can help?

If the answer is no to either of these questions you have some decisions to make. You might need to consider hiring more team members. Or outsource some work to a third-party expert. Or maybe you’ll need to scale back your ambitions, at least for the time being, until you are able to command more resources. Sometimes it’s better to do few things well instead of everything poorly.

Finally

Accountability for your PRM will drive your system success. You will need to know “who” is responsible for each of the key areas within the system to make sure that you are able to deliver to your partners. Only with the right team will your PRM drive partner program success.