Channel Sales Software
Generating sales is the purpose of an indirect channel, and having the right software platform to support your sales processes is essential.
Driving and managing sales can be one of the toughest parts of managing a channel program — but it doesn’t have to be. With the proper software platform to collaborate and gain visibility into your partners’ pipelines, channel sales can become manageable, dare we say it, easy.
Channeltivity Makes Channel Sales Easy
Channeltivity’s PRM software comes with everything you need to run a successful channel sales operation. Our built-in deal registration, lead distribution, and referral management modules make it easy to keep a finger on the pulse of your channel sales and facilitate the free flow of sales data between you and your partners. And our software integrates with two of the biggest CRMs, HubSpot and Salesforce, reducing manual work and allowing you to focus on nurturing your partner relationships.
Deal Registration
Channeltivity’s Deal Registration module provides a central location for all deal activity. The intuitive interface allows partners to easily submit, update, and track the status of their deal registrations. Giving partners real-time visibility into their deal registrations helps build trust and strengthens your partnerships. With pre-built direct integrations with HubSpot and Salesforce, you can automate deal flow between your PRM and CRM, eliminating manual data entry.
Referrals & Commissions
Channeltivity’s Referral module makes it easy to manage your partner referrals. Partners submit referrals directly through the portal and then track its progress as well as commission payments. The software can be configured for both direct and indirect sales, giving you the flexibility to handle certain referrals internally and passing others along to your channel. A tight integration with the lead distribution and deal registration module further increases sales efficiencies and improves end-to-end reporting. The bi-directional sync with HubSpot and Salesforce increases visibility, facilitates reporting, and eliminates busy work.
Lead Distribution
The Lead Distribution module streamlines the process of sharing leads with your channel partners and tracking their progress. Leads can be created and assigned individually or in bulk. HubSpot and Salesforce integrations allow assigning leads to partners right from inside your CRM. With a full line of sight into the lead and sales cycle, the software module ensures that no leads go unassigned, and gives you the opportunity to intervene or offer sales support to your channel when necessary.
Distributor Management
If distributors or master agents play a role in your channel program, you want them integrated into your partner portal as well. The Channeltivity Distributor module streamlines the complexities of a two-tier selling model and unlocks distributor functionality across your partner portal, setting distributor permissions for deal registrations, MDF requests, training & certification content, joint business plans, and more. Distributors gain access to your channel resources and visibility into their partners’ deals for greater collaboration, efficiency, and overall success.
So, What is Channel Sales?
Channel sales, also known as indirect sales, refers to the process of selling a product or service through a network of third-party entities rather than through direct selling to end customers. This network can include distributors, resellers, agents and master agents, brokers, and other intermediaries.
The goal of channel sales is to increase the reach and efficiency of a company’s sales efforts by leveraging the relationships and expertise of its channel partners. Channel sales can be an effective strategy for companies that do not have the resources or expertise to sell directly to end customers, or for companies that want to expand their market presence quickly and efficiently.
Partners are an excellent (and often underrated) sales channel. As trusted advisors of your ideal customers, they are one of the best sales vehicles. But they can be trickier to manage than direct sales, your channel program must be well structured and supported with appropriate software.
Why is Channel Sales Software Important?
Channel sales software (often a part of a PRM software suite) is an important component of the channel sales process for several reasons. Unlike a direct sales organization, where everyone is an employee of the vendor and (hopefully) follows the company culture, systems and processes, indirect sales (or channels) give you much less control. Each channel partner operates differently and prefers their own approach, making it challenging to impose significant changes.
Channel programs offer incentives to encourage their partners to do what the vendor wants them to do. Some examples with associated vendor benefits:
- Register a deal to get an extra 10% of your purchase price. → The vendor gains better visibility into the partner’s pipeline and can forecast sales.
- Send us referrals and we’ll give you a commission. → The vendor gets leads.
- Reach a certain level of training and certification and we’ll send you leads. → The vendor generates more sales by having a competent local partner that knows the product.
Channel sales software provides a central platform to support and facilitate all elements of the program. Without a robust software platform and incentives to use it, partners will invent their own processes using the tools they have available. While it’s possible to run lead distribution, deal registration, and referral programs using email and spreadsheets, a fully optimized and scalable channel sales program requires the right channel management software.