Channel Tools: Portals, syndication, and demand generation

There are a ton of tools out there that boast they could make your lives easier and bring you closer to your partners. I've spoken to several companies that do so and reviewed the ones I liked here.

In the past PRM has had a bad rap but some interesting options have come along. Recently I had a demo from TreeHouse Interactive, an enterprise class SaaS solution with ALL the bells and whistles. TreeHouse allows vendors to keep track of leads and opportunities along side their partners but also provides information to partners on their requirements and benefits, deal registration, and links to marketing automation.

TreeHouse allows different navigation for different tiers of partners so your top tier partners are able to see the appropriate information for them but it is blocked to your lower tier partners. MDF and Co-op can be uploaded to the system from distribution partners and channel partners can then apply for MDF and get approved. Partners can also link to marketing automation tools provided to them by the vendor and all information is available in text so it can be read via blackberry or iPhone. TreeHouse also fully integrates with SFDC and Oracle's CRM which TreeHouse claims they can integrate in 5 weeks.

Overall I was very impressed with TreeHouse having looked at a bunch of similar vendors and even managed the development of something similar while I was at EMC. The interface is very intuitive and the ability to assign leads to partners is slick! I didn't catch myself once thinking, "it's too bad they don't do this". Of course with such a robust tool comes a robust price and TreeHouse wouldn't be worthwhile if a vendor doesn't have hundreds of partners. CEO Erich Flynn assured me that they can cater the solution to the vendors needs and possibly the price somewhat. Lastly I was also impressed by how TreeHouse, or I should say Chris Frank of TreeHouse, found me via twitter. I tweeted I was looking for something like this and had a tweet back within a few hours.

In the syndication arena I spoke with Josh Gibbs of SharedVue who I should mention also found me on twitter. Syndication allows relevant content to be pulled from a vendor's website and displayed on the channel partners' websites. There is usually a container page with the partners' look and feel around the top and along the left side and the content is updated on a regular basis. Vendors get their product and value prop information relayed accurately up-to-date in hundreds of other sites and the Channel Partners are able to inform customers on their own sites without having to send them elsewhere. How many times has a partner's site shown the old model or the current model with the wrong image or information!?

When I was at EMC I worked with a company called WebCollage to make this happen. I don't know if they've changed their process at all but it was incredibly manual to the point where we had requests from partners in email and would then fax or email them to our client manager to initiate the service. SharedVue's tool Syndic8 is completely automated. Partners can even login and change their current view of products or services shown on their website.

SharedVue also provides some lead generation and tracking tools (don't think PRM but every little bit helps right?). Using their tool Communic8 vendors can provide traditional and new media tools so partners can launch campaigns and track them all on the SharedVue tools. Partners of course get worried if vendors can see their leads (more so with some vendors then with others) so SharedVue offers a way to turn the visibility on or off.

Very impressed with SharedVue as well. There are more bells and whistles that I didn't go into here including their specific new media features (webinars, SEM, and Google AdWords). I haven't used WebCollage in 2 years but SharedVue is certainly more user friendly and robust than WC was back then.

I hope this information is helpful and always remember, if it's not stupid simple for your partners, they won't adopt it and you will waste a lot of money! Before implementing anything like this it is important to survey a broad slice of all of your partners, not just the advisory council.

Are their other systems people have seen and liked? I'd love to hear about them.

Dell using Twitter to boost sales

Working with B2B companies on their social media strategy, the first request I always get is "give me an example of another B2B company that has used social media." The one vendor that comes to mind is Dell. While they are a B2B and B2C company their social media practices have paid off in both arenas.

Dell's Channel Blog is a place for channel partners to hear up-to-date program and product news, comment on posts, and join the conversation.

Dell actually made $1 million from Twitter in 2008. By setting up a following and tweeting discounts and promotions Dell created a community of loyal Dell followers that are willing and able to buy. Not only that, they are most likely talking about their experience to other prospects. These aren't simply B2C products either. Channel partners are following the tweets as well. Let's not kid ourselves, this is only $1M to a company like Dell but how else could they use this exposure to boost sales? How could you?

Stay tuned for more social media success stories, who knows the next one could be you. Are you looking to figure out your social media strategy? Have you tried things that have been successful? Have you tried things that have failed miserably?