Don't Manage Your Partners, Manage
Your Customers' Experience
By David S. Marshak, Senior Vice
President, Director Consulting Services, Patricia Seybold Group
Netting it out
Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
is a useful concept and set of technologies. Today's generation of PRM
is limited by the lack of recognition of the importance of sharing
information among all participants in the customer chain.
The concepts of PRM-when extended by
models such as content syndication, application syndication, and
manufacturers' aisles-have the potential to provide a branded,
consistent, and integrated customer experience across channels.
The truth about Partner
Relationship Management
One of the hottest concepts and
emerging product areas is Partner Relationship Management (PRM). The
evolution of PRM may well hold the key to providing a consistent,
branded experience across multiple channels and touchpoints. However,
PRM as a concept has gotten off to a rocky start, and its future is
threatened by the functional limitations and, more importantly, by the
generally limited view of its role. PRM is seen to be a specific
application rather than part of a generalized strategy to enhance the
customer's experience when he is dealing through partners.
Current view of PRM
PRM is currently used to define three
specific functions:
- Partner information management
- Lead management
- Marketing materials management
Managing Partner Information
The first set of functions is derived
directly from Customer Relationship Management (CRM). CRM systems are
being adapted to manage information about and interaction with
partners. This adaptation can be as simple as adding partner as a new
customer type and using the same static and transactional information
that is maintained for customers. Some other systems add new
properties specific to partners that are to be tracked.
Tracking partner information is certainly necessary, and using an
existing CRM system may be the wise way to do so. However, this
approach-particularly the classification of partners as types of
customers-tends to reinforce the erroneous concept that partners and
customers are the same thing.
Lead Management
A second approach to PRM derives
directly from the Sale Force Automation (SFA) world. Here the critical
process to manage is that of the manufacturer (and we use the term to
include all companies that create goods and services) finding a way to
take leads and, rather than sending them to its own direct sales
force, propagate them to appropriate partners for follow-up. As with
SFA applications, this approach to PRM generally includes the ability
to provide sales effectiveness measurements and incentives for closing
sales.
The limitation of these systems is that
they rarely, if ever, provide a closed-loop view of interactions of
specific customers. The manufacturer that has directly interacted with
a potential customer has no idea what that individual customer's
experience has been and no way of enhancing the company's relationship
with that customer.
A crucial direction that is only just
now being considered is to make sure that customer information is
shared up and down the customer chain, so that all parties can track
and understand their roles in general and specific customer
relationships in particular.
Marketing Material Management
The third area of PRM focuses on how a
manufacturer's product marketing material can be passed on to channel
partners for their selling purposes. This seemingly simple function
can involve significant and complex activities involving content
management and distribution logistics. Partners need to receive
correct, timely material, but only for the products that they
distribute and sell. Today most material is either printed (including
large display materials for in-store use) or limited to static Web
material, such as product images, logos, and data sheets.
Although marketing material management
may seem an insignificant area of PRM, it could prove to be the most
important indicator of the way PRM should evolve to support a
consistent customer experience.
Maintaining a Branded Experience
Companies strive (or should strive) to
create a branded experience for their customers. Mention brands such
as Disney, Hertz, or Southwest Airlines and you will evoke an instant
impression that has been meticulously created and nurtured. Companies
that sell through channels have a greater challenge-though no less of
a need-in maintaining their brand. Customers who deal directly with
channel partners expect their experiences to live up to their
expectations of the brand they are dealing with. This means that
information they see on a partner site needs to be consistent with
information they get on the manufacturer's site and should support the
branded experience that the customer expects.
There are various models for supporting
the customer experience across channels. The simplest- syndicated
content distribution-is an extension of the PRM marketing materials
management. In this model, the content on a partner's site that is
specific to a given manufacturer is actually created and (more
importantly) maintained by the manufacturer.
Content syndication is handled by a
content syndication system that automatically publishes content
changes to the appropriate recipients, with appropriateness being
defined in the PRM system. Content syndication is very useful for
changes in specifications, pricing, or other data.
At a greater level of interaction, an
application syndication system is needed. Application systems targeted
at partner relationships are just now appearing from companies such as
WebCollage (www.webcollage.com). These systems enable applications to
be syndicated, much as content is currently syndicated. For example, a
PC manufacturer could put its configuration engine directly on a
retailer's site. When a customer clicks on Configure, she would be
transported to the branded experience of the manufacturer's
configuration engine, seemingly without having left the retailer's
site.
The logical extension of these concepts
is to combine content and application syndication, creating a space on
a partner's site that would deliver the manufacturer's branded
experience directly to the customer. The manufacturer maintains the
product-specific information, including applications such as
configurators. The partner adds partner-specific information like
pricing, availability, featured offers, or side-by-side product
comparisons. The manufacturer can also provide pre-sales and
post-sales customer support when appropriate. We call this model
manufacturers' aisles, possibly the highest conceptual model of
partner relationship management.
Sharing customer information is
the key
One of the critical aspects of the
partner relationships is defining the information flows. This is not
only essential for the product information flowing from the
manufacturer through the partner(s) to the customer. It is equally if
not more important to create a bi-directional, friction-less flow for
the information about the customers, both in aggregate and
individually. This can be quite a sticking point in many
relationships, with each party in the chain believing that he alone
owns the customer and that everyone else is on a need-to-know basis.
In reality, the customer is owned by the customer. To provide a
consistent experience for the customer-an experience that includes the
creation of the products, their distribution and sales, their support
and maintenance, and their improvement-a relationship must be created
that is a real partnership for serving the customer. This means
putting aside territorial claims and mutual mistrust, something that
could be accomplished by assuring mutual benefit while avoiding
stepping on people's toes.
The value of Partner Relationship
Management
Ultimately, the value of PRM is tied to
the value of the partnership itself. And that value is ultimately
derived from the value the channel provides to the customer. This
value can be delivered in such services as aggregation, integration,
consulting and domain expertise, service and support, and/or local
delivery. Rule of thumb: a channel adds value if it makes it easier
for the customer to do business with you. Rule of strategy: this value
is best delivered as part of a branded, consistent, and integrated
customer experience.
