Today’s distributed sales landscape calls for a modernized approach to your channel partner programs to improve the local customer experience and increase efficiencies between you and your partners. Your channel partners are your most important brand advocates. More sales for them means more sales for you. And, they need tools and intelligence to sway local customers with experiences that uphold your brand promise and impact the bottom line. Partners deserve modern co-op and market development fund (MDF) programs with a clear strategy, automated workflows, and insightful reporting so that return on investment (ROI) becomes a reality.
Manual processes and supporting spreadsheets can no longer be the crux of global partner programs, especially global payments.
Jay McBain of Forrester said it best in a blog post, “Channel leaders talk about expanding their partner programs and building broad ecosystems, but the truth is that many of their basic program and channel management processes are still painfully manual and error-prone.”
MDF program goals are rooted in high utilization of funds – it’s truly the singular goal of the plan, proposal, execution, claim, and results program lifecycle. This desire for complete utilization, on the part of the brand, must be met with an understanding that in return, brands need to ensure there are no payment delays for the partner. This goes a long way in driving satisfaction and brand loyalty. While partner payments might not be at the top of the list of needs you are currently trying to solve for, it likely isn’t far from the minds of your partners, especially in the final push to close out the year as strong as possible (in actual revenue and lead pipeline for first quarter).
According to Amazon Web Service Partner Network (APN) partners, last year they “expressed frustration over approval wait times, lack of transparency over budget utilization, activity updates, and payment blockers.” If Amazon had those partner complaints, you can pretty much bet that your partners share some of that same angst. Global payments, however, don’t have to be a pain for you or your partner. And, they don’t have to break the bank either.
Automation in payments provides both the brand and partner with a simplified process that mitigates liability at the brand level and creates faster turn-around times for the partner. Domestic US ACH’s, Cross-Currency ACH’s, Local Currency payments, Wire payments, credit notes, and 1099 reporting is all feasible through API integrations enabling simplified reconciliation practices, and with validated routing details compliant with ABA, Swift Bic, IBAN, and major financial institutions – negating concern around payment failures or lost checks.
FX rate locks also ensure that you have greater line of sight to managing foreign funds and limit liability on rate fluctuations.
As you continue to work towards creating the best possible brand-partner relationship, consider how a global payment solution can help remove payment blockers, for you and your partners.
