Partner Relationship Management 101: Partner Onboarding

Overview

Partner onboarding refers to the process of engaging new partners, signing them up, initial training and the transition to working on deals. It may start with a signup form with a workflow that notifies the appropriate channel manager to approve or reject the application to become a partner.

The ideal partner needs to be characterized based on their demographics, resources, experience, capabilities, business focus, future plans, current portfolio of offerings, and customer base.

Automating Onboarding

In order to reduce ramp-up time, effective PRM solutions provide a self-serve profile that the partner completes. Automating contract signing with integrated e-signature apps, such as Adobe Sign, is another way to reduce onboarding time for new partners.

Once a partner account is activated, a successful PRM solution will make it easy to activate users, either through a self-registration process or by giving a partner manager the permissions to activate and deactivate users under their own partner account.

Self-Service Onboarding

A self-serve channel partner portal supports access to many types of instructional content to welcome new partners such as introductory videos, documentation and marketing collateral.

Communication is vital to support a new partner relationship when there are likely to be lots of questions. With familiar tools for collaboration in a PRM solution, partners and channel managers can engage in an efficient manner.

By creating a consistent, comprehensive and on-demand partner onboarding, all partners have an equal opportunity to be competitive and effectively represent the company’s product offerings.

Want to learn more about Partner Relationship Management?

Read the Ultimate Guide to PRM to find the answers you need!

Are there any other features for onboarding channel sales partners that you want to know more about? Reach out to us and we'd be happy to explain it to you.

‍