So you’ve invested in a marketing automation tool and leads are pouring in. Direct sales follows up with as many as they can, but what about channel partners? Maybe you’ve tried to automate a lead management process with the channel, but is it effective? Do you have visibility into the channel sales funnel at all? If you’re like most, the extensive efforts undertaken to automate your sales process internally -- end to end -- from lead generation to CRM, has not been realized into the channel. Maybe you gave them a log-in to CRM, or tried to provide other tools, processes, and training. Are you still sending spreadsheets with filtered data from purchased lists, or exported from marketing automation systems and CRM? In the end, most default to that welcomed old crutch, the spreadsheet. Channel partners aren’t using your CRM log-in effectively, or may have their own internal (and different) SFA system, and a completely different sales process and methods for managing their sales cycle. But they’ve got Excel, so send them a spreadsheet with leads. You mean you spent all that money on fancy systems, then send your partners a spreadsheet to manage their leads, pipeline and forecast? Seems simple, spreadsheets are the easiest method for back and forth communication when using disparate systems or processes.  But what about all the time, money and energy spent automating the lead management process with (Eloqua, Marketo, Hubspot, Pardot, etc.)? And how about all the problems that unfold when you pass around spreadsheets? Lack of control is the main issue – did they accept the lead? Follow up in a timely fashion? Move the sales process efficiently? Effective win rate? Acceptable sales cycle time-frame? Spreadsheets are a last resort, the embodiment of gaps in sales automation – and the red flag of manual processes. There’s got to be a better way to handle the sales lead management process with distribution and channel partners, right? What if you could avoid the spreadsheet boomeranging, and in just 3 clicks see if your leads have been worked? Even better, have insight through the entire conversation that partners are engaging in with your clients. And have better visibility to your channel forecast. And yes, complete the automation cycle through to the channel. Salesvue is a sales management solution that can stand alone as your sales force automation platform, or integrate with your existing CRM – and provide valuable benefits for managing channel sales, including:

  • Providing channel partners a secure log-in, with simple processes to effectively record lead and pipeline activity
  • Ease of use and minimal input required by channel partners. In just 3 clicks, partner reps can disposition conversation results for “Lead is Accepted”.
  • Reporting and insight into the channel partner sales process allows you (lead provider) to easily check the status of leads being worked by partners
  • If the deal is qualified, One-Click forecasting is available from conversation results -- this can be promoted by your team or the partner
  • Easily pass channel forecast data to Salesforce.com or other CRMs
Too much of the channel partner lead management process remains dependent on error-prone spreadsheets. It’s time for the introduction of robust and flexible sales automation technology to increase efficiency and insight by automating the last vestiges of manual lead processing for channel partners. And no more spreadsheets!