Most companies have invested in CRM to aid in sales and marketing automation, but because many companies do not sell directly to the end user, direct contact does not help in the sales process. The solution is to automate functions within the enterprise to improve sales channel functionality.
Many companies unfortunately do not have the technology to expand interaction beyond the enterprise, but through partnering automation, one can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
What is best practice? Too many companies try to use CRM to manage indirect sales channels. The big issue is when you work with sales channel goals, this method is effective for sales but not purchasing. Relayware (News - Alert) is one company that has addressed a clear market need for a complimentary solution for sales and is offering an answer: its solution plugs the customer into the CRM system in a new way.
Mike Morgan, Relayware CEO sat down with TMC (News - Alert) at a recent industry event to discuss some exciting trends and the future of CRM partner/customer engagement.
“Every company has a CRM solution and shoots for best practices,” but there is, “no method to fill critical gap between CRM and the outside world” proclaimed Morgan.
Relayware’s solution, will integrate with leading CRM systems like SalesForce, MSDynamics, SAP and Oracle (News - Alert). It helps to manage and collaborate on leads, incentives, loyalty programs as well as collaborative marketing opportunities.
Partner recruitment entails onboarding, training and enablement. There are also partner portals offering housing for everything a partner needs, especially the ever-popular, mobile applications. And the communication suite offers a high level of intimacy with the mass population through IM, activity streaming, social media and more.
Relayware aims to increase partner productivity in a cost effective manner. One example that stands out is Lenovo (News - Alert), the leader in personal technology devices that leap-frogged its competition with the implementation of the Relayware solution and moving from No.5 in 2010 to No. 1 today.
This is not the outlier, as many verticals are seeing the use of this type of application. Whether it’s telecom, financial services or traditional high tech companies the expansion of partnering automation is enjoying a period of explosive growth. The growing bunch of forward thinking customers are seeing stellar success in turning around partner engagement using technology.
Morgan told TMC, “C-level executives have been really preoccupied with customer engagement for last 10-15 years and know it’s important to manage engagement with customers, but in most cases who are your customers talking when making a transaction?”
Collaboration becomes the name of the game. Companies rely on tens of thousands of people who don’t work for the company to sell. This solution connects partners for a unified effort. This is integral, Morgan states as “the partner is the trusted advisor of the customer,” the customer makes a decision in moments based on this interaction—the goal is to exploit this relationship and ensure partners are more highly motivated to sell “our” products. Relayware offers the ability to manage these interactions through unification.
Sales has traditionally been about signing on the dotted line, but it is no longer a simple face to face interaction, customer service complaints are going viral what seems like every day because interactions are evolving into a disjointed process. And, without direct contact to the end user, a company could use a little help from its friends (or partners as it were). Keep your eyes peeled on Relayware, it’s easy to predict big things down the road.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi