How to create win-win relationships with partners which deliver strategic alignment, close visibility, control and mutual financial incentives.

For many businesses, the Go-to-Market model must incorporate intermediaries, usually in order to reach fragmented channels or to take advantage of the specific execution capabilities of partners. Indirect partners such as franchises, distributors, wholesalers and brokers can provide a seemingly perfect solution to improve one’s distribution cost efficiently and with an optimized service level to clients where a direct sales model is not feasible.

However, working with partners in this manner, isn’t always easy and in fact it can lead to issues in execution standards, concurrence between channels or prices control.

. The challenges in operating with this channel vary from:

• Defining a Clear Indirect Channel Strategy – understanding the role, capability and business objectives in the Indirect Channel.
• Redesigning the Network: having a highly competent network across geographies and channels.
• Quality Partner Selection: developing appropriate selection criterions to choose the best type of intermediaries per region and channel.
• Optimizing the Modus Operandi with Partners: ensuring alignment in strategy, results delivery and execution standards through management processes and programs, performance KPIs and incentives.
• Clear Roles and Responsibilities: connecting the sales roles, distributor managers and merchandisers to the strategy through clearly defined boundaries of responsibility.

When it comes to working with partners, the real challenge is to find win-win scenarios which consider the forces, needs, strengths and interests of each party. Each party must play a role that suits its abilities and desires if there is a chance of creating long-lasting partnerships.

We support either in ‘greenfield projects’ (providing a turnkey solution from strategy to deployment) or in ‘resets’ (adjusting the strategy or operations, both internally and externally with the partner network)

We support our clients in two distinct situations:

• Sales performance: Improve sales result and performance in selling products across the whole portfolio
• Increase distribution: Reach numerical distribution targets
• Increase profitability: Optimize financial results in the indirect channel, which usually are below the company average
• Optimizing SLAs: Improvement in S&OP processes by reducing stock outage and excess inventory
• Cross channel stabilization: Guarantee sell-out control and avoid price competition between channels or partners
• Visibility & analytics: Ensure a holistic view of the company market share and sales performance through sell-out visibility
• Store execution standard: Guarantee an adequate execution and activation for each type of POS, thus improving trade marketing investment efficiency
• Network stability: Reduce turnover in the partner network, strengthen long-term relationships and partner loyalty

Modular and bespoke solutions fit for your context

Each client has its unique context, objectives, and needs with the indirect channel. We combine your knowledge of your business, Integration’s expertise of the Indirect Channel, and a methodology that ensures a holistic tackling of all issues.

Our methodology is structured in three steps during which we bring to focus the key questions to be answered in order to build a unique solution adapted to the client:

Ensuring connection to all stakeholders along this journey:

A PRM is a transformational experience that will include not only the commercial area but also the rest of the company. The financial area is involved in cross-channel price policy, supply is affected by service level requirements, marketing has a say in the coordination with partners, legal is involved in the contracts and terms of the partnership, HR guarantees the right skills in the management team and so on.

Our way of working guarantees through workshops, newsletters, weekly governance, and involvement of a multifunctional team that all areas of the company have their needs recognized and answered by the project, thus generating a positive expectation and engagement in the whole company. We do not want the project to be considered “one-shot” and therefore we aim to build up internal competency through training and capability development so you can achieve sustainable results. Our aim is to deliver you a clear and practical roadmap for action and to develop your skills to maintain continuous improvement processes.

And even beyond your company, the PRM will also affect your partners. Therefore, we ensure from day one that their needs and benefits are considered in the project and that the recommendation sets the base for a strong partnership, which is paramount for long-term success.