Enabling Partners with Through Channel Marketing Automation Awards

You’ve got to allocate the reward where the effort is being made!

Through channel marketing enablement is more important than ever, especially in a downturn because many SMB partners really lack the sales and marketing skills to effectively compete in a digital world.

As more vendors invest in building partner-led marketing programs using Through Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) technology, key limitations often prevent these programs from being successful. Merely launching these TCMA tools isn’t enough though, as vendors must be prescriptive on how, when and where partners should use them and the assets they contain.

TCMA Awards Program

TCMA Awards program courses combines marketing skills transfer and vendor-specific program information with incentives, to empower partners to effectively plan and execute vendor-created marketing programs. These type programs provide partners with skills that enable them to understand the buyer's journey, recognize demand type, and knowledge of where to access program assets and how to use specific assets during the buying journey.

• TCMA Awards programs are designed for the partners’ marketing associate (a new persona to motivate in the vendor/partner relationship).
• This new persona within partner organizations - who are designated as marketing leads- should be the primary participants in the TCMA Awards program.
• TCMA Awards programs are designed around learning, measurement, execution, and proof of performance data.    

This is different from incenting the partner only. If you think about it, it is the partner’s employee (marketing associate) who will be doing the work to learn, configure and launch the effort on a TCMA or Campaign Marketplace tool. You’ve got to allocate the reward where the effort is being made!

TCMA Awards ensure that the partner’s marketing associate gains exposure to key marketing skills that they really need and commits them to a learning process where they must engage directly with – and in turn grow closer to – the vendor.

Educate marketing associates at the partner level how to find and use assets within the vendor’s own TCMA portal to drive better awareness and adoption of these tools. Then reward these individuals substantially, for training on how to use the tool, piloting a few of these campaigns in-a-box, and then for loading proof-of-performance - and you’ll increase utilization and drive demand generation.

You need only pay the individual starter incentives once per training course and per campaign, as these campaigns should yield results that will earn the partner marketing manager top recognition within the business, which in many instances is as important - if not more important - than the incentive itself.

Rewards should be issued at the individual level via a point’s program, designed around learning, measurement, execution, and proof of performance data.  Below is a very simple example on how to get started:

As their marketing skills improve, partners should shift from using one-and-done outbound marketing tactics to multi-touch programs that make use of social media and digital marketing activities.

Once partners become comfortable with the tool and multiple plays have been executed, provide them with feedback on the overall investment and the amount of pipeline that was created so the behavior will be repeated. You should also measure and provide feedback on individual performance, reinforcing the desired behavior so it will also be repeated. People want and need continuous feedback on their personal progress and how well the program is succeeding.

In order to eliminate friction and deliver more value through your partners, it’s time to replace antiquated processes and tactics with streamlined solutions that help scale your programs and fuel the go-to-market strategies of today.

Learn more TCMA with integration with a leading insurance carrier: Insurance: Leading Insurance Carrier Integrates 360 TCMA

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