salesforce communities for sales: 10 questions you should ask yourself

Presented by:

© Relayware, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2014

10 Questions to Ask About Salesforce’s Communities for Sales

- Jim Somers, CMO

- Chris Bucholtz, Director of Content Marketing

Agenda

• Our Speakers

• Setting the Stage: Definitions & Distinctions

• 10 Questions to Ask About Your PRM choice

• Audience Q&A

Collaborate beyond the enterprise.™ © Relayware, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2014 2

Jim SomersChief Marketing Officer

Chris BucholtzDirector, Content Marketing

What is PRM?


partner | relationship | management

Noun

1 a system of methodologies, strategies, software and web-based capabilities that help a vendor manage partner relationships. PRM enables vendors to better work with their partners through the introduction of reliable systems, processes and procedures for interacting with them:

“Relayware [Partner Relationship Management] is a comprehensive, highly configurable platform with strong mobility.”*

* Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

PRM vs. CRM – What’s the Difference?

PRM

• A system of methodologies, strategies, software and web-based capabilities that help a vendor manage partners.

• Enables vendors to better work with their partners through the introduction of reliable systems, processes & procedures for interacting with them.

CRM

• A discipline that deals with the management of a company’s interactions with current and future customers.

• Uses technology to organize, automate and synchronize sales, marketing and customer service and technical support.

vs.



PRM

• Indirect Selling (and marketing, delivery, support …)

– Partners

– Dealers

– Distributors

– Agents

– Resellers

– VARs

– Consultants

CRM

• Direct Selling

– Prospects

– Customers

– B2B

– B2C

vs.



Source: Gartner

CRM – It’s Big!



Company

Customer

Direct

Customer

Direct

Sub-Distributor



Company

Single Tier Distribution

Two Tier Distribution


DistributionSub-

Customer

Customer

Customer

Customer

Intermediary

Intermediary

Distributor

Intermediary

Customer

Direct

Sub-Distributor



Company

Single Tier Distribution



DistributionSub-

Customer

Customer

Customer

Customer

Intermediary

Intermediary

Distributor

Intermediary

Indirect

What is Salesforce Communities?


What is Salesforce Communities?


“… Salesforce Communities is the company's answer to legacy portal software,” said Anna Rosenman, senior product marketing manager.

“At its heart is Chatter and Salesforce's collaboration tools,” said Rosenman …“plus the ability to combine a myriad range of data and processes, depending on the design vision of the users.”

- CRM Buyer, May 3, 2013

Before choosing Salesforce.com’s Communities for Sales, make sure it meets your needs for functionality, integration & affordability


Before You Make the Jump

13 Collaborate beyond the enterprise.™ © Relayware, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2014 13

Question No. 1


One way Salesforce bills for Communities is by “unique” partner log-ins:

- 200 log-ins/mo. = $30,000 / yr

- 5,000 log-ins/mo. = $420,000 / yr

- 20,000 log-ins/mo. = $1,500,000 / yr

Question No. 1

Our Approach: A flat fee per month based on the edition you choose and number of internal users at your company.


(Cont’d)

Question No. 1


Salesforce’s alternate billing model is based on the sales of licenses – not log-ins:

- 20 partners = $8,400 / yr

- 100 partners = $30,000 / yr

- 5,000 partners = $1,530,000 / yr

* Requires at least (1) license to Salesforce’s Enterprise Edition Sales Cloud ($1,500 per year).

Question No. 2

Relayware’s flat fee model eliminates sticker shock for channel-centric companies with large partner ecosystems.


(Cont’d)


"Partner empowerment comes through education." (VP, worldwide channel sales)*

* “Advice For Improving Your IT Vendor Channel,”M. Speyer, Forrester Research, Inc.

WHAT IF your training needs to be tailored by …

- Partner Geography

- Partner Type

- Partner Role

- Partner Tier

Salesforce’s Communities enables training through a portal interface. But not all partners are alike?


(Cont’d)

- Or -

Fully Customized

Relayware allows you to create:

- Rules-based qualification and compliance

- Programs targeted at discrete global, regional, company and role-specific audiences

- Rules for scoring and accreditation

You can deliver a deeper and more personalized level of training and foster a deeper and more personalized engagement between you and your channel partners.


(Cont’d)


- Oh! But it costs extra …- … and it wasn’t really

designed with the channel in mind.


Relayware has robust marketing capabilities built into the core product, which include:

- Tools to enable joint marketing with channel partners

- Customizable marketing materials and marketing tools kits and marketing stores

- Rich-media content libraries and support for incentive and loyalty programs.

- These are not generic marketing tools – they’re tools created to help you court, close and keep channel partners.

(Cont’d)

Salesforce Communities stores data and provides reports about that data, but lacks channel-centric fields. Score-carding and detailed profile-matching are difficult to perform.


- Relayware’s flexible data structure accommodates roll-up hierarchies of contacts, local branches & parent organizations.

- Customers can tailor the data structure to fit their specific needs with unlimited custom fields and objects.

- Result: You can group partners in any way your business needs to: globally, regionally, locally, by company or by contact.


(Cont’d)

Salesforce Communities only offers basic MDF program support. It gives its users tools for portal-based fund requests with only basic fund management and an approvals workflow at the back end.


With Relayware, every interaction through every application in the system is traced and measured to understand how well MDF is paying off.


(Cont’d)


“55% to 65% of channel partners are already involved in social media marketing — the cornerstones being Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube …”*

* “The 10 Most Innovative Partner Co-Marketing Tactics,” Jonathan Silber, Forrester Research, Inc.


“55% to 65% of channel partners are already involved in social media marketing — the cornerstones being Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube …”*

* “The 10 Most Innovative Partner Co-Marketing Tactics,” Jonathan Silber, Forrester Research, Inc.

Salesforce Communities was designed as a very “social” way to manage channel programs. And it is – if the only people whose input you care about are the partners you already have.

Relayware supports communities, groups, sub-groups and discussions, and you can accept all participants or just the participants you approve. Every interaction triggers a live update to your records.


(Cont’d)

Stay engaged with the partners you have now …

… and the ones you may bring to

your side in the future.

Salesforce Communities has list-management and email capabilities, which are useful for marketing to potential new partners. But after you’ve marketed to your list, the rest of the complex task of recruitment is left up to you.


Relayware gives the ability to build scored and weighted target lists and multi-channel recruitment campaigns that include social media and instant messaging.


(Cont’d)

- Has an on-boarding process that uses time or event-triggered on-boarding communications to accelerate new registrants to profitable partners.

Salesforce Communities attempts to provide ways to motivate customers, but the basic nature of Salesforce prevents tracking connected interactions in personal incentive and loyalty programs.



Relayware’s approach: – Manage both personal and

company incentives.

– Incent partners not just around sales numbers but around other activities that help them become increasingly better and more engaged partners.

– Includes training and compliance, lead acceptance and closures and participation in joint marketing campaigns.

(Cont’d)

Would you rather make a “forklift upgrade” - or - a faster and less costly integration?

Choosing Communities ties you into Salesforce as your CRM application – or at least it does without a major investment in integration


Relayware doesn’t force you into a CRM decision.


It works seamlessly with Salesforce!

– Pre-built integration with Salesforce.com

– Uses a REST-ful API that makes integration with SFDC and most other CRM apps easy

(Cont’d)

You Owe it to Yourself to Ask …

- Why should I be punished for my own success?

- Are all my partners alike?

- Why can’t I have a flexible solution that adjusts to my specific needs (without programming)?

- How loyal are my partners - do they need to be better engaged, rewarded and incented?

- Does Salesforce really understand the critical needs of my channel partners?


For More Information


Download Whitepaper• www.relayware.com/salesforce-PRM

Join the Conversation• #channelchoices

General Questions• Email us at [email protected]

salesforce communities for sales: 10 questions you should ask yourself

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