Building A Best Practice Closed Loop Lead Distribution Program

Elay Cohen

Sr. Director Product Management

Agenda

Background on leads in the channel

Best practices in lead distribution programs

Lessons learned

Questions

Bad data

Poor reporting

Lead programs are a challenge for vendors and partners

Quality of leads

No forecast integration

No ROI

Usability

No way to track performance

Baptie and CMP learned that all parties are dissatisfied

Channel Is Not Impressed With Sales Opportunities or Leads

Lead Management best practice methodologies

Start with a pilot scope

Find your channel manager evangelists

Establish program office

Balance the carrot and stick

Communicate and set expectations

Define reporting requirements

Get your process right

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33

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Qualify your leads first44

1. Start with a pilot before launching the full program

Think about your go to market strategy

Which regions?

How many partners?

What type of partners?

Which process?

Whose business rules?

Timeline?

Objectives?

1. Here are some examples of ideas for pilot programs

CampaignsProduct lines

Top tier partners

Emerging markets

Existing programs

2. Build a global program office

GlobalProgram

Office

GlobalProgram

Office

SalesOps

SalesOps

ChannelOps

ChannelOps

LeadOps

LeadOpsGeoGeo

SalesSales

ITIT

ExecsExecsTips to increase success:

1. Executive support2. Regular meetings

3. Geo empowerment

3. Get the process right from the beginning. Here is an example of a high tech company’s lead process.

4. Qualify leads for your partners

Criteria should drive a score

Decision maker

Budget

Timeline

Activity type

Propensity to buy

Make qualification part of your program DNA

4. Source qualified leads

Map key words to the sales process and make advertisements relevant

And don’t forget to tell your partners that you have changed your ways!

Use qualified leads and new leads sources as a program

differentiator!

5. Channel managers are the front line and they need to be motivated

Q: How do you win over your channel managers?

A: Find your evangelists

Then, give the channel managers the tools they need– Custom reports

– Alignment with sales

– Training

– Reference guides

6. Balance your carrots and sticks to optimize results

What’s in it for the partner?– Qualified leads

– Campaign history

– Enriched data

– Incentives

– Support

What’s in it for the vendor?

– Timely feedback

– Updated activity

– 48 hour claw-back

– Performance tracking

– Activity tracking

6. Give partners what they need when they need it

Tactic Alerts and Messages

Status update messages: “It’s been 7 days since your last update…..?”

Reminder messages: “Here is the latest datasheet for the RFP.”

Just in time tools: “Here is a PDF on the competition .”

Deal assistance: “I need help on this deal.”

Just in time

PricingRFP templatesSales tools

Field update reminders

Sales process support

Customer email template

7. Make your program easy to work with

Usability – Branding

– Help tools

– One click

– Ease of use

Communication– Clear

– Frequent

– Performance metrics

– Localized

7. The anatomy of a successful partner facing portal

Brand

Accept Leads

My top lead listsMy Stats

Help and Search

Lead In Box

7. The anatomy…continued

Clear communication

Clear help

Leads are qualified

7. Hold back customer information until partners accept

Subset of lead fields

Don’t give it all away

Partners will take the information and not provide feedback

8. Don’t underestimate the time needed to build the right reports

8. Track revenue contribution by partner

Deal size

Close rates

Partner performance

Historical performance

Partner pipeline

New customers

Leads by product

8. Measure and track productivity by partner

Time to route

Time to accept

Time to qualify

Time to close

Aging trends

Conversion rates

8. Know which partners are participating

Leader boards

Login activity

Lead create trends

Adoption statistics

Follow-up activity

8. Know how you’re marketing spend is doing

Marketing ROI

Partner contributions

Budget status

Unclaimed funds

Campaign performance

Lead management improvements drive ROI

What you need to know to create and justify ROI

# of leads

Conversion rates

Close rates

# of partners

Average deal size

10,000 leads/month5% conversion rate10% close rate (norm)$1,000 / deal

Payback: $50,000/month

Sample Calculator

Close rate varies from 5 to 15%

Start with a pilot scope

Find your channel manager evangelists

Establish program office

Balance the carrot and stick

Communicate and set expectations

Define reporting requirements

Get your process right

11

33

22

55

66

77

88

Qualify your leads first44

Lead Management best practice methodologies

Comprehensive on-demand business services

Product of the Year Award: Salesforce PRM

Channel growthAccount management

Partner analytics

Optimize your channel partner relationships

Time to value Portals in minutes

Easy administration

Partner successPartner self-service

Deal collaboration

Customers are signing up and quickly realizing ROI

Questions

Elay Cohen

415 518 6732

ecohen@salesforce.com

Next Steps:

For more information about Salesforce PRMPlease contact Elay Cohen, 415.518.6732, ecohen@salesforce.com

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