PRM is about generating more revenue through indirect sales (i.e., channel partners), and CRM is about doing the same but through a direct sales force. If we consider for a moment the core elements that are common between PRM and CRM systems, we realize that both address one simple thing-how to generate more revenue by lowering the overall cost of marketing and sales.
#Hubspot partner how to#
We will now explore how to integrate HubSpot CRM with a PRM that is similar to the state-of-the-art solution that ZINFI provides. We have written other articles on why PRMs are different from CRMs, and won’t get into those details here however, there is a set of natural points of intersection between CRMs and PRMs. However, the scope of a PRM or a CRM remain quite separate, as both are purpose-built.
A state-of-the-art PRM like ZINFI’s solution is able to handle simple yet complex deployments using a configurable and modular architecture. Large, complex Fortune 1000 enterprises not only need sophisticated workflow capabilities, but also content personalization and program deployment across various sales and language territories around the world. ZINFI’s PRM platform not only focuses on providing a bare-bones partner portal for organizations that are starting up their channel program, but also enables highly advanced and complex channel organizations to deploy a wide range of programs and workflows. Partner relationship management (PRM) platforms today have a similar scope-a complete end-to-end management of the partner lifecycle. I would not be surprised if their next offering is in the service management space-it simply makes sense. This is why HubSpot is thriving as a single integrated platform that provides marketing and sales automation in an end-to-end fashion. While there are many patchworks of tools that are available in the marketplace to slap onto a CRM platform, it requires significant process and interdisciplinary knowledge, integration of resources and, of course, additional money for different app subscriptions to extend a CRM like Salesforce into a multi-app business environment. The goal of this category now is to provide a wholistic view of a buyer from engagement (prospect) to close (customer) to renewal (advocate). The scope of CRM has expanded into marketing (pre-sales) and services (post-sales). Today, customer relationship management (CRM) applications are table stakes for sales organizations. The days of keeping tabs on a sales pipeline in an Excel spreadsheet and updating those cells one at a time to create a report are gone. In this age of working remotely-but also for the business folks on the go-sales operations move at the speed of digital. In this article, we will focus on how you can integrate your HubSpot with your partner relationship management application to create a seamless business process automation platform. Many of these SMB and mid-market organizations are now looking for a full-featured PRM application. HubSpot’s superior ease of use and its much-needed native integrations between marketing and sales have allowed it to capture a significant portion of the SMB and mid-market customer base.
Now, while this was going on in the market space, HubSpot came into existence about a decade ago as an alternative platform for marketing automation, and over the past five years has evolved into a complete marketing and sales automation platform. Eventually, Oracle and Salesforce did as well, but none of these PRM applications could fully address automation requirements for the entire partner lifecycle. Some of these direct sales automation tools-for example, SAP-also introduced a bare-bones application for partner relationship management (PRM). Over the years, others like Microsoft and SAP followed suit, either through organic (built in-house) or inorganic (acquired) offerings.
Over the past couple of decades, Salesforce stayed focused as a cloud CRM provider, and evolved into a massive SaaS ecosystem featuring a variety of business applications. Most of them were on-premise, but some were cloud-based, even though at that time “cloud” was not the buzz word it is now. In the early 2000s we saw the rise of multiple CRM solutions.