Streamline Channel Sales with an Intelligent Rebate Strategy

Channel and partner relationships are top of mind as B2B organizations continue to accelerate digital initiatives in 2021. Business leaders who are seeking to drive growth are identifying channel sales optimization as one way to increase revenue. These leaders need to know how to collaborate more effectively with their partners, how to digitalize incentive strategies (including rebate planning and payout processes that still rely too heavily on manual input), and how to get real-time visibility into the performance of their incentive programs.

Rebate programs are one specific area where manufacturing organizations who rely on channel partners have an opportunity to increase sales, expand product offerings and improve partner engagement. Every industry that uses incentive programs needs rebate management tools that are flexible enough to cater to the complex scenarios of their particular sector. There's no one-size-fits-all solution that will work for manufacturing, automotive, and consumer goods but integrating a solution into your CRM provides flexible customization features that can help you unlock the potential of your incentive strategies.

In many organizations, incentive program management and information is siloed both by department and by tool. Incentive programs tend to be managed by finance teams who rely on point solutions, spreadsheets, or an ERP. Too often, these tools are not accessible to account managers or channel partners. This means that account managers typically can't see incentive program targets or payouts, and channel sales partners have limited visibility into how close they are to making their targets, or to attaining the next tier.

Now, organizations can manage end-to-end incentive programs from inside the CRM. Salesforce's new Rebate Management product brings efficiency and traceability to your incentive programs and allows your finance teams, sales leaders, account managers, and channel partners all to collaborate in a single interface. This means that the key players in your incentive program all have visibility into real-time data, from many locations and devices. Now let's take a look at how managing your incentive program from the CRM can help you build more effective channel partner relations.

We've all seen the importance of digitalizing business processes this past year, and how crucial it is to access your data and analytics in real time from multiple devices and locations. Rebate management is no different.

A lack of holistic solutions for rebate management means channel partners have been left using cumbersome manual processes. Customers tell us their incentive programs aren't working, that partners would rather skip adding a rebate claim if they have to enter invoices individually by hand into the rebate claim system. If they're leaving money on the table, then not only is your your incentive program failing to drive sales it’s also harming your partner relationship. Digitalizing and automating processes helps to make both your jobs easier and more successful.

Across the industry, statistics from the upcoming Salesforce "Trends in Manufacturing” report show the need for digitalization tools like Rebate Management to increase efficiency and transparency:

• 83% of manufacturers say increasing process efficiencies is a high or critical priority in the next two years
• 78% of manufacturers say having a single source of truth is a high or critical priority in the next two years
• Although 81% say moving their planning process to the cloud is a critical or high priority, the reality is that many manufacturers still rely on spreadsheets and manual analysis.
• 1 in 3 manufacturers say their legacy tools pose a serious challenge to their business. 

Integrating Rebate Management into the CRM ensures the right parties have access to the right data at the right time. Tying your data up in the ERP is very limiting. If your incentive programs are running in the CRM, you have immediate access to a host of information. You can see who’s receiving payouts. You can send notifications to partners reminding them that if they push through an opportunity, they'll qualify for an additional benefit.

Effective incentive programs are both strategic and tactical. On a strategic level, rebates are a critical component for building channel partnership loyalty in order to grow revenue. Operationally, you use rebate management programs to drive customer behavior toward the organizational goals you're trying to achieve. When information isn't available to your account teams, they can't see what impact the agreed-upon rebates with an account are having on the business's profitability. They also can't see where their accounts are in terms of attainment, when previous payouts have been made and in what amounts, or how many sales are needed to get to the next rebate tier. Partners also need access to this information in real time. They want to see their attainment progress as it is happening so they can adjust their own sales strategies to meet their targets.