Support Channel Collaboration with ChRM
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe the importance of channel data in making business decisions.
- Describe how Channel Revenue Management (ChRM) improves channel operations through financial incentives management.
- Explain how channel partners and businesses collaborate via ChRM to simplify operations and influence growth.
Channel Revenue Management: From Chaos to Control
Selling products and services is no longer as simple as a direct handshake between a company and its customers. Some businesses manufacture spare parts, then rely on resellers to find vendors who integrate them into their own products. Others work with multiple distributors, dealers, and resellers to reach customers across the world. In short, sales gets complicated when you work with a web of partners like distributors, dealers, wholesalers, retailers, and buying groups. Whether you’re managing a handful of partners or thousands, it’s no small feat to keep everything running smoothly.
While your CRM is fantastic at managing customer relationships and data, when it comes to channel sales, you need a system that helps you collaborate with your partners and keeps track of crucial middle-office and back-office data.
That’s where ChRM comes in: ChRM gives you a single place to view your channel sales data in real time. It unites internal and external selling efforts with channel partner inventory tracking, inventory management, and incentive programs. No more guesswork or back-and-forth emails to confirm numbers. With automation handling the manual work, you and your partners can focus on selling instead of struggling with outdated processes. Create happier partners, stronger relationships, and a more profitable, well-oiled channel network with ChRM.
This might sound like a big expectation from a suite of applications tied to your CRM. In a way, it is. But it works. Next, explore a complex channel sales scenario to see how ChRM shines.
Channel Partnership Throughout the Sales Cycle
You make high-performance microchips that help automate factories. Key technology distributors sell your chips to companies that build advanced robotic systems, like precision robotic arms used to assemble cars. This is called a channel partnership. You design and produce the chips. The distributor buys and sells them to automation companies. Then an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) integrates them into advanced robotic machines. Together, you help factories and assembly lines work more efficiently with the latest automation technology, all powered by your microchips.
Collaborations like these are complex. You send inventory to your distributor, but how do you know what happens next? Your distributor makes a big sale, but how do you track it? When prices change or additional rebates kick in, miscalculations can happen. This is where Channel Revenue Management makes a difference.
Keep Everyone Informed
Your distributor places a bulk order for your microchips. Once the distributor receives the shipment, it sells them to robotics and automation companies. But without visibility, it’s hard to know how many chips are still sitting in warehouses.
With ChRM’s ability to track channel partner inventory and resales, you can see where your products are and ensure that financial incentives and discounts are applied only to actual sales and not inventory movement.
Meanwhile, your distributor has secured a major deal with a leading robotics manufacturer. It’s an exclusive sale, and they want to lock it in. Instead of endless calls and emails, Channel Revenue Management automates the approval process through the Design Registration feature. Design Registration makes it easy for your vendors to communicate, verify sales, and gain exclusive access to deals.
Manage Incentives to Ensure Fair Pricing and Smarter Rebates
Channel Revenue Management has several ways to structure incentives to motivate and support your partners.
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Rebate management: Define and manage rebates using predefined templates.
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Ship and debit: Create ship and debit programs with special discounts for partners.
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Price protection: Set up price protection to manage pricing fluctuations.
Rebate Management
A few months later, your distributor has crushed its sales targets, moving more units than expected. The distributor qualifies for a Growth and Volume rebate. Instead of back-and-forth calculations, Channel Revenue Management tracks and applies the rebate—accurate, automated, and hassle-free.
Ship and Debit
For months, your OEM vendor has been placing your high-performance microchips into robotic systems to supply them to factories and assembly lines. But suddenly, the industry slows down as orders drop, budgets tighten, and automation projects get delayed. To move inventory, your OEM vendor has to offer steep discounts on its robots to close deals.
That puts your distributor in a tough spot. The distributor purchased your chips at the original price and now risk taking a loss on unsold stock. But with Ship and Debit program management, the distributor doesn’t have to worry. Your distributor submits a request: Once the program is approved, the distributor can submit Ship and Debit claims. Manufacturers automatically verify the claims, which ensures the distributor gets reimbursed for the price difference—quickly, accurately, and without disputes.
Price Protection Programs
And then, as stability is rare, the market shifts. You lower the price of your high-performance microchips to stay ahead of your competitors. That’s great for new sales, but what about your distributor? Your distributor still has unsold inventory they purchased at the old price. Without support, they’d take a loss. But Channel Revenue Management is already on it. Price Protection Programs detect the change, identify affected stock, and initiate reimbursement. Your partners stay profitable and your supply chain stays strong.
ChRM: It’s Simple
With ChRM, your distributor and vendor focus on selling—not on chasing rebates, disputing claims, or managing price fluctuations. And instead of overpayments, hidden inventory, and partner frustrations, you enjoy a simplified process. ChRM turns a complicated, messy system into a smooth, reliable, and profitable operation.