Announcing your Portal


Once you’ve set up your portal, it’s time to announce your portal to your Partners. Start by creating a communication plan that includes a formal announcement that you can send to your Partners via email or post on your website. The announcement should identify the following:

  • Benefits of your new portal – Tell your Partners why they should use the portal and highlight some of the features that will be available to them. 
  • Goals and Expectations – Set goals for your partners and establish expectations to make them productive within the portal. 
  • Onboarding Process -  Invite Partners to your portal or let them know the steps and the information needed to join the portal. 



Partner Portal


Dear Partner,


We are pleased to announce the launch of the Widget Cloud Partner Portal to our partners. This partner relationship management system will not only help us manage our partners and business better, but it will also make it easier for you to: 

  • Register deals 
  • Submit MDF requests 
  • Download content 
  • Check on the status of existing deals and update them with additional information 


We’ve designed the portal to make it easy and convenient for you to use. All deals will now have to be registered through the portal, and updated price lists will only be available in the portal’s Resource Library. All the tools and information that you need will now be at your fingertips. 


We will be sending out invitations to access the portal this week. You will receive your invitation via email. Please follow the instructions in the email to activate your account. If you do not receive an invitation, you will need to complete the Request Access form. Once you submit your request and it has been approved, you will receive an email with instructions to activate your account. 


If you have feedback about the portal or any problems accessing it, please don’t hesitate to open a ticket.  This is a new effort, and there will obviously be a period of growth and adjustment before things smooth out.  Your feedback will help us ensure that those changes make it more helpful for everyone. 


Best Regards, 


Rufus Vega 

Channel Manager  


We also recommend creating a Partner User Guide that tells Partners how to do the following: 

  • Navigate the portal
  • Manage their profile
  • Register Deals (You will also want to tell Partners what they can expect in return for registering Deals in the portal, such as benefits, incentives, etc.)
  • Access Leads 
  • Submit MDF Requests
  • Create Co-Branded Collateral 
  • Complete Course and Certifications 
  • Access Content Library (they can find documents such as price sheets, marketing literature, and training materials.)

Note: You can impersonate a Partner User to collect your screenshots using the User Impersonation feature.

 


If you don’t want to create a document, then schedule a web-based introduction to the portal to familiarize your Partners with the navigation and resources. You can record this session and put it in your Resource Library for future reference. You can use these tactics to train your Internal Users as well. Keep in mind System Admins are responsible for providing Internal Users with an overview and training of the system. 


Inviting/Adding Partner Users


Once you've completed implementation and the items listed above,  you can invite Partner Users to the portal using any of the methods in this article. 


Following up with your Partners


It’s important to keep an open line of communication with your Partners. Let them know that you value their feedback and want to know about their experience in using the portal. It’s important to find out what they like about the portal and what could be better or done differently. Understanding the needs of your Partners will, in return, help you better manage your PRM.  It can also help with recruiting and promoting new prospective Partners.