What is Partner Platform adoption?
Partner platform adoption, sometimes called platform onboarding rate, is the process by which new partner users become accustomed to a vendor provided PRM solution or partner service and decide to keep using it. In simple terms we can consider it to be the uptake rate and therefore partner satisfaction in the vendors system of working with their channel.

Why is Partner Platform adoption important?
If a vendors solution has a high platform adoption rate, it’s a clear indication that substantially more individuals are adopting the vendors PRM service than are abandoning it, either for their own solution or another. This high rate of adoption usually means the vendor is acquiring flexible or best fit new partners very effectively.

By ensuring partners adopt the vendor preferred platform several key benefits present themselves, most notably a greater degree of control, finesse and coherence over vendor led partner marketing solutions. The real power of most PRM systems is creating an always on link between partners and their vendor, one that can be beneficial to both parties, allowing easier support and communication of information for the partner, and easier collation and directional options for the vendor.

Given these benefits it’s easy to see why better partner platform adoption would benefit the vendor; centralising marketing and sales data from across the world into an easily digestible and searchable location, homogenising marketing and sales content, branding, messaging and process to better understand what works in what markets, what can be achieved by certain types of partner and having better control over company representation. All of these things should likely lead to:

• Eventual lower cost-per-acquisition (CPA)
• Higher partner retention
• Better marketing ROI
• Increased partner lifetime value
• More unified, program-wide marketing, sales & service

Any business that benefits from highly engaged and brand aware partners is likely to be a company benefiting from higher platform adoption. To ensure that users find value, stick around, and fully adopt, companies need to guide them through the process, and support them in using it. This can be outlined clearly in a vendors partner platform adoption strategy.

Common Platform adoption strategies
The goal of a platform adoption strategy is to ultimately help users reach their goal, great sales and marketing that benefits both parties. That means conducting research to understand users’ motivations, needs, environments, beliefs, complaints, and most importantly, any reasons why users won’t adopt.

Partners often fall out of using the platform for reasons it can be hard to predict, such as the perception that the platform is too time intensive, the feeling that it’s too complex and hard to retrain into, or simply the impression that the platform will not fulfil their needs.

Teams can think about improving their user adoption rate in terms of this equation:

Adoption = Value / Effort

If the value of the service outweighs the costs, adoption is positive and users are likely to remain on the partner platform. If the effort outweighs the value, they abandon it. To improve adoption, the team can either increase the value, decrease the effort, or, ideally, both.

As you can see it’s key to get partner platform adoption in the right balance in order to ramp up user interactions, leading ultimately to better information sharing, more brand-wide cohesion and an all round better progression of partner marketing and sales funnels with your support. But the question still remains, How do we improve adoption rates?

Well, we’ve created the ultimate guide to help you achieve that goal, giving you the necessary information, step by step, to move from meagre platform usage to an all round scope of your partners activities and successes. Alternatively need more direct help? We’re here for you, get in touch here.