CPM is not software: it is a practice, like CRM or ERP

Ask an executive what CRM is, and you will probably hear the name of a vendor. Yet CRM did not start with software. It started with an idea: customer relationships should be managed with method, with shared data and with rules common to the whole company. The tools came later, to carry out that idea at scale.

ERP took the same path. Before the software suites, there was a way of planning the company’s resources as a whole rather than department by department.

Channel Performance Management (CPM) belongs to that lineage. It is not a product. It is the practice that indirect business was missing.

A practice before it is a tool

You buy CRM software, but you practise CRM. The distinction matters, because it explains why so many tooling projects fail: the company installs the tool without adopting the practice it is meant to serve.

A management practice can be recognised by three things:

• a framework: what has to be managed, and in what order;
• a shared vocabulary: the same words for the same realities, from executive management to the field;
• common rules: what is measured, how often, and who decides.

Software brings none of these three. It assumes them.

Indirect business, the missing piece

Customers have CRM. Resources have ERP. Partners long had neither a framework nor common rules, even though they often carry a decisive share of revenue.

The result shows in most of the networks we audit. Partners are recruited as opportunities arise. Resources are allocated by feel. Data is scattered across the CRM, spreadsheets and Channel Managers’ memories. In front of executive management, nobody can say in two minutes whether the indirect channel is ahead or behind.

This is not a tooling problem. It is the absence of a practice.

What CPM defines

CPM is to partners what CRM is to customers and ERP to resources: a management practice, with its framework, shared vocabulary and common rules, to structure, develop, measure and steer indirect business.

It organises indirect business into five domains:

1. Defining the strategy: ambition, Go-To-Market, partnership model.
2. Aligning the organisation: roles, processes, skills.
3. Building the network: map, recruit and onboard the right partners.
4. Developing partners: shared business plans and mutual commitments.
5. Measuring performance: measure contribution, convergence and profitability, then decide.

It also rests on one conviction: a partner network is a strategic asset, to be steered like an investment portfolio. Each partner is selected, developed, measured and made profitable.

For the principles and prerequisites in detail, see the PAD approach.

What CPM is not

It is not software. No tool “does” CPM on the company’s behalf, any more than a CRM creates a customer culture by itself.

It is not a PRM. PRM (Partner Relationship Management) is a category of tools that administers the relationship with partners. CPM is the practice that says why, with whom and for what return to invest in the indirect channel. The two are not opposed: the first is a part of the second. We come back to this below.

It is not owned by a vendor. A framework only has value if it can be adopted widely. CPM is an open practice: any company can adopt it, and any tool can comply with it.

From framework to daily work

A framework says what to do. It does not say how. That is the role of two other pieces, distinct from CPM itself.

The PAD Method^® is the user manual. It models CPM best practices as 38 directly applicable performance levers.

ChannelPerf is a CPM-compatible platform. It digitalises the entire partner journey, from recruitment to the executive cockpit, in line with the framework and the Method.

The order matters. CPM provides the framework, the PAD Method^® makes it operational, ChannelPerf industrialises it. Starting with the tool means tooling opportunism.

CPM vs PRM: what is the difference?

PRM, for Partner Relationship Management, is often described as “the CRM for partners”. It is the term most companies know, and usually the one through which they first approach tooling their network. It therefore deserves to be placed precisely.

A PRM manages the relationship. CPM steers performance. The first meets a real need, but it comes into play once the essential decisions have been made: which markets, which partners, which objectives, which resources. Those decisions belong to CPM.

In ChannelPerf, PRM is a subset

ChannelPerf includes the functions of a PRM. They form one part of its modules, the part that drives the relationship and sales day to day:

• the multilingual Partner Portal;
• the Library of sales, marketing and technical documents;
• Training and certification management;
• the Marketing Plan: MDF, co-op and co-branding;
• Lead management, Deal registration and Campaign tracking.

Some PRMs go further and also cover recruitment, onboarding or the business plan. But the PRMs on the market do not cover three operational modules that sit at the heart of steering in ChannelPerf:

• Mapping: target markets and partners, positioning each partner by its current revenue and its three-year potential;
• the 360° Review: diagnose the network and realign it, from 103 indicators across 11 sections;
• Convergence Analysis: compare the company’s view with each partner’s, to bring gaps to light before they cost you.

These three modules answer the questions a PRM does not ask: where to invest, where the network really stands, and whether the company and its partners are looking in the same direction. Together with Performance, Profitability and the executive cockpit, they make ChannelPerf a steering tool, not just an administration tool.

A strategic dimension, built on more than twenty years in the field

A PRM is software: it executes a strategy, it does not define one. ChannelPerf, by contrast, also covers this strategic side, backed by the expertise of PAD, which has been supporting companies with their indirect sales strategy for more than twenty years: more than 250 to date. It brings together three modules:

• Vision & Strategy Workshop, to define the indirect strategy, with its review tools;
• Master Class & Training, to professionalise the people who manage partners;
• Consulting, for tailored projects.

Strategy and operations rest on the same PAD Method^® and its 38 levers, and Jade, ChannelPerf’s AI, supports teams from one to the other. It is this continuity, from strategy to the field and within a single platform, that a PRM cannot offer.

In other words, PRM is to CPM what a chapter is to a book. Essential, but not enough to tell the whole story.

Already have a PRM?

There is no need to replace it. ChannelPerf complements the CRMs and PRMs already in place through its connectors, and brings them the management and performance dimension they lack. The practice comes before the tool: what matters is that the whole lets you practise CPM.

What does “CPM-compatible” mean?

If CPM is a practice, the right question to ask of a tool is not “does it do CPM?” but “does it let us practise it?”. Four criteria help to judge:

• It covers the whole partner lifecycle, from mapping to steering, rather than a single moment of the journey.
• It measures what matters: each partner’s potential, performance and profitability, not only its activity.
• It serves every level: the Channel Manager, sales and finance management, executive management and the partner itself.
• It complements the existing information system: it reads deals from the CRM without duplicating them.

A tool that meets only one of these criteria is still useful. It simply does not equip the practice as a whole.

Where to start

A practice is not adopted by signing a purchase order. It starts with measuring where you stand: is the strategy formalised? Is the network mapped? Is each partner’s contribution known?

That is the purpose of a first 60 to 90 minute conversation: placing your maturity level and identifying the best starting point. Take stock of your network.