Glossary

Channel sales terms, explained in a few sentences.

• Channel conflict

  Channel conflict is the friction that appears when two or more sales channels, such as several distributors or a distributor and the manufacturer's own team, compete for the same customer or deal.

• Channel sales

  Channel sales is a sales model in which a company sells its products through third parties, such as distributors, dealers, resellers or installers, instead of only through its own sales team.

• Deal registration

  Deal registration is a process in which a channel partner tells the vendor about an opportunity it has found, and once the vendor approves it, the partner gets agreed benefits such as protection from other partners, special pricing or sales support.

• Dealer network

  A dealer network is the group of independent businesses, usually each covering a defined region, that sell, and often install and service, a manufacturer's or importer's products to end customers.

• Distributor KPIs

  Distributor KPIs are the key performance indicators a manufacturer uses to evaluate its distributors or dealers, such as win rate on assigned leads, response time and time spent in each stage.

• Lead routing

  Lead routing is the process of deciding, by rules or by a person, which salesperson, team or partner receives each new lead, and making sure they are told about it.

• Partner relationship management (PRM)

  Partner relationship management (PRM) is the set of processes and software a company uses to recruit, onboard, support and measure its channel partners, such as resellers, distributors and dealers.

• Territory management

  Territory management is the practice of dividing a market into territories, usually geographic, assigning each one to a salesperson, manager or partner, and using those boundaries for routing, access and reporting.