Plantronics Augments Channel Partner Data With Zyme Solutions

By Brian Anderson, Associate Editor

When vendors sell through channels, they sometimes don’t have a clear picture of partner demand generation and sales performance.

This lack of visibility ultimately impacts bottom-line results, as there is no clear view into what’s being sold and how much is being sold. In addition, there is no way to provide the proper recognition to channel partners who are exceeding expectations and company-wide sales goals.

Plantronics, an audio communications equipment provider for businesses and consumers, was striving to align sales data from partners and internal sales teams, and get a more accurate picture of channel performance. The company realized that 15% of their channel partner data was inaccurate, blurring the company’s vison of the channel.

To resolve its data issue, Plantronics partnered with Zyme Solutions, a provider of channel data management (CDM) solutions. The company’s TrueData solution is specifically designed to automate the data collection process, which ultimately improves data integrity and accurately displays operational necessities. Since implementing TrueData, Plantronics has seen its channel sales data reach 99% accuracy.

“We knew we needed a more scalable solution, and the key catalyst was that the solution could provide us clean, accurate data on an international level,” said Dave Marshall, Channel Programs Manager, EMEA at Plantronics. “We needed a solution that could collect all the data on Monday, and give us all the metrics by Tuesday.”

Prior to implementing Zyme solutions, one employee would manually collect and manage all of the direct and partner sales data. This was a tedious, elongated process that altered the data’s accuracy.

“Instead of chasing the data, we can actually chase the business,” Marshall said. “This is a major advantage for our sales teams; now all they have to worry about is closing their deals.”

Plantronics also implemented the TrueID solution from Zyme, which allows the company to align the correct data with the right channel partners — providing the insight required to allocate incentives and commissions accurately.

Using the Zyme solutions, the Plantronics sales team identifies which channel partners are creating business for the company and pays partners the incentives they deserve.

“Before implementing Zyme’s solutions, our data was pretty inaccurate,” Marshall said. “Now, we have a lot of visibility in all of our countries — especially the countries we had minimal information on prior to implementing the solutions.”