India Inc is fast transforming and redefining its relationship with channel partners and dealers post the pandemic by moving away from usual discounts and extended credit period.
Imagine a mason in Bharat uploading business leads and a cement company offering them incentives for generating sales lead. A real estate company rationalised its costs related to onboarding of over 1,000 agent forces and enhanced lead capture by 75 per cent while creating a satisfied and loyal agent base.
Welcome to the new age fintech companies which help reduce the high initial cost of spend management solutions, which was one of the major hindrances for SMEs and start-ups.
Zaggle, Coupa, Expensify, Edenred and Wex are a few market players which offer diversified end-to-end SaaS offerings to customer organisations.
Avinash Godkhindi, Managing Director & CEO, Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services said post pandemic, Indian companies including MSMEs are building high-impact channel partner incentive programmes using fintech-SaaS tools to grow topline while increasing dealer and distributor incentives to push sales.
Rewards
Godkhindi said rather than offering cash bonuses, a fertilizer company launched a festive bonus scheme which gave away expensive gifts including high-end motorcycles and cars to its dealers. Dealers who met sales targets received a scratch card with an accompanying link directing them to a dedicated section on the platform’s rewards marketplace, where they could view gift details by sharing a one-time passcode.
Godkhindi added recent incentives that have focused on increasing liquidity in the system, rewarding stronger sales performance, and covering dealer overhead expenses. Many organisations in order to grow market share are empowering partners with market development funds for furthering sales in a new geography or a new market segment, said an executive of Coupa.
Channel partners receive funds in their Propel wallet accounts and can use a linked card with pre-built spending controls for the designated use.
Channel incentive software built in the Fintech-Saas tech stack makes partnering easier and more transparent for both sides of the relationship.
But challenges still prevail in India. Such channel partner relationships can be complex to manage and motivate. Often, partner relationships exist in an environment where a vendor has limited direct influence or jurisdiction over its partner’s sales goals, pipeline or process. Further channel partners have a relationship with multiple vendors and ensuring preferred brand status necessitates cementing deeper relationships with channel partners.
India’s outsourced spend management software and services market is estimated to grow from ₹35 billion in 2022 to ₹62 billion by 2027 on the back of greater awareness and higher acceptance by MSMEs, as per Frost & Sullivan report.