Features & Benefits
Partner Locator
Unlimited Partners
No limit on the number of partners. Can provide the business name, phone, email, URL, levels, description, and hours.
Driving Directions
Shows how many miles and directions from the prospect’s location on any device (mobile friendly).
Google Maps
Leverages the Google Maps API, so it is up-to-date and detailed.
GDRP Friendly
Option to only show map after GDRP acceptance.
Filters
Can sort by partner type, authorization, location, or capabilities.
Zip Code Based
Makes partners visible to prospects by zip code or city.
Is there a cost to use the maps database?
In almost every case–NO. The partner locator software uses the Google API for the actual map data. Google gives you $200 per month credit, which provides 28,500 maploads per month. Anything beyond that (you would be so lucky) and they have a variable rate that they charge your credit card on file. Most vendors might get 0 to 1,000 or so searches per month max–so you are way below the monthly limit and should never see a charge. They will also email you of a pending charge and you have to approve it–so there is no risk. Click HERE to see the details about the Google Maps Platform.
Do I have to set up an account with Google?
Yes. During the portal setup, you will be required to have either a personal or business Google (gmail) account. You will also be required to put a credit card number into their system to cover any potential charges if you go over the mapload limit (you get 28,500 maploads each month for free). This is WAY more than most vendors will ever see (maybe 0 – 1,000 max).
Regardless, they will email you for pre-approval before they ever charge your card (or it just won’t feed up any map info). If your credit card expires, it will turn off the maploads and you will need to update their system. This is all managed through Google and every map application that uses Google requires some variation. Click HERE to see Google’s details.
Should I use a partner locator?
You will typically want to add your partners to your locator AFTER they list your product on their website (or prospects won’t find your product on the partner’s website–not good). There are a few reasons this makes sense:
- Lose Fewer Sales. First, your prospects will be able to find your resellers when they are looking for local support and to answer pre-sales questions. This is critical if your office is closed or you are in a different region or time zone–better for the prospect to get someone who can answer questions and potentially close the deal than nobody (and you risk prospects conducting another search and finding another product instead–we’ve all done it).
- Shows Partner Friendly. Second, it shows that you are reseller friendly and support your resellers. Think of them as regional offices that also need leads. Some partners won’t even come on board if they don’t see a locator.
- An incentive to List Product. And third, it is an incentive (BAIT) for resellers to get your product on their website (no product info–no leads through the locator or manually). One vendor with over 4,000 partners only had 13% of their partners that had the products on their website–yet the vendors were still sending them leads. That’s a travesty! Getting in the locator is an incentive for the partners to get the product on website.
I occasionally get questions about whether or not you should expose your partner list. Some folks are worried competitors may scrape their reseller database.
- First, a zip-code-based database like the kind within the portal is a pain to scrape since there are over 41,000 US zip codes they would have to search to find them all. There are $69 tools that can find them on the Internet easier. Even one of the world’s most comprehensive and detailed databases uses other methods (rather than a reseller locator) to pull in the data.
- And second, if a) you have a well-positioned, highly competitive product, b) a world-class competitive partner program, and c) you take care of your partners–they won’t want to leave. If they do, it is usually because your product doesn’t cover all their market segments–which is fine.
I typically wouldn’t turn on your public reseller locator until you have at least five partners and then keep the initial default distance to 500 or so miles. But also explain that prospects can contact you directly if they don’t find a partner in their area.
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