But this kind of utopic situation only works when there’s a lot of trust, particularly on the partner’s side. Unfortunately, far too often the deal registration tools that they need to work with fail to inspire either confidence or trust.

Dealing With PRM Systems in Deal Registration

PRM tools have become a default way to handle deal registration, as a “module” within the overall application. It makes sense for them to do that, given the data that PRM tools are designed around.

PRM tools already managed identity, provided access to resources, and hosted enablement tools in a centralized platform. Adding that deal registration module only required two things:

  1. Integration with Salesforce CRM for a unified pipeline view.
  2. A user experience superior to Salesforce’s native deal registration functionality.

As we have all since seen, this approach often creates problems. For one thing, Salesforce lacks a standard object to manage the complexities of deal registration. Trying to treat deal registrations as leads or opportunities then introduces significant challenges, and so most leading technology vendors now use custom Registration objects within Salesforce.

The Pitfalls of Treating Registration Requests as Leads

Another approach that we have often seen is PRM systems that simplify deal registration by using Salesforce Web-to-Lead tools to capture registrations as Leads.

This is easy to implement, and seems like the path of least resistance, but taking this approach comes with significant baggage and limitations:

Partner Relationships

Converting a Lead to an Opportunity (or Account and Contact) often hides important details from Channel Account Managers (CAMs), hindering partner management.

Visibility

Tracking all registrations from a partner requires manually combining data from both Leads and Opportunities.

Marketing Attribution

Conversion obscures marketing attribution data, making it harder to assess the impact of demand generation efforts.

Pipeline Holistic View

Only approved Leads are converted to Opportunities, leaving unapproved registrations hidden and limiting visibility into competing partner efforts.

Compliance Risks

Audit trails, essential for compliance with deal protection and pricing commitments, are difficult to maintain

Another Pitfall: Treating Deal Registration as an Opportunity

Another common, yet problematic approach is flowing deal registrations directly into Opportunity records. This typically becomes a headache for three reasons:

  1. Scalability: This approach works only for small volumes but falters with larger, partner-driven pipelines.
  2. Pipeline Accuracy: Rejected or disqualified deal registrations distort the pipeline, inflating the number of Opportunities.
  3. Premature Qualification: Approving a deal registration doesn’t necessarily mean the Opportunity is fully qualified. Treating them as identical leads to misrepresentation of pipeline health.

Getting To The Point: Deal Registration Deserves a Custom Object

When you look at the weaknesses in these various approaches to deal registration, one thing becomes clear: It’s complex, and needs to be handled as such. Trying to find the “easy” solution won’t build the trust that you need.

The best approach is to create a Custom Registration object in Salesforce. There are four reasons why:

  1. Enhanced Visibility

    Because Custom Registration objects preserve original submission details, including timestamps and partner-specific data, you instantly gain the ability to track all registration activity for a partner, view overlapping opportunities, and identify conflicts in real time. That visibility allows you to be more responsive and accurate when engaging with the partner, building trust.

  2. Improved Deal Context

    Through Registration records, partner-specific roles such as sales reps and engineers are part of the data captured. What this means is that you know who has been approved or denied, and this helps CAMs understand customer dynamics better.

  3. Accurate Attribution

    Custom Registration means precision with marketing attribution because you’ll be able to link registrations to Lead Sources. You’ll also be able to track influence from alliance partners. This means that all demand generation activities are properly credited, building trust into the entire process.

  4. Comprehensive Audit Trail

    Because Registration records maintain partner-submitted data, even when no Opportunity is created, it becomes possible to facilitate seamless re-submission or extension while ensuring compliance with program requirements.

The Grand Sum of Custom Registration

Overall, the benefit of leveraging a Custom Registration object in Salesforce for deal registration is that it best supports the contractual commitment between vendor and partner. It allows the vendor to respond quickly and transparently to registrations and that directly results in trust and allows the partner to be confident in the program and the vendor’s ability to support their efforts.