Profitable Partnerships: Leveraging Wholesaler Portals for Business Growth

As a seasoned sales leader, and prior partnerships leader for a growing manufacturing company, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of leveraging wholesaler portals to drive revenue growth for manufacturing companies. Wholesaler portals serve as a crucial tool for connecting and growing with your network.  

In this article, I'll explore the essential features of a wholesaler portal and how they can help manufacturers like you maximize revenue, drive business growth, and stand out in a competitive marketplace. From setup to success, let's navigate the world of wholesaler portals. 

What is a wholesaler portal?  

A wholesaler portal is an essential tool for manufacturing companies who need to establish more seamless interactions with their network of wholesalers. This platform acts as a centralized hub. Through it, manufacturing companies can provide wholesalers with access to essential features such as product updates, training, and marketing tools, all tailored to their specific needs. 

Building a wholesaler portal is an opportunity to streamline operations and drive greater revenue through your indirect channels. By investing in must-have features like expedited onboarding processes and co-branding tools, manufacturers can empower their wholesalers to better promote and sell their products. Additionally, a portal can serve as a platform for companies to strengthen partnerships with their wholesalers.  

As manufacturers strive to enhance efficiency, collaboration, and profitability in their distribution networks, a well-designed wholesaler portal is a strategic differentiator that empowers them to do so.  

What are the best features to look for in a wholesaler portal? 

When it comes to selecting the best features for your wholesaler portal, you want a platform that's built with partners in mind. It should be easy to use, intuitive to navigate, and have hyper-personalized journeys built directly into the platform for them. 

On the admin side, look for portals that require little to no coding for customizations. This reduces the need to bring in IT to help when you need to make changes. Further, every wholesaler portal should include robust reporting and analytics features that provide insights into your sales performance, partner engagement, and other key metrics.  

With the right portal, you can successfully report on the ROI you're driving through your wholesaler program efforts to ensure ongoing investments in your partner network.  

Here are six other essential features to look for in a wholesaler portal.  

1. Easy onboarding tools 

Getting wholesalers set up fast once you find them is essential for both parties. Automating the onboarding process as much as possible ensures that your wholesalers can start generating revenue faster. A great wholesaler portal enables you to set up custom onboarding journeys, automated approval processes, and integrations with other third-party tools like DocuSign.   

By providing easy-to-follow onboarding procedures and support, you reduce the time it takes for wholesalers to become productive, leading to quicker returns on investment for both you and your partners. 

2. Marketing assets and co-branded collateral 

Having a go-to place for partner marketing assets and co-branded collateral makes it easier for wholesalers to promote your products effectively. By offering ready-to-use marketing materials, you enable your partners to showcase your products in the best light possible, driving sales and brand visibility.  

Co-branded tools facilitate seamless collaboration and help strengthen the relationship between you and your wholesalers. Offer tools to add their own logos, contact information, and more to your materials. 

3. Personalized training and certification programs  

When you first begin working with a wholesaler, you typically have one point-of-contact that understands your company and its products. A wholesaler portal with dedicated partner training tools is a force multiplier, allowing you to share knowledge with everyone at the wholesaler at locations worldwide.  

In the best wholesaler portals, you can tailor learning journeys by partner type, region, or more. Create journeys or enroll wholesalers in certification programs that fit best for their goals and market reach. These tools will help wholesalers understand your products inside and out. This not only boosts their confidence in selling but also enhances their effectiveness with customers. 

4. To-partner newsletters and outreach 

Keep wholesalers informed about important product updates, promotions, and industry trends with a newsletter tied into your wholesaler platform.  

By providing timely and relevant information, you reinforce your commitment to supporting their success. Additionally, offering newsletters that can be easily customized and translated for different global audiences enhances engagement and ensures that all partners stay well-informed.  

⭐️ Example: Siemens scales global outreach to partners  

"We needed to deliver the right message, to the right partners, at the right time. We started localizing newsletters and immediately saw amazing results. All of them had over 50% and some up to 70% unique open rates." 

Learn how Siemens doubled their partner engagement rates with Impartner.  

Read the full case study here. 

5. On-demand sales enablement materials 

Arm your wholesalers with sales enablement materials such as product catalogs, upcoming product releases, promos and sales info, and planograms.  

By keeping them informed about new offerings and sales opportunities, you ensure that they are always equipped with the latest information to engage customers and close deals. This fosters a proactive sales approach and strengthens partnerships between you and your wholesalers. 

6. Automated marketing workflows  

Wholesalers want easy access to marketing dollars to better promote your products. Make it easy with MDF management built into your wholesaler portal, along with automated marketing campaign tools to leverage those dollars.  

Look for tools with automated email campaign management, paid media tools, social media outreach, custom landing pages, and more. These tools amplify the impact of your marketing initiatives and drive mutual success in the marketplace for both you and your wholesalers.  

Incorporating these features into your wholesaler portal not only enhances operational efficiency but also strengthens partnerships and drives revenue growth for your business. 

⭐️ Example: Stanley Black & Decker increases reseller leads 163% 

"Impartner enabled us to generate additional revenue for all of our 150 local resellers by giving them online exposure on Google Search that they would never have been able to set up themselves... A central and templated one-to-many approach that’s scalable, saves a lot on operational costs and allows our small independent retailers to grow generating more leads and sales!”  

With Impartner, Stanley Black & Decker built paid media campaigns for their network with almost no lift from their partners. Learn how.  

Read the full case study here. 

Grow faster with wholesalers  

Once you have a wholesaler portal in place, regularly monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and gather feedback from your wholesalers. Identify areas for improvement and use their feedback to improve functionality, enhance partner experience, and drive better outcomes.  

By continuously refining your portal based on data-driven insights and feedback, you can ensure its long-term success in supporting your wholesale network. Not sure where to start?  

The answer is Impartner.  

Each day millions of partners in nearly every industry across the globe access Impartner. Why? Because the partner experience matters and leading organizations agree.  

Impartner is the fastest-growing, most award-winning partner management platform on the market. Our partner relationship management and partner marketing solutions help companies accelerate revenue and profitability through their indirect sales channels at every partner lifecycle touchpoint.  

Get in touch today to learn more about how I can help you build a wholesaler portal that helps your manufacturing company stand out from the crowd!