Description

Position Summary:

The Partner Relations Specialist I is responsible for building and maintaining Heartland Business Systems’ core and emerging partner and distributor relationships to optimize profitability and ease of doing business. In addition, the Partner Relations Specialist I develops and maintains a Partner Scorecard, provides timely and accurate reporting to manufacturers and sales management, and optimizes market development funds (MDF) and other incentive amounts, usage and claiming. 

Roles and Responsibilities/ Essential Functions:

• Discover and stay abreast of core and approved partner programs and understand partner and distributor pricing. Effectively communicate all necessary distributor and partner information to cross-functional teams, including contacts, significant pricing changes, contracts, incentive programs, learning opportunities, and other important data. Manage setup and removal of team members in partner portals as well as facilitating resolution when issues arise with team member access.
• Negotiate with distributors and manufacturers to get the greatest amount of MDF possible. Understand time and usage limitations. Collaborate with the VP of Sales, applicable Marketing team members and VP, Strategy and Growth to plan and budget usage of available MDF. Upon the completion of activities, ensure MDF claiming is optimized, completed, and funds are received and correctly documented. 
• Use ConnectWise to report distributor and partner activity, as required for contractual and manufacturer obligations. Analyze and prepare useful summary reports for the VP of Sales and VP, Strategy and Growth regarding revenue and Gross Profit (GP) by manufacturer, partner, distributor, region, and customer. Serve as a point of contact for partner and manufacturer data within ConnectWise. 
• Assure all contract and partner reporting is accurately submitted within time requirements. 
• Communicate with VP of Sales and VP, Strategy and Growth to assure partner requirements are met and best practices are utilized. Manage escalation for unresolved issues to ensure they are addressed and resolved timely. 
• Work with VP of Sales, VP, Strategy and Growth, Finance and Legal to develop and maintain the Core and Approved Partner list. Field incoming calls and email regarding new partner relationship requests. 
• Develop and maintain a partner scorecard for the HBS distributors and core and strategic partners. Document 5-year revenue, gross profit dollars and percentage, additional revenue from rebates, commissions and MDF, medallion status, and any significant issues affecting business or the relationship. 
• Work with Talent Development Manager to ensure HBS is compliant with general manufacturer training that is needed for HBS team members regarding technologies, products, and programs, including maintaining current medallion statuses or achieving new statuses. 
• Monitor manufacturer medallion statuses, manage requirements, and collaborate with VP of Sales and VP, Strategy and Growth as well as HR management to assure minimum requirements are met within time constraints. 
• Regularly meet with distributor and core and strategic partner channel managers to maintain a strong relationship, to negotiate MDF availability and usage, and to learn of upcoming programs and opportunities. Familiarize partners with HBS processes, requirements, and significant staffing changes. 
• Manage the funding of the campaigns and events, including the annual sales conference to ensure expenses are aligned with partner funding. 
• Manage Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) opportunities to ensure proper approval has been received from VP, Strategy and Growth, management of MOU has been properly assigned, tasks and deadlines are met, expenses incurred are covered by MOU funds, proper submission is completed to distributor/manufacturer, and funds are received.
• Increase rebate amount of core partners, year-over-year. 
•  Maintain the partner portion of the Heartland Hub with interesting, most pertinent, and easily found manufacturer information, including contacts, portal access, deal registration and incentive programs. 
• Perform other duties, as assigned.

Requirements

Competencies

• Active Listening - Ability to actively attend to, convey, and understand the comments and questions of others.
• Analytical Skills - Ability to gather data and process it into usable form.
• Communication - Ability to communicate effectively with others in all communication formats.
• Initiative - Ability to make decisions or take actions to solve a problem or reach a goal.
• Management Skills – Ability to engage appropriate resources and manage multiple tasks at one time to achieve desired outcomes.
• Negotiation Skills – Ability to reach favorable outcomes that gain the acceptance and support of all parties.
• Organization Skills – Ability to manage multiple tasks with competing deadlines
• Relationship Building - Ability to effectively build relationships with all parties that are engaged

Required Experience:

• 2 years of supply chain experience.

Preferred Experience:

• 3 Years of Partner relations experience.

Required Skills, Education and/ or Certifications required:

• Associate Degree
• Computer Skills: Proficiency with Microsoft Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint

Preferred Skills, Education and/ or Certifications required:

• Bachelor’s Degree

Equal Opportunity Employer - Disabled/Vets

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