Everyone in the Channel Loyalty Pool
One of the issues that bedevil vendors, solution providers and their sales representatives alike is how to manage SPIFFs. For the most part only larger vendors have the channel resources needed to manage a SPIFF program, which are generally used to provide incentives to partners that sell resell certain products and service by a specific date.
One of the issues that bedevil vendors, solution providers and their sales representatives alike is how to manage SPIFFs. For the most part only larger vendors have the channel resources needed to manage a SPIFF program, which generally are used to provide incentives to partners that sell resell certain products and service by a specific date.
Obviously, sales representatives would be more motivated if there was a simpler way for a much broader number of vendors to create a SPIFF program, not to mention make it easier for sales representatives to participate in multiple SPIFF programs.
With that goal in mind ChannelAssist, which provides partner relationship management (PRM) software that manages channel programs on behalf of vendors, has created The Loyalty Pool. The basic idea starts with providing sales representatives with a single debit or credit card they can use to collect SPIFF rewards from multiple vendors. Rather than having a rewards credit card for each vendor, the sales representative essentially can aggregate all their rewards on a single card that makes it easier for them to turn their rewards into actual money.
The next step is for smaller vendors to outsource the management of these SPIFF programs to ChannelAssist. The upside of that approach is that it not only enables those vendors to tap into the strength of a much larger channel, ChannelAssist CEO David Auld said they can more easily work with other vendors to creates SPIFFs around complementary product sets.
ChannelAssist already has a fair amount of experience working with SPIFF programs because it manages a Blue Carpet SPIFF program on behalf of Hewlett-Packard. Auld said that ChannelAssist has some commitments from Tech Data in Canada to find channel partners willing to participate in The Loyalty Pool program. What’s needed now are for more vendors to step up and participate, said Auld.
Obviously, SPIFFs can be controversial. Some solution provider owners don’t care to have the sales priorities of their sales teams directly influenced by vendors. Others welcome the opportunity to reward sales representatives in a way that doesn’t wind up impacting their own bottom line.
Regardless of how senior managers at solution providers feel about them, sales representatives across the channel sign up on their own to participate in these programs. The only difference now is rather than having those SPIFF programs being enjoyed by a few top vendors, it’s now possible for everyone in the channel to tap into a potentially much larger pool of SPIFF dollars.
