IBM Dials Up Storage Incentives

First IBM launched new partner incentives for hardware (Jan. 1), followed by incentives for software just earlier this month (April 10). Today, IBM continues the trend with new incentives for storage. 

The new multipart incentives offer for IBM Storage Systems and Storage Software solutions is also stackable; partners can mix and match them, and an eligible partner and systems engineer can earn up to $100,000 in storage incentives annually. There’s a $60,000 maximum payout on a per-deal basis.

This latest offer is part of how IBM is evolving its channel, making dramatic changes as part of an overall partner strategy that took root last year. 

“We’re going to start looking, every quarter, at certain areas of the IBM portfolio that we’ll continue to drive from a fulfillment perspective to high value,” John Teltsch, general manager, global business partners at IBM, told us. “Our storage focus has been to drive an integrated set of storage solutions — hardware and software.”

John Teltsch

The new four storage incentives will be in place throughout 2018. These incentives are applicable to the partner salesperson as well as to the technical resource, such as solution architect or systems engineer.

“And, they’ll be able to share in the value, the drive and how they help IBM sell,” Eric Herzog, chief marketing officer and vice president, worldwide storage channel at IBM, told us. The four incentive bundles include: 

Eric Herzog

• New client incentive: IBM is offering 3 percent of the deal size, up to $30,000 per partner rep, per deal. A sales rep and systems engineer can each earn $30,000 on their own.
• All-flash array incentive: IBM is offering 1 percent of deal size, up to $10,000 per deal, which could be split between partner reps.
• Spectrum software for data protection and IBM storage hardware systems incentive: IBM is offering up to $20,000 per deal, based on deal size, which could be split between partner reps.
• New deal-registration incentive: IBM is offering $500 for each registered opportunity of $100,000 or more, split between partner reps. This incentive is about working together, Herzog said. That means a joint sales call – an IBM sales rep and partner – on a WebEx, phone call or face-to-face meeting. 

Here are a couple of examples of how the new incentives program works: 

• A partner sells a tape subsystem to a new client and earns the new client incentive.
• A partner sells an all-flash array and the Spectrum software to a new client. This qualifies the partner for the new client incentive, the all-flash incentive and the software incentive. 

“If partners just want to sell a box, hardware, they’ll earn X, and as they go up the value chain of selling an integrated storage solution, they’ll earn more,” said Teltsch. “The focus of this [initiative] is to drive a message to the market, to our clients and to our partners that we’re in the storage business to win it.” 

The storage incentive program is being rolled out globally this quarter, with the specific packages listed above now available in North America and Western Europe.