Channel partners are often a critical sales channel for businesses across industries. Keeping them motivated and nurtured is essential to ensure long-term association with them. For this, companies rely on channel partner incentive programs. Despite putting together a rewards program, businesses find fading interest in partners. This is mostly because the incentives usually remain unchanged. You can remedy this and retain your best channel partners by mixing up different channel partner incentive programs.
To help you with this, we have compiled a list of the 10 best channel partner incentive programs so that you can pick the ones that align with your business objectives.
Sales Performance Incentive Funds (SPIFs)
SPIFs is the most popular channel partner incentive program where a short-term incentive or bonus is offered to a partner for making a sale. This is the direct reward that channel partners receive for increasing their sales number. It could be a cash bonus, gift cards, or a hike in commission percentage. SPIFs work best in providing short-term boosts to sales performance during off-seasons. It motivates channel partners to push the envelope even when the conditions are against them.
Using a channel partner incentives platform like Zaggle Propel, you can seamlessly implement this program. Propel offers a metrics-based configurator, which means you can calculate incentives automatically based on the KPIs you set. It will eliminate the bias from the program.
Market Development Funds (MDFs)
MDFs are marketing or promotional resources that companies provide their channel partners. It essentially helps them in their efforts to increase sales through aggressive marketing strategies. This type of incentive program will have companies giving either money or resources so that partners can take newer initiatives to increase local brand recognition. Typically, MDF is used to purchase stalls at marketing events, or commercial spots.
Zaggle Propel enables enterprises to create and manage different schemes for different sales partners based on the type of association. You can further define fields that are specific and relevant to each partner.
Cooperative Funding (CO-OP funding)
Businesses can introduce a cooperative funding scheme to help channel partners with their marketing efforts. This channel partner incentives program includes rewarding partners for their continued support and loyalty towards the brand by offering them account credit or funds.
Organizations can implement a unique funding program through Propel points that can be redeemed via a customizable global rewards catalog.
Deal Registration Incentives
A deal registration program is a direct incentive scheme where businesses offer channel partners rewards to close a registered lead within a timeframe. This is how it works: Once a lead has been captured by the business through a partner, the business will assess its closing rate and then give partners a timeline to close the deal before losing the incentive. The companies offer complete support to help the sales associates in converting the lead.
With Zaggle Propel, you can create multiple programs with custom rules to accommodate channel partners of different types and levels.
Enablement and Training Incentives
Also known as behavioral incentives, sales enablement, and training is a channel partner incentives program that is aimed at better-equipping partners with resources and tools to help them close leads faster. Some businesses gamify this program through schemes like certification, event participation, webinars, and demos. The ultimate goal behind this channel partner program is to educate partners on the company’s products and services.
Zaggle Propel can streamline the process of channel partners accessing necessary resources and training programs through automated approvals and AI-driven workflows.
Loyalty Incentives and Partner Retention
Channel partners bring in a significant number of sales deals, which businesses cannot afford to lose. To ensure they keep the partners happy and satisfied, businesses can utilize channel partner loyalty incentives like redeemable Propel points. These partner retention schemes focus on high-performing associates that bring in huge sales volume. The purpose behind this is to ensure long-term association through a win-win partnership.
Rebates Incentives
In this channel partner incentive program, you reward partners who contribute to higher sales volume. The rebate works in multiple ways; it could either be a discount on bulk orders by a channel partner or an incentive when the partner sells a certain number of products within a timeframe. It encourages partners to accelerate their sales process.
To further enhance this program, Zaggle Propel allows you to create a badge program, wherein you can design your own badges and assign it to channel partners based on their performance or milestones.
Referral Incentives
Referral schemes reward partners who tap into their network and bring in potential customers. In this channel partner incentive program, whenever a channel partner refers a strong lead, which converts, the partner gets either a percentage of the deal value, a prefixed commission, or high-value rewards points. Referral incentives work great to expand the reach of the company significantly.
Solution Development Funds
Channel partners employ several tactics and strategies to improve their sales numbers. One such method is to come up with a creative solution to enhance the experience with the product. Companies can reward such initiatives with a unique channel partner incentives program called solution development funds. For example, a vendor can create a proof of concept using the product or service, which may convince the client to purchase the product.
Recognition events
Recognition can be a great motive for channel partners to increase their sales performance. For this, companies can host rewards and recognition events to publicly acknowledge and celebrate high-performing associates. It not only boosts their confidence but also builds a loyal bond with the company.
The Propel Advantage for Channel Partner Incentives Program
Channel partner incentives programs may seem like a burdensome undertaking if you rely on manual methods. That is why we recommend Zaggle Propel, an all-in-one channel partner rewards platform that automates your incentive schemes, giving you the flexibility of running multiple campaigns simultaneously.
Zaggle Propel is designed to prioritize the experience of channel partners. It is loaded with the features below:
- Seamless onboarding experience for easy adoption
- Ability to create multiple automation workflows
- AI-based report generation and analytics
- Automated claims and rewards management
Learn more about Zaggle Propel here.
