Novell rewards the influential
Vendor hopes to makes friends and influence salespeople with VAR rebate programme
Novell has unveiled a new channel kickback scheme to reward its Platinum partners for influencing the purchasing decisions of new customers.
Under the Demand Agent programme, resellers will receive cheques worth 15 per cent of the total deal price when introducing new customers, and a 10 per cent kickback for selling additional kit and services to existing customers.
However, it is designed so that VARs will receive the rebates only if they actually help to influence the end-user's decision to buy Novell, the firm said.
"This is part of our global channel strategy to reward our Platinum partners and give them an incentive because they are leading our sales cycle," said Rainer Liedtke, director of business partner sales at Novell EMEA.
"We want to strengthen their customer sales relationships and provide them with extra revenues. The more they engage with customers, the more money they make."
Although the scheme does not apply to Novell's Silver-level partners, Liedtke said there is a similar reward scheme in the pipeline for its Gold partners. "Gold partners might join the scheme, but this will be by invitation only and decided by country across EMEA," he said.
Novell Platinum partners are free to buy kit directly or from distributors. Although the vendor had previously cut its ties with distributors, preferring resellers to buy kit directly, it has now brought distributors back into the picture.
Liedtke said the vendor has plans to launch a similar rebate scheme for its distribution partners.
Scott Fletcher, managing director of system integrator ANS, said: "The programme gives us more money and is likely to make our people work harder for sales."
Fletcher claimed that Novell's Platinum partners have one-to-one relationships with accounts managers, while its lower Gold and Silver tiers receive 50-to-1 and web-based support respectively.
"In the existing customer base it will increase our up-sell opportunities, making it more worthwhile for us," Fletcher said.