WatchGuard butters up reseller sales reps
Security Pays scheme designed to foster loyalty among individual staff at partners
Plastic fantastic: Sales reps can keep their cards if they move company
Sales representatives at WatchGuard resellers could bag up to $5,000 (£3,390) a quarter under a new spiff incentive scheme, the vendor has claimed.
WatchGuard is launching its Security Pays programme at its EMEA partner conference in Istanbul this week.
The scheme allows sales staff at partners to rack up points by pushing products WatchGuard is promoting at an end-user level. The focus until the end of June is on WatchGuard’s Red Instead campaign.
Mark Romano, director of global channel marketing at WatchGuard, said the debit card-based scheme is designed to engender loyalty at the sales representative level.
“We spend a lot on informing end users about our technology and promotions,” he added. “We are now aligning the reseller sales reps to focus on the same areas.”
Between 75 and 100 higher-level Expert and Professional partners, and between 300 and 500 sales staff, are eligible in the UK, said Romano.
WatchGuard is currently offering trade-in incentives to SonicWall and Barracuda customers through its Red Instead scheme. Resellers will net anywhere between $50 and $300 for every competitive system they trade in.
There is also a bonus attached to WatchGuard’s high-end availability technology, which will net the sales person $1,000. “They can earn up to $5,000 a quarter,” Romano added.
Sales reps can keep their cards if they move company, and redeem the points as they see fit.
Keith Bird, EMEA vice president at SonicWall, said the vendor had been running
a successful spiff rewards programme for years.
“If any partner is tempted to be seduced by what WatchGuard is offering, I would encourage them to balance that with what we offer as a whole package,” he said.