Easynet Connect hunts sales agents

Business ISP hopes to steal a march on rivals by tempting VARs with margin-rich opportunities

Searching.....Easynet Connect is looking to attack its 'weakened' rivals

Easynet Connect claims it has become the first business ISP to launch a reseller referral programme as it looks to attack “weakened” rival Carphone Warehouse.

Resellers that join Easynet Connect’s Sales Agent Referral Scheme will earn the equivalent of one month of the annual order value upon installation.

As the SME arm of Sky-owned Easynet, Easynet Connect serves UK firms with 10 to 250 heads. Annual order values vary from £2,000 for an SDSL connection, up to £50,000 for a small MPLS, meaning resellers could earn between about £170 and £4,000 per referral.

Sales and marketing director Debbie Robertson said she would be “disappointed” if fewer than 100 partners joined the scheme in its first year.

The programme is targeting two types of partner: small IT consultancies without billing capabilities; and existing partners that want to move to be both resellers and referrers or switch entirely to an agency model.

“In today’s climate a lot of resellers do not want the burden of debt collection,” said Robertson.

Each sales agent will have access to a dedicated account manager.

“The whole process for them should be easy and clean,” said Robertson. “They contact the account manager, give them the lead and that is the end of it.”

Robertson added that Carphone Warehouse’s acquisition of Tiscali UK was a factor in the timing of the launch. “It needs to get its house in order and is quite weak at the moment,” she argued.

Scott Fletcher, chief executive of Easynet Connect partner ANS, said: “This sounds like a good idea if Easynet can sort out its billing issues. This referral programme needs strong administration to make it work successfully and the company has had problems with its systems.”