Citrix revamps partner program, pushes mid-market opportunities
Citrix has updated its partner program and incentive portfolio as the vendor seeks to drive growth, profitability and predictability among its partners.
The changes see Citrix delineating its partner incentives to reward distinct sales activities with new suggested upfront discounts for partner-identified and qualified opportunities, while focusing existing rewards on objective activities and expanding its marketing development funds.
The new initiatives will be rolled out throughout the year.
Kimberly Martin, Citrix vice president of worldwide partner sales and strategy, says the changes are the second wave of improvement to the programs for 2016 and are designed to promote growth, drive profit and give partners greater predictability, especially for those partners who invest in their relationship with Citrix and look to target the mid-market.
"We are focused on helping our partners bring our solutions to the mid-market and making Citrix the most profitable vendor on which our partners can build a business," Martin says.
The 'recalibrated' incentives will reward partners for the value they bring to the complete sales cycle, with a focus on identifying and qualifying new opportunities and solution selling in existing and new opportunities.
Next month the company will launch its Net New Partner Sourced program, providing Citrix Solution Advisors, system integrators and ISV partners with rewards for identifying and qualifying new opportunities, particularly in the mid-market.
The program will see partners eligible for a 7% upfront discount on all new partner qualified opportunities, with the new incentive on top of existing up-front suggested discounts including opportunity registration for networking.
Citrix says partners will continue to be rewarded for solution selling across all market segments via the Citrix Advisor Rewards program, whether or not they are the fulfilling partners.
"Altogether, partners can realise an increase in overall incentive payout of up to 10%," Citrix says.
Meanwhile, a new strategic development fund for Citrix Solution Advisors and distributors will be introduced in Australia and New Zealand later this year, replacing existing marketing fund programs.
Citrix says the new development fund will 'provide partners with funds to drive down the cost of planned and documented marketing activities which target the highest ROI opportunities in the mid-market'.
The company is also updating 'all aspects' of its CAR program, with simplified objective processes and enhanced rules to streamline interaction between partners and Citrix' sales team during the incentive registration lifecycle.
