2025 trends affecting channel partner programs (and how to address them)
AI will improve program customization
The power of recognition: How to boost channel partner performance
4 common channel partner data challenges (and how to solve them) How-to guide: Driving channel incentive program engagement through segmentation
Vice President, Channel Partner Solutions
I always like to have a word for each year. This year, it’s potential. The potential to grow, innovate and to unlock new opportunities.
It reminds me of a recent client conversation. They were struggling to normalize sales consistently throughout the year vs. having their customers save purchases for one or two events. By implementing a simple loyalty program that encourages monthly purchases, they saw immediate results and YOY growth—a powerful reminder that even small changes lead to big results.
I’ve had countless conversations with clients about what it takes to achieve sustainable growth. Time and again, the same themes emerge: personalization, recognition and smarter engagement. These aren’t just buzzwords; they’re the pillars of successful channel partner programs.
In this issue, we explore the trends and strategies shaping the future of channel partner incentive programs. We look at how AI is revolutionizing the way we personalize programs to meet unique partner needs. We highlight the power of recognition because when partners feel valued, they perform at their best. We offer practical solutions to data challenges by unlocking insights and driving better decisions. Plus, we dig into segmentation as a key tool to boost engagement by meeting partners where they are.
What excites me most is seeing the potential in every challenge. Each hurdle is an opportunity to discover new ways to support our clients and help them thrive.
I hope this issue inspires you to see potential in your channel partner programs. Let’s keep growing, innovating and discovering what’s possible, together.
2025 trends affecting channel partner programs (and how to address them)
AI will improve program customization 12
18
The power of recognition: How to boost channel partner performance
4 common channel partner data challenges (and how to solve them)
How-to guide: Driving channel incentive program engagement through segmentation
By: Ellen Linkenhoker, Senior Manager, Channel Partner Solutions
To get a clear vision of what’s ahead in 2025, I recommend leaders first look at the handful of market factors that are making channel loyalty and incentive programs increasingly important. It’s time to reflect on what we’ve put in place for our partners so far, consider where we want to go with our programs in the new year and evaluate what’s at our fingertips to make it happen.
Our outlook for 2025 program trends is informed by current research, conversations with business leaders and analysts, and decades of designing research-based channel incentive programs.
If you’re like me, you might be exploring new stores and products due to the economy. In the last year, I started changing my store preferences to see if I could stretch my dollar further. It eventually caused me to swap out a few of my regular shops for new ones. Sound familiar? It’s a trend we’ve seen with many customers across most industries.
pricesensitive and less loyal.
There will be an increased need for loyalty programs focused on delivering value and incentives. Channel incentive and loyalty programs should focus on the ability to run dynamic promotions, retain price-sensitive buyers and offer more value to retain the sellers and buyers they have today.
Take action: Make sure your program strategy and technology are able to support rapidly shifting promotions. Ensure you’re also providing other value (e.g., award choice, travel, recognition, etc.) alongside your incentives to retain sellers and buyers.
Changes in the supply chain, inflation, interest rates and (possibly) tariffs will change customers’ and channel partners’ brand loyalty in the new year. This shift also indicates that product mixes will change, with premium products facing sales challenges due to availability and price.
Many companies are experimenting with the best ways to use AI in their channel. It’s been adopted into channel technology platforms, marketing analysis and more.
And there’s still a lot more changes coming. For example, “agentic AI,” a system that can act autonomously and make decisions, is currently being developed (but it’s still under construction).
We’re also seeing more questions pop up around ethical AI use and data security. Laws like the EU AI Act are increasing transparency around how AI models are trained and evaluated.
Take action: As you begin adopting AI into your programs, be sure you know how your data will be used, and find low-risk, high-reward ways to make AI work for your vendors and internal teams.
And a great way to add value to existing programs so partners and buyers don’t shift their wallet share.
Take action: Start small! Consider a thank-you message from leadership or a small gift that can be sent when a milestone is reached. Empowering your field team with more structured recognition elements can really pay off and strengthen relationships on a larger scale.
participate
In our recent survey of dealer and manufacturer sales reps, 91% of sales reps mentioned that receiving recognition from peers and managers is very or extremely important.
Recognition is a high-impact way to engage with partners. We’ve seen it have great success with our own automotive clients, counter sales reps, recipients and employee engagement programs. It’s going to be a key component of the best incentive programs in the future.
E-commerce isn’t new, but it’s now at a place where most channel and incentive programs need to pay attention it. Last year, e-commerce dethroned in-person sales as the top revenue-generating channel among organizations that offer both types of purchasing channels.
E-commerce has a lot of advantages. It generally offers a lower cost to serve, meaning higher margins than when the same product is sold in person. And it’s a viable data source that should be funneling through your existing incentive programs.
Sellers still have a direct impact by providing expertise, giving product recommendations and building customer relationships, even if they aren’t physically collecting the order.
Having them push buyers to complete the transaction online reduces paperwork and promotions that move buyers toward e-commerce and intentionally reward your sales teams for pushing them toward this method. As you incorporate more e-commerce promotions, keep a total picture of all your routes to market so you maintain channel and sales rep engagement.
Rising subscription and service-related revenue is shifting how the channel sells and Most industries are now actively adding subscription-related offerings, such as software, professional services, maintenance plans, white-labeling, custom materials manufacturing, etc. For example, you might need to add software to manage equipment sales, include add-ons to refill consumable components (e.g., ink or fuel) or create special incentives for using branded
Take action: If adopting subscription and service-related offerings into your legacy channel program, re-evaluate who’s participating, what they’re earning for and if you have the right tools in place to track their data and reward them for growing this new part
4 established channel partner trends that continue to be important
If you’ve yet to adapt these trends within your channel and incentive programs, now is the time! While they’ve been around for a while, they continue to grow in importance.
This change in business model requires increased enablement, training and possibly new partners to ensure adoption of the new subscription plans and service expectations.
Improving the partner experience drives engagement
The partner experience remains a strong differentiator between channel programs. Delivering an enhanced partner experience leads to improved partner retention, loyalty, advocacy and growth.
Personalization is the key to improving partner engagement and, by extension, the partner experience.
Take action: Key actions that impact the partner experience include the following.
Establishing a formal partner advocacy or voice of the partner (VoP) program
Customizing incentives and communications based on partners’ roles, preferences, customer types and business models
Simplifying program rules, and qualification and tracking mechanisms
Using journey mapping to better the program design, implementation, onboarding and ongoing engagement
Focusing on sales and marketing enablement increases market share
I like to call “enablement” the channel and incentive market’s word for “training.” Enablement is one of the highest rated areas of investment for channel leaders, and it’s highly valued by incentive or loyalty program participants.
In fact, 90% of sales reps in our recent research study said they’d take training if it was incentivized. Many of those same people also said the training they receive is too basic or simple.
When you consider that personal product knowledge is the second most important factor for sales reps when they’re considering what to sell, it makes sense that enablement is a critical element of a program.
People sell what they know, and better knowledge helps them sell more. It’s a win-win for channel leaders and partners alike. But don’t forget the marketing! Helping your channel sell better starts with marketing tools and strategy. Take your learnings about your buyers, then empower them to build more impactful relationships with their prospects and customers.
Take action: Evaluate your current program’s sales and marketing enablement, starting with what’s being used (or not used) and how it aligns to your broader sales and adoption goals. Use partner feedback to look for areas to improve or optimize. Or invest in research to identify the new materials and training you should create.
Increasing data and insight demands open up opportunities within the channel
It’s no secret that channel data is inherently messy and often inconsistent. Any effort toward improving the cleanliness and usability of channel data will be worthwhile.
Aggregating those efforts with any otherwise siloed internal data could create areas of opportunity within the channel for your sales and marketing teams. Translate these findings into tangible KPIs and goals for your sales and field teams who interact with the channel to improve those metrics.
If you’re still using a spreadsheet, it will no longer cut it! Demand for advanced analytics and insights from business leaders continues to grow in all markets, especially in the channel and incentive space. We see outsourcing become more common to process larger datasets and integrate multiple data sources for deeper insights.
Take action: Align with your internal and supplier partners on what performance metrics matter most, then use your data to maintain discussions around your incentive program budgets, product and inventory decisions, and resource relationships.
Incentivizing nonsales roles strengthens brand loyalty
Companies in all industries need to retain customers, grow existing business and provide high-quality service. It’s usually nonsales roles, like customer service, client success, technicians and sales engineers, that foster relationships to achieve these goals. They influence buying decisions and are responsible for repairs, maintenance and service operations long after the initial sale.
This creates a need for incentives designed for support roles inside the partner organization and nonsales related activities.
Take action: Start looking for ways to adapt and change existing programs to accommodate new roles, KPIs and incentives.
If you need help making sense of these trends on the horizon, I’d love to chat about how to integrate new ideas into your channel and incentive programs.
About
the author:
Ellen Linkenhoker
As Senior Manager for Channel Partner
Solutions, Ellen drives the insights, strategy and evolution of the organization’s channel solution while offering advisement for client engagement and incentive programs. She’s worked as a practitioner in technology, software and service companies as part of the channel and as a vendor. She is an award-winning marketer and navigates all things channel, marketing, incentives and engagement, including pioneering thought leadership on channel partner ecosystems and the partner experience.
When you work on your partner ecosystem, transactional channels are a great place to start because you can see some quick wins— even with minimal strides in partner data collection. Download the white paper to see the three areas of focus we’ve seen return positive results for clients with transactional programs.
No matter where you look, it seems like everyone is talking about AI. Regardless of industry, this new technology is impacting the way we search, communicate and review data.
It’s no surprise then that a top channel trend is how AI will change the game for channel program customization.
In fact, 75% of global business and technology professionals indicated they were adopting or planning to adopt some sort of AI infrastructure technology within the next 12 months, according to Forrester’s Priorities Survey.
A wide swath of that AI adoption is happening inside product and service offerings.
In other cases, AI helps augment internal organizational knowledge and efficiency. However, we’re also seeing AI improve channel programs through data analysis and marketing material customization.
Adopting trends often requires convincing stakeholders to change up an existing approach. Go into those conversations after evaluating your program so you’re ready to act on very real suggestions.
Before evaluating how (or if) you want to incorporate AI into your channel partner programs, cut through technology buzzwords and understand the differences between AI, machine learning and more.
As an umbrella term, AI refers to the capacity of machines to mimic human cognitive functions, such as learning, problem-solving and pattern recognition, enabling it to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. There are various subfields to AI, including machine learning and natural language processing.
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)
Generative AI describes algorithms (like ChatGPT) that create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos.
Natural language processing (NLP) is a subset of AI that focuses on enabling computers to understand, interpret and generate human language.
Another subset of AI, machine learning (ML) refers to computer systems learning and improving from experience without being explicitly programmed. This happens by training the system with large amounts of data.
AI is revolutionizing most aspects of business, and channel incentive programs are no exception. After you’ve identified pain points in your channel, consider ways AI improves program customization.
AI analyzes partner data, preferences and behavior to deliver personalized content that resonates with each partner. This includes tailoring content based on partner type, industry, role and stage in the buyer’s journey.
Predictive analytics within AI anticipates partners’ needs and preferences, helping channel program managers proactively provide relevant resources and support. This not only helps improve engagement, but also improves partner satisfaction.
Use AI to work smarter, not harder. This technology provides intelligent recommendations for content, resources and actions that are most likely to benefit each partner. It helps partners navigate the channel program more effectively and achieve their goals more efficiently.
AI helps marketers make data-driven decisions by providing insights into the performance of different channel programs, identifying trends and predicting future outcomes. This helps teams optimize their strategies and allocate resources to improve program success.
As channel incentive platforms become even more intelligent and automated, these tools will use predictive analytics to forecast the most effective incentive programs and predict personalized incentives for partner organizations and individual stakeholders.
“AI considers things like partner profiles, past behavior, program rules and engagement metrics to offer suggestions on where an incentive or promotion might be helpful. Having a system look for patterns in the data helps surface areas you can act on.”
—ELLEN LINKENHOKER, CHANNEL SENIOR MANAGER
After you’ve considered how AI might be useful to your organization and channel partners, take actionable steps toward implementation.
Think about areas of your work or channel program that feel bogged down by inefficient processes. Make a list of those pain points and brainstorm how to use AI tools to remove friction from your reoccurring tasks.
Get buy-in to ensure a meaningful impact
Adopting new trends like AI often requires convincing stakeholders to change their existing approach. Using insights from evaluating your current program pain points, you’ll be better equipped to engage stakeholders and implement AI-driven solutions that deliver tangible results.
“Start with your data and predictive analytics. See how you can use AI to gain insights you didn’t have before. The breadth of tools is exploding right now. The landscape of what’s possible with AI is going to change a lot over the course of the year. If you don’t have a task force exploring what’s available—create one.”
—RILEY JOHNSON, CHANNEL STRATEGIST
Has your organization thought about how AI impacts your business and internal processes? Start by developing clear policies, guidelines and training on implementing and using AI. These plans serve as a template for decisionmakers to resolve key questions around using AI within your business. By applying the governance framework to design and implement best practices, you ensure your team uses AI in a responsible, consistent manner.
While there are many benefits of using generative AI technology to ideate, innovate and work more efficiently, proper guidelines, policies and training must be in place to secure sensitive and confidential information. Our AI Advisory Group develops and guides our AI policy, as well as manages governance and risk.
We use AI and ML to enhance claims processing, eliminating the need for manual entry and human intervention. This solution significantly reduces the administrative burden for businesses while lowering costs. Additionally, our cloud-based solution enhances the partner experience for clients. These new technologies improve the validation process by scraping information from invoice images to identify and confirm product-specific items for eligibility—even among competitive brands on the same receipt. We’re actively extending this AI tool for additional capture mechanisms like VINs, SKUs and serial numbers.
Expert tip on how AI can impact channel programs
“The possibility of even smarter, real-time incentives is what excites me the most. Using AI to define a goal and come up with a customized incentive for every participant (based on numerous market conditions) will be incredible.”
—RILEY JOHNSON, CHANNEL STRATEGIST
Never forget that you’re augmenting people—adopting AI should still be heavily reviewed by humans in the near term and oversight should exist.
This article is included in a five-part series on top channel trends. Now that you’ve learned how to find success with channel partner enablement, check out the other four trends on our Insights page.
By: Jasmyne Green, Insights & Strategy Leader, Channel Partner Solutions
Employees want more than just good compensation and benefits. They want to make a significant impact on the company through their job, and they want to be recognized and rewarded for their hard work. Channel partners are no different. And yet, while many employers create ongoing recognition programs to reward employees for a range of accomplishments as a common retention strategy, the concept is often overlooked for channel partners.
Recognition can be just as effective at boosting channel partner performance and channel partner retention. When channel partners feel valued and appreciated, they’re more likely to stay loyal to your brand by continuing to promote your products and services. How you build those relationships and add recognition to your channel incentive program starts with authenticity and intentionality.
In a recent discussion with ITA Group, Larry Walsh, CEO of Channelnomics, revealed 52% of surveyed partners reported they have infrequent contact with their suppliers.
If you’re not effectively communicating to partners, you and your brand won’t be top of mind. Using a recognition strategy is one way to increase contact and strengthen those relationships.
In our experience, channel incentive programs tend to be hyper-focused on getting partners to complete a desired behavior, whether that’s making a purchase, completing a certification or fulfilling another business objective.
But the real magic happens when you go beyond a transactional relationship and build authentic human connections with your brand through recognition. When you excel at channel partner engagement, the results and enthusiasm can be surprising.
For example, ITA Group recently added recognition to a program that we operate for an automotive partner. Within 48 hours of going live, 20% of the audience issued a recognition, proving partners crave this type of engagement.
The number of metrics to monitor for channel partner performance can feel overwhelming. By implementing a recognition strategy, you can easily pinpoint successes and increase your number of interactions with channel partners.
These seven tips will help you successfully implement a recognition strategy as part of your channel incentive programs.
1
Celebrate milestones and achievements
Recognizing important occasions is one of the easiest ways to recognize channel partners. These milestones could include anniversaries, sales goals or customer satisfaction awards. Send celebratory emails on a service anniversary with a printable eCard and award points to emphasize the milestone’s importance.
2
Recognize positive behavior as it happens and create a connection between brand values and individual contributions.
This is a great way for sales reps and field team members to recognize and reward partners at key moments throughout the sales cycle.
Tie recognitions to core brand values to promote a strong, aligned culture. Participants will notice if there isn’t a connection between what’s important and what’s rewarded. For example, we practice what we preach. One of our recognition categories is tied to the core value of serving others. We encourage team members to use this recognition to acknowledge colleagues for giving back, supporting each other and providing superior service to our clients.
4
Tailor your recognition to the individual channel partner. This could involve recognizing their specific accomplishments or simply personalizing your message of appreciation. Be sure to recognize channel partners as soon as possible when they achieve a milestone or show positive behavior. This shows that you’re paying attention and that you value their contributions.
Public recognition is often more meaningful than private kudos. Share recognition stories with the entire channel partner network or consider posting them on social media. Copy direct leadership on milestone communications to further the recognition’s impact. This helps create a culture of recognition and appreciation while motivating other channel partners to strive for excellence.
A recognition program relies on strong engagement from its participants. Motivate channel partners to interact with the platform through creative communications early in their journey, cultivating feelings of belonging with the brand’s community and leading to the best performance and loyalty.
Encourage individuals to share greetings and recognitions they receive on social media, letting their connections know of their accomplishments.
By implementing a well-designed recognition strategy, you show channel partners how you value their contributions and are committed to their success. This not only leads to increased loyalty and engagement but can also increase channel performance. By offering attractive incentives, awards and recognitions, brands can create a compelling value proposition for partners to choose them over their competitors.
Jasmyne Green is a results-driven marketing manager who never settles for mediocrity. With over a decade of experience, she’s a marketing expert in everything from design to digital strategy that breaks through the noise and drives business growth. When she’s not brainstorming brilliant ideas, you can find Jasmyne walking the nature trails with her dogs, perfecting her mixology skills or plotting her next adventure.
By: Danny Ready, Analytics Advisor
Channel partner data powers the decisions of every successful channel program. But getting that data and using it effectively isn’t easy. Many organizations struggle to gather accurate information from partners up and down the channel. Without that data, they can’t proactively address gaps in their programs.
The good news is even the most challenging data collection issue can be overcome with a strategic data collection approach.
I’ve identified four of the most common obstacles related to channel partner data collection with practical solutions to overcome them. These solutions are the first steps toward optimizing your data management for long-term success.
Whether it’s a lack of personnel or budget, many organizations must adapt their data collection strategies because they don’t have enough resources to fully implement them. This usually means their approach needs to be scaled back—or worse, gutted.
As a result, sometimes small internal teams get tasked with channel partner data collection. These teams can struggle to maintain a broad perspective of the program because it’s just a small part of their overall job.
SOLUTION: Start small and scale up
Focus on tracking the metrics that matter most to your business objectives. This allows you to gather essential partner data without overwhelming your team. As you begin to see positive results, leverage them to gain buy-in for additional resources and gradually grow your data collection efforts.
SOLUTION: Leverage external data-collection experts
Partner with third-party data-collection experts to free up your internal teams so they can focus on their core responsibilities. This gets you better data while also helping prevent burnout.
Gain more value per hour invested than using internal teams
Continuously analyze programs, not just when problems arise
See a wider perspective of overall program performance
The past decade has brought dramatic shifts in data technology, outpacing the adaptability of many existing systems.
Many legacy systems were designed with a singular focus on functionality while lacking data analysis tools. As businesses have recognized the value of data-driven decision-making, they’ve tried to retrofit these systems to meet data collection requirements— to mixed results.
This leads to teams struggling to patch their older, limited technology so they can get the data they need without hindering the channel partner experience.
SOLUTION: Assess existing systems
Conduct a comprehensive assessment of your existing systems to identify any gaps between current capabilities and your business intelligence needs. This evaluation should include potential integration challenges and opportunities. A third-party data collection agency can also help with this evaluation if your internal teams feel overwhelmed or aren’t sure what to look for.
Don’t let bad data undermine the value of the insights you gain. Basing decisions on poor-quality data can lead to wasted time and money. Not to mention it leaves a bad impression on channel leaders who were relying on that data. This makes future buy-in for better data collection even more difficult.
SOLUTION: Implement data validation processes
Leverage data cleansing tools to ensure that all information you collect is accurate and reliable. By establishing clear data entry standards, you’ll maintain data consistency across your organization.
SOLUTION: Set up regular data audits
Schedule periodic audits of your data to identify and correct inaccuracies. Consider also training partners on proper data input techniques to improve overall data quality.
Disconnected data sources create inefficiencies and limit the effectiveness of your channel partner programs. Integrating these data sources takes a lot of resources, which aren’t always available. If they remain siloed, however, they result in missed opportunities because decisions are made without all the available information.
SOLUTION: Centralize data collection
Creating a single source of truth for all channel partner data can significantly improve accessibility and usability. Consider implementing a data warehousing solution to consolidate information from various sources.
SOLUTION: Foster crossdepartmental collaboration
Encourage collaboration and information-sharing practices across teams. Implementing collaborative tools ensures that everyone has access to the same information.
Data-backed decision-making is crucial for scaling and futureproofing your incentive programs.
These practical solutions to the most common channel partner data collection challenges enhance your ability to gather accurate data and extract valuable insights from them. The results? Better decision-making. Stronger partner relationships. Measurable impact. Effective data collection strategies are well worth the investment given their long-term success.
Danny has worked as a data analyst in several industries, including health and wellness, insurance, healthcare, and game development before coming to ITA Group and tackling channel incentive programs. With such a diverse background, Danny has solved problems with data in a multitude of ways, and is always trying to innovate and learn something new! In his downtime, you can find him taste-testing his newest rum or studying strategies for the newest game (board or video) that he has acquired.
By: Jasmyne Green, Insights & Strategy Leader, Channel Partner Solutions
Segmentation is one of the best ways to improve the results of a channel incentive program, but most of the companies we talk to aren’t tackling it effectively. Some underestimate the impact of channel partner segmentation in building personalized program experiences that are meaningful to diverse audiences.
Others understand its importance but aren’t sure how to add segmentation into their existing programs, so they don’t prioritize it. Either way, not optimizing your segmentation strategy leads to missed opportunities and wasted resources. Let’s look at why segmentation matters and how it can improve your channel incentive program. HOW-TO GUIDE
Marketing experts know from years of data that segmenting markets is critical for driving engagement and profits. The same is true for channel partner strategies. It can help you reach key roles within the channel and incentivize the right behaviors for each to increase motivation and drive results.
One problem we often see with channel incentive programs is that they have limited participation—and, in turn, limited results.
Perhaps you’re familiar with the 80/20 rule, also called the Pareto Principle. It states that 80% of an output (e.g., a sales incentive program’s results) will be driven by 20% of the input (e.g., top sales performers). This rule holds true with channel incentives. Even when organizations successfully boost revenue through their partner programs, only a select number of partners are contributing to profits.
That’s why you need a smarter way to engage and manage partners.
So how do you increase engagement? Through personalization. Partners crave personalized experiences that are meaningful to them. If you can use segmentation to give them that experience, they’ll achieve more with your program.
We’ve seen it happen with our own segmentation strategies we’ve used for clients.
Segmentation allows you to:
> Make better use of your resources
> Engage the right partners
> Focus on the partnerships that bring the most value
> Create incentives that fit specific partner groups
> Make your whole program more efficient and profitable
To segment effectively, you’ll first need to carefully analyze your partner data and establish your goals for the incentive program. This will help you understand what behaviors you need to incentivize and how you should segment your audiences.
Here are a few ways you can use partner data to create better channel programs:
> Evaluate all available historical sales data to inform decision-making
> Forecast different scenarios using past performance to prepare for future challenges
> Create and model incentive strategies based on new segments to increase engagement
> Optimize incentive structures using data-driven insights to balance budgets and outcomes (e.g., adjusting earning criteria, participant eligibility or reward distribution to maximize ROI)
After you have your data and goals established, use these best practices to start creating your segmentation strategy.
New partners, like dealers or installers, have different needs and goals than long-time ones. Each group needs a unique approach.
Valuable inactive partners might be willing to come back if you approach them the right way. Be sure to address their needs and why they disengaged in the first place.
Specific markets value different things in incentive programs. Customize your messages and awards so they’re relevant for your partners’ markets.
The data you have on your partners’ roles and markets gives you insight into how to personalize the program. Use it to provide the right resources for their specific needs.
After working through the best practices, there’s still more you can do to increase the value segmentation brings to your channel incentive program.
1. LAYER IN FIRMOGRAPHIC DATA
This data will allow you to identify the ideal partner criteria for both transacting and non-transacting channels.
2. ADD BEHAVIORAL & ENGAGEMENT CHARACTERISTICS
The better you can understand your partners, the better you can engage them. These characteristics will help you identify leading indicators of success.
3. TRACK INCENTIVE PROGRAM DATA AGAINST SELL OUT DATA
You need to know what incentives are driving desired incremental behaviors to maximize your program budget.
4. IDENTIFY INTRINSIC & EXTRINSIC MOTIVATORS
This is the key to providing meaningful awards. By identifying partners’ motivators, you can decide the best awards and earning opportunities to offer.
Learn how we used segmentation and multi-audience technology to drive sales for a Fortune 100 insurance company.
info.itagroup.com/cs-segmentation
Finally, even the best segmentation strategy is only helpful if it’s easy for partners to use. Remove any participation barriers so that partners understand the program and want to engage with it. A good channel partner portal puts all the meaningful information they need in one place, simplifying the process and keeping the program top of mind.
The channel partner program should be customizable by role so busy partners aren’t burdened with materials and communications that don’t pertain to them or their businesses.
It should put important product knowledge and relevant certifications right at their fingertips, while also using features like progress-to-goal trackers, wish lists and gamification elements to boost engagement.
By making all the information they need easy to access, you show partners you’re committed to their success.
When done right, segmentation gives you valuable insights into your channel incentive program. These insights help you reach the right partners in the right ways, maximizing how they interact with your brand and boosting your returns.
By tailoring incentives to different partner groups, you can:
> Motivate underperforming partners with specific incentives
> Reward top performers in ways they value
> Create tiered incentives that encourage growth for all segments
> Match incentives to the challenges and opportunities in each market
Segmentation doesn’t just strengthen your current channel partnerships. It builds a foundation for a more dynamic and profitable partner ecosystem.
When partners feel valued and understood, they have higher loyalty to your brand. The more you can tailor your approach to each partner segment, the more successful your incentive program will be—and the bigger returns you’ll see.
Jasmyne Green is a results-driven marketing manager who never settles for mediocrity. With over a decade of experience, she’s a marketing expert in everything from design to digital strategy that breaks through the noise and drives business growth. When she’s not brainstorming brilliant ideas, you can find Jasmyne walking the nature trails with her dogs, perfecting her mixology skills or plotting her next adventure.
