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Source<\/a><\/p>\n Partnership marketing can be a game-changer for businesses if you offer the right incentive. Reward incentives have to be motivating enough for partners to send customers your way.<\/p>\n Partnership incentives<\/a> are usually cash-based, such as commissions, sales discounts, sales performance incentive funds, or market development funds.<\/p>\n Make sure rewards are attainable to motivate partners to take part in your channel partner incentive program. But don’t make it ridiculously easy for your partners to hit their goals, either. You want it to be a bit challenging and profitable for both parties.<\/p>\n We also recommend checking out any partner programs offered by your competitors. This provides a good gauge to make sure you\u2019re offering the most engaging partnership in the industry.<\/p>\n Monetary rewards are powerful. But the most successful channel partner incentive programs offer more than just cash. Here are a few\u00a0 recognition-based partnership incentives that can further motivate referrals:<\/p>\n The more ways you can make your partners feel appreciated, the more you’ll realize continued success.<\/p>\n Source<\/a><\/p>\n One of the best partnership incentive ideas is to set a bigger reward for partners with the most referrals. The reward could be cash, a special trip, tickets to a local event, a free year of your service, a new laptop, etc. You can also offer these quarterly or annually to motivate your partners to win the grand prize.<\/p>\n Turning your channel partner program<\/a> into a game can make it more engaging for the businesses that work with you.<\/p>\n Gamification<\/a> takes advantage of good, old-fashioned competition. Elements like award badges, special prizes, and tiered incentive structures can motivate partners to refer more customers.<\/p>\n The easiest way to manage all these elements is to use software<\/a>, which automatically tracks all the referrals, rewards, and overall performance of your partner program.<\/p>\n You probably have partners who bring in a few referrals a year. But if you can increase your incentives, you\u2019ll better motivate existing partner behavior to refer more and increase market share for your business.<\/p>\n Try a structure where the more referrals someone brings, the greater the reward.<\/p>\n Tiered incentives<\/strong> offer larger cash incentives as partners reach certain amounts of lifetime referrals. For instance, your base commission might start out at 10% of each sale, but increase to 15% of each sale after five sales and 20% of each sale after 10 sales. This is a great way to boost the amounts of referrals each partner sends in, and motivate them to become super-advocates.<\/p>\n Alternatively, you might offer threshold incentives:<\/strong> bonus incentives other than cash, or bonus flat cash payouts, at set numbers of referrals<\/p>\n This sort of strategy works well especially for existing partners, who may need more motivation to continue referring others.<\/p>\n Source<\/a><\/p>\n If you\u2019re changing the rules of your partner program every year, your partners may just end up confused and no longer interested.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re going to build traction and loyalty over time, then your partners need to know how your referral program works and trust in the process.<\/p>\n Keep your partner program simple and streamlined, and as much as possible, stick to the system.<\/p>\n Last but not least, let your partners know you care by staying connected. You can do this through a Facebook group, Slack channel, or other medium. Send a newsletter with any partner shout-outs and program milestones or updates, or even host regular webinars where partners can easily learn more about your program.<\/p>\n By staying at the top of your partner\u2019s minds, you\u2019re much more likely to get their referrals.<\/p>\n A partner program is a long-term marketing strategy. You\u2019re looking for the most valuable businesses to work with and continuously refining your strategy.<\/p>\n For the best results, consider using partner program software<\/a> to take care of all the routine tasks. Dedicated software uses automation to run most of the day-to-day steps, such as keeping track of all your referrals, rewards, and exactly which partner is bringing you the most customers and channel sales.<\/p>\n2. Offer attractive partnership incentives<\/h2>\n
3. Use recognition opportunities to further partner motivation<\/h2>\n
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![\"podia-partnership-incentives\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/podia-partnership-incentives.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n4. Offer a grand prize for partners with the most referrals<\/h2>\n
5. Add elements of gamification to your program<\/h2>\n
6. Offer ways they can level up their partnership incentives<\/h2>\n
![\"microsoft](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/microsoft-partner-incentives.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n7. Don\u2019t keep changing the program terms<\/h2>\n
8. Stay in touch with your partners<\/h2>\n
Automate your process with partner program software<\/h2>\n
![\"referral-rock-partners\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/referral-rock-partners.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
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