Trend Micro Debuts ‘Hosted’ Program
With the launch of new hosted security products, the company offers its partners up-front compensation based on sales.
By Cecilia Galvinalvin
To enable its channel solution partners to sell the company’s family of hosted security products, Cupertino, Calif.-based Trend Micro Inc. has launched the aptly named Hosted Security for the Channel program.
A key program feature is incremental reward compensation for partners that sell hosted endpoint, email, or Web site security. “We understand that because these are hosted products, there are no margins from implementation services or hardware sales,” says Eric Jensen, senior product marketing manager, Trend Micro. “So the first thing we’re doing is putting together incentives at initial purchase.”
For example, if a VAR sells a hosted security product from Trend Micro, that VAR will receive higher initial compensation on the back end, under the company’s rewards program. That equates to extra margin for the reseller.
Trial request leads–that is, potential customers who requested a free trial on Trend Micro’s Web site-are another feature of the program. These leads are provided to partners who sold the company’s hosted offerings prior to the creation of any incentive programs as a kind of reward, because the leads are highly likely to convert. “Once someone has filled out the trial request form, there’s 40 to 50 percent likelihood to buy,” says Jensen, quoting the company’s North America research statistics.
Renewal management has also been improved with the program, and partners receive sales and product training as well as best practices information gleaned from resellers who were early adopters of the hosted solutions. A good example of a best practice, says Jensen, is this: “When resellers use Worry-Free Remote Manager, not only do they add in managed services revenue, but they increase their overall Trend Micro business by more than 50 percent compared with resellers who don’t use Worry-Free. The [sales] trend line does a hockey stick up and to the right. It’s a win for us, for our resellers, and for the SMB customer.”
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