Heads Up

The Jabra Partner Program, which centers around the headsets made by the Nashua, N.H.-based vendor, will focus on three key elements: proactive partnering, success planning and offering industry-enabled solutions, said Phyllis McCullagh, president of GN Netcom.

"We needed a stronger program with more value proposition," McCullagh said, adding that the goal is to give the three-tiered program more structure for its gold, silver and bronze partner base. "We were kind of all over the board."

In its previous life, Jabra's partner program lacked both lead generation and deal registration. Since then, the vendor has reorganized its field sales department and is putting a strong focus on training partners for the headset market and how to sell into it.

Currently, Jabra is undertaking a massive reseller recruitment effort while also capitalizing on the unified communications (UC) boom and enabling partners to offer headsets that fit into that equation.

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Matt Baker, Jabra's vice president of marketing, said the program follows a typical structure with partners receiving discounts based on their tier level. Back-end incentives are also available for partners that grow and add value and for those that become headset specialists.

"The headset market gives margin in addition to what they're already selling," Baker explained. "Headsets are becoming less of an accessory and becoming an integral part of the overall solution."

McCullagh said GN Netcom and Jabra are launching the program, in part, to give solution providers an edge with Microsoft OCS and other UC implementations, where headsets can be a competitive add-on and growth margin. Along with UC deployments, VoIP solution providers also can upsell their clients with headsets to accompany desk phones.

She added that the Jabra Partner Program is a fundamental change in the way GN Netcom engages its partners, revamping pricing and partner alignment and restructuring field sales to create a go-to-market strategy and framework to help Jabra partners succeed.

Through proactive partnering, GN Netcom hopes to support and facilitate partner success by pairing account managers with partners and their customers; providing pre- and post-sales technical support, delivering enhanced marketing and lead generation; and extending access to demo, training and sales programs.

Additionally, the program seeks to help partners offer industry-enabled solutions, meaning Jabra gear is developed and tested to ensure it integrates with leading industry platforms to create more partner opportunities by working with solutions from Avaya Inc., Basking Ridge, N.J.; Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif.; Polycom Inc., Pleasanton, Calif.; and Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash. In addition to being pre-tested and pre-qualified, solutions included have been vertically engineered with a focus on improving business processesand#8212;resulting in solutions that are profit-ready and repeatable.