HPE Is ‘Doubling Down’ On Partners With Lucrative New Sales Incentives In Partner Ready Vantage

The new program packed with market-rattling sales incentives is ‘not only attractive to the owners of (solution provider) companies we are now attractive to sellers as well,’ says HPE Senior Vice President Simon Ewington.

HPE is doubling down on partners with a slew of new lucrative incentives for partners in its blockbuster $1 billion-plus Partner Ready Vantage program that launched on November 1.

The program includes a new Triple Platinum Plus sales incentive for partners achieving triple platinum status in compute, hybrid cloud, and networking; a New Business Opportunity booster of 10 percent on focus products and six percent for standard products for winning new accounts; a hefty 50 percent increase in the rebate incentive in North America for Gold and Platinum partners for hybrid cloud products; and a simplified GreenLake Flex sales incentive of up to 20 percent.

“Ultimately the message is we are yet again doubling down on partners,” said HPE Senior Vice President Worldwide Channel and Partner Ecosystem Leader Simon Ewington. “There is only upside for partners when they work with HPE.”

The new program packed with market-rattling sales incentives is “not only attractive to the owners of (solution provider) companies we are now attractive to sellers as well,” said Ewington. “We are now incenting everybody in the organization to double down on HPE as we are doubling down on partners.”

HPE is also offering a 10 percent sales incentive for competency in areas like HPE CloudOps Software Suite (Morpheus Enterprise Software, HPE OpsRamp Software, HPE Zerto Software), HPE Private Cloud AI, HPE Zerto backup and recovery; and a number of Aruba offerings including HPE Aruba Networking SD-WAN and HPE Aruba Networking Secure Service Edge.

Besides the dramatic sales incentives, the new program also has made big strides in making it easier for partners to do business with HPE with a consolidation of 11 different programs into a single unified HPE Partner Ready Vantage program.

HPE Vice President and North America Channel Chief Jeremiah Jenson, who has charted a more aggressive field sales growth effort since taking the helm in May, said he sees the new program as a “huge” step forward.

“It’s a massive moment for partners,” said Jenson. “Not only are we doubling down but we want partners to double down with us because we are very focused on driving new business with partners.”

HPE’s New Business Opportunity (NBO), in fact, is aimed directly at providing increased compensation for sales reps to step up their game to win new accounts.

The NBO boost of 10 percent for focus products and six percent for standard products is a “clear doubling down” with partners to drive “new logos for HPE and its partners,” said Jenson. “This presents a real opportunity to motivate both sides of the business: the sellers as well as the owners of the business,” he said.

As for the 50 percent increase for Hybrid Cloud products for Gold and Platinum partners, Jenson said the increased sales compensation is sure to drive stepped-up, incremental sales engagement with partners. “It is a clear proof point in terms of how we are investing with partners to drive growth,” he said.

The hybrid cloud portfolio eligible for that 50 percent gold and platinum rebate increase includes Alletra Storage MP X10000, HPE Private Cloud AI, HPE Private Cloud Business Edition, Morpheus, VM Essentials, OpsRamp, and Zerto and compute products, said Jenson.

The Triple Platinum Plus – which requires platinum status in networking, hybrid cloud and compute along with new sales and technical certifications- is based upon a joint business established with each partner.

The lucrative Triple Platinum Plus program provides robust accelerator growth bonus targets of 10, 20 and 30 percent above plan that is measured quarterly with an annual bonus based on the full year sales.

Ewington said the bespoke Triple Platinum Plus growth program represents a “huge opportunity” for partners. “It’s an additional program that we haven’t had before to demonstrate that we are continuing to double down on the partner community,” he said.

Todd Burkhardt, co-president of Nth Generation, one of HPE’s top enterprise partners, said the new program is the best he has ever seen from HPE in three decades of doing business with the company.

“This is giving HPE partners new hope to go after net new logos and drive business across the portfolio,” said Burkhardt. “HPE today has the strongest portfolio I have ever seen. Now they have got the strongest sales incentive program on top of that. It’s a really exciting time!”

Burkhardt said HPE has demonstrated its full-fledged commitment to drive growth with and through partners with the new Partner Ready Vantage program. “HPE has always been channel-led, but sometimes the programs didn’t align with that mission,” he said. “Now they have aligned the mission and the program and the portfolio together!”

Besides the robust sales incentives, Burkhardt said the consolidation of the 11 programs into one is a “huge” benefit to partners who often grapple with managing complex channel programs. He credited the HPE team with making big strides in simplifying the program for partners. That simplicity teamed with a clear path for what partners need to do to make more money is a huge benefit to the channel. “Partners know exactly what they need to do to be successful,” he said.

As for the Triple Platinum Plus program, Burkhardt expects it to have a significant impact on getting more customers to adopt the complete HPE networking, compute and storage portfolio, sparking significant sales growth for partners.

Nth Generation, for its part, is targeting 20 percent sales growth for the HPE portfolio in Fiscal Year 2026 and is adding new sales reps and new incentives to drive the HPE growth, said Burkhardt. “We are putting our money where our mouth is and committing to HPE,” he said.

In fact, Burkhardft said his sales team and account reps are pumped up and “super excited” by the strength of the portfolio with a robust compute platform outfitted with VM Essentials and Morpheus, a unified Alletra MP Storage platform and the big data center networking opportunity that came with the acquisition of Juniper Networks.

Burkhardt said the Juniper Mist AI portfolio gives HPE and its partners the ability to grab share from Cisco in the networking market.

The plan to complete integrating the Aruba and Juniper sales teams by the first quarter is also going to help drive HPE networking sales growth, said Burkhardt. “For HPE to do that quickly is unheard of,” he said. “They have never acted that quickly to integrate a new brand into the HPE portfolio.”

Burkhardt said Jenson, a 20-year channel veteran who spent seven years at Amazon Web Services before returning to HPE earlier this year, deserves credit for bringing a more aggressive sales focus to the program. “Jeremiah has put his money where his mouth is,” he said.

“To have him come back to HPE from AWS which is a machine with that new perspective on what it takes to drive growth and business through the channel is a big deal,” he said. “It has been great to see him to make so many changes so quickly to get partners focused back on the HPE portfolio and most importantly for HPE to go after new business. HPE is a great farming company. Hunting is where they are lacking. This drives the channel to go back to hunting for net new logos.”

Jenson, for his part, said the new program comes with HPE gaining market momentum and now upping the ante with new sales incentives to win new business.

“We’re on our front foot,” said Jenson. “We are taking our products and solutions to market and working with partners in a more aggressive way to go not only produce customer outcomes but to win more in the market with our partners. We are on our front foot. It is a much different stance, a much more positive stance!”

HPE Vice President of Worldwide Partner Programs & Operations Jesse Chavez, who has architected channel programs in the industry for three decades, said the new Partner Ready Vantage has all the “best” of the different programs he has been involved with over the years.

“There is a huge opportunity here from a partner perspective to drive growth in the areas that we want them to focus in on,” said Chavez. “The opportunity is very significant for our partners to take advantage of that growth and the opportunity that Juniper also brings to the table.”

Jenson said he is “proud” to bring the blockbuster “growth opportunity, margin opportunity and differentiation opportunity” to partners with the new Partner Ready Vantage program. “HPE is truly doubling down with partners,” he said. “So let’s go get aggressive about it and go get it!”