Aten Enlists Top-Tier VARs For New Channel Program

Aten said its Six-Star VAR program is designed to offer incentives to a select subset of its 850 to 1,000 channel partners that go beyond simply reselling Aten products by developing deep relationships with existing customers and identifying new potential customers.

"We really want to build a partnership with each reseller, not just sign them up and pay a margin," said Paul Eiler, Aten's national sales manager.

The Six-Star VARs will act as an extension of Aten's own sales force, engaging in more than a transactional relationship with customers by providing a high level of technical expertise and support, Eiler said. The vision is that they will help expand sales to SMB customers and even small corporate customers. (Aten sells direct to a number of large customers.) They also will help introduce Aten's products to new customers.

Aten will work with Six-Star VARs to develop 12-month plans with a goal of generating $50,000 in new or incremental sales, Eiler said. The plans will include marketing assistance and training for the solution providers' engineering and sales personnel. And the plan will be reviewed at three-, six- and 12-month intervals, according to Eiler, to ensure both vendor and reseller are living up to their side of the relationship.

The select resellers will be offered "more aggressive discounts" off MSRP prices than resellers in Aten's regular channel program, Eiler said. That's designed to help the Six-Star channel partners overcome the margin erosion created by resellers who sell just on price.

Earlier this year, Aten identified 125 channel partners as candidates for the Six-Star VAR program and is currently working with the first 20 that have signed on. Eiler said the company expects to have "just shy of 300" resellers in the program by the end of the year.