Over 1,000 free gifts including holidays, iPods, Nintendo Wiis, perfume, wine and attraction tickets were presented to partners in 2007.
2007 saw a popular uptake in the Connect Programme, following its launch in October 2006. Connect is designed to provide resellers with a structured way of working as a partner that will simultaneously grow their business and Plantronics sales. It offers accredited resellers co-branded marketing and tradeshow materials, access to demand generation funds, new product samples and telemarketing resources. Accredited resellers also get the benefit of specialist customer and technical care, and access to Plantronics sales leads and referrals for new business.
2008 will see the Connect Programme extend its reach further throughout the Plantronics partner community with an increased number of campaigns and incentives for participants and a raft of improvements to the scheme:
Improved campaign support for Connect partners with new initiatives and better-structured tools for implementation and measurement, thanks to investment in Salesforce.com
Better structured training, through both online and face-to-face methods, for Connect partners in new products and headset adoption drivers such as unified communications
Increased marketing funding for top-tier Connect partners to drive headset adoption
More widespread telemarketing and trial generation support using the Connect-2U mechanism Improved MultiPoint incentives, with a revised programme being introduced in April 2008.
The success of the Connect Programme has seen Plantronics’ UK and Irish reseller growth go from strength to strength. Recent successes include the annual wireless headset free trial campaign which is already performing 202% better than this time last year.
“The success of the Connect Programme in 2007 has been a fantastic achievement for both Plantronics and our resellers. Not only are we providing essential advice and connections, we’re adding value to resellers lives too – not many Connect members were braving the Christmas queues for the last remaining Wiis last year!”, said Neil Watson, Channel Marketing Manager, Plantronics, UK and Ireland.
“Headsets are a complimentary technology and will soon be a ubiquitous business tool. We hope that the continued success of the programme will alert resellers to the double-digit margin opportunity within their existing customer base.”