Pure Storage Promises Richer Partner Program with New Incentives

Pure Storage has updated its partner incentives that it promises are “much richer for the partner community.”

“There are more dollars to be earned,” said EMEA channel leader Geoff Greenlaw. “... We will [now] reward partner-sourced opportunities, new registrations and existing accounts.”

The changes follow feedback from partner feedback, said Greenlaw.

Pure Storage's Geoff Greenlaw

“One of the pieces of feedback that we took from the Partner Advisory Council was, ‘We open up an account on day one and then we don’t really see any benefit to sell more Pure thereafter because there’s no rebates in that structure.’ [Now] we will absolutely reward for land and expand. So that customer may only have 5% or 10% of the addressable storage spend in that account. How do we get 20%, 30%%, ideally 100%? We are now incentivizing and motivating our partners to do just that," he said.

Pure also is giving partners access to their customers’ storage environments by extending its Pure1 intelligence dashboard to give partners visibility into all their engagements with Pure and its customers. They will also receive recommendations on upgrade, upsell and renewal opportunities.

Another difference that partners will notice is that now many of the rebates will be stackable, which Greenlaw said “drives more profitability at the back end.”

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Pure Storage Rewarding Partners For Subscription Services

Pure also is incentivizing partners on where it sees the fastest growth opportunities. One of these, said Greenlaw, is Evergreen//One, which Pure offers as a service. Pure said it differs from other storage vendors in that it's the only one to deliver subscriptions entirely through the channel. To date, subscription services now make up 50% of Pure’s revenue.

In its end of year financials also released Thursday, Pure’s full-year revenue was $2.8 billion, up 3% year-over-year. Subscription services revenue was $1.2 billion, up 26%.

“We’re really doubling down on the incentives that we’re putting in place around the move to subscription,” said Greenlaw.

“We will continue to reward net new local business in the same way," he continued. "The other side too is how we motivate the individual sellers through our Pure Rewards program. Additional rebates or incentives, for net new logo and for subscription-based transactions. It’s really shaping the program to the direction of travel we see our industry going in.”

Pure Storage Wants More Partner Accountability, Self-Sufficiency

A potentially more profitable program, however, comes with greater accountability from both parties, said Greenlaw.

“We’re holding our partners a lot more accountable because this program is much richer,” he said. “We think about the partner plans we’re putting in place, we’re thinking about the QBR, we’re measuring and reviewing, how did we do last quarter? How do we plan to do next quarter? But more importantly, I want the partners to hold us as accountable as we are holding them. I think too often we ask too much of our partners, and I want them to hold us as accountable as we are holding them accountable.”

Elsewhere, Pure is encouraging partners to be more self-sufficient with the updates to its partner program. The program will focus on “increased automation, building enhanced tools and driving partner empowerment,” said the vendor.

The updates to Pure’s quote configuration and pricing model and tools will enable partners to conduct independent configurations and quotes. Pure will make updates to its Salesforce reporting, partner dashboard, recruiting and onboarding tools.

“The updates are … focused on driving more autonomy, self-sufficiency and empowerment,” said Greenlaw. “Why don’t we empower our partners to do more for us, to drive scale and reach? Give them access to configuration tools, quoting tools, access to the support renewal framework, and upsell opportunities."