NetGear will increase its discounts to its top-tier partners to 12 percent from 8 percent in a series of improvements to the company's partner program, announced this week at Networld+Interop, along with a series of products designed specifically for the SMB space.

The changes are part of the company's improvements to its PowerShift Partner Program and include better discounts, enhanced training and more support.  

The four-tier (Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum Plus) partner program offers upfront stackable discounts with another 5 percent for deal registration and another 5 percent for the government/education program, according to Matt Dargis, senior director of SMB sales at the company.

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Overall, partners are eligible for each of the tiers based on their annual sales revenues and become eligible for added benefits based on the tier. Benefits include upfront product discounts, dedicated account managers, advanced network configuration technical support and Market Development Funds.

The program excludes direct market resellers such as CDW or e-commerce sellers, Dargis said. In addition, it offers channel-exclusive products such as the Pro-Safe product family, which is only available through authorized PowerShift partners.

NetGear is also offering a "FastCash spiff promotion" of up to $5,000 per person for salespeople at channel partner companies. Dargis said the company will also offer volume incentive rebates, a risk-free evaluation program and new demand generation programs.

In addition, NetGear put a focus on ensuring pricing parity across the company's channels.

"You won't see a situation where a product is being sold by a VAR for X where it's being sold elsewhere for X minus Y percent," he said.  "We can't tell them they can't do it, but we will withdraw some of their marketing funds."

The company has also brought its technical support back to the United States for all SMB products, with call centers in Utah and Southern California and tier three support remaining at the company's headquarters.  In addition, NetGear is offering a lifetime warranty on all ProSafe products.

NetGear is investing in training for its channel partners by developing on-demand courses in a number of topic areas, so that partners can select a "major" and then different "tele-electives," Dargis said.

"Partners don't want to participate in training programs that cost five figures and take them away from their offices for two weeks," he said.  "Training is a benefit, and we want to incentivize people to take it."