Bradley Johnston
Opensend Director of Partnerships
In SaaS partnerships, you'll typically want a mix of monetary and non-monetary incentives to drive activation, engagement, and referrals.
Monetary incentives:
1. Rev share/commission. Offer partners a percentage of revenue from referred customers. 20% for year one and 10% for year two is currently what Opensend is offering partners.
2. One-time bounties: payouts for actions like helping your team book a demo.
3. Performance Bonuses: Increasing rewards based on volume or performance (e.g., higher commission rates after X referrals or extra bonuses for hitting revenue milestones).
3. Discounted or Free SaaS – Offering free or discounted access to your software as a benefit for active partners. Opensend provides referring partners with a free B2B account.
4. Exclusive promotions for their clients. Enabling partners to offer unique discounts to their customers as a selling point.
Non monetary incentives:
1. Dedicated Partner Support & Account Management – Offering VIP support, direct access to an account manager, or a dedicated Slack channel.
2. Early Access to New Features: giving partners a first look at new features before public release.
3. Co-Branding Opportunities: featuring partners on your website, case studies, or allowing them to co-host webinars and content.
4. Tech Integrations & API Access: supporting deep technical integrations that give partners more opportunities to offer more comprehensive solutions.
Best practices for incentivizing activation and ongoing engagement:
- Make the process as easy as possible to start.
- Gamify engagement.
- Frequent check ins and ongoing enablement.
- Continuous feedback loops.