Control comes into play when an inside sales rep involved in deal registration can manipulate that process. If the deal goes to a bid, they may be able to cancel the deal registration altogether if the rules of engagement allow it. In some cases, they can even choose which partner gets the lowest quote, and it may not be the one that originally registered the opportunity. Another tactic is to leverage special pricing policies that let the vendor choose which partner wins a deal. These schemes may set a maximum margin that is triggered when deals reach a certain size or when deals are discounted beyond a set point below list price.In a familiar example, a company determined that if a discount was more than 70 percent, then the maximum margin was only 2 percent. In cases where most deals meet this threshold—which is not unusual—a vendor can maintain a high list-price to control partner margins. Channel partners naturally question why they should continue to engage when the average margin is so low.
