In a move commensurate with naming changes across the industry, Telesystem has announced it is changing the hierarchical labels in its channel program to eliminate the terms ‘master agent’ and ‘sub agent’.
In the revised labels, partners will either be classified as a ‘technology broker’ or a ‘technology distributor,’ with the latter being a partner who sells direct to the customer.
“It’s just time to move away from the words master and sub,” said Telesystem Chief Revenue Officer Bruce Wirt. “As an industry, we’ve used those terms for so many years, but they really don’t represent the true nature of the partnerships they represent. Moving to words like broker and distributor do a much better job of identifying the category of the partnership.”
In accordance with this move, Telesystem will maintain the ‘Elite’ classification for its top-level partnerships in each category. Elite status is available to partners in the broker and distributor categories, with benefits that include access to top residuals, additional SPIFFs and market development funds.
“I’m happy to be part of an organization that acted so quickly when the Xposure Inclusion & Diversity Council called for the industry to make these important changes,” said Telesystem Channel Strategy Manager Ken Mercer (pictured). “In addition to my leadership role at Telesystem, I’m also part of Xposure and this move was very important to me and the rest of the Xposure team.”
Telesystem will begin changing website and marketing collateral references to the former terms immediately, with a goal to phase out the old language completely by the end of October.
Telesystem is a Signature level sponsor at Channel Futures Las Vegas and will unveil partnership levels for ‘technology brokers’ and ‘technology distributors’ at this event. Partners can visit Telesystem at booth 853 on the trade show floor, or in meeting room South Pacific G.
