Sage Software Launches Sales and Marketing Coaching, Employee Healthcare, and Timeshare Recruiting Programs for Channel Partners

Market Wire, May, 2007

Sage Software announced today, during its annual Business Partner conference, Insights 2007, several new business support programs for its Business Partner channel, including coaching programs for sales and marketing; BenefitProtect, which provides employee healthcare benefit support; and Timeshare Recruiting, which provides a shared recruitment resource that lowers the cost of staff recruitment. The new programs are part of the Sage Partner Advantage Program, which has received numerous accolades in the past, and most recently won a 5-Star Partner Program rating by VARBusiness magazine. The new program additions, along with a host of other program enhancements, provide additional breadth and depth to Sage Software's partner programs, enabling business partners to better manage, grow and market their products and services.

"New programs this year, particularly our coaching programs, BenefitProtect and Timeshare Recruiting, tackle many of the pain points our business partners face in building and managing their businesses," said Taylor Macdonald, Sage Software executive vice president of channel and sales operations. "We understand that the challenges faced by our business partners change dramatically year over year, and the Sage Partner Advantage Program will continue to grow and evolve to meet those needs."

Support for Business Growth

Sage Software business growth programs continually evolve to meet the changing needs of business partners. From the highly successful Fast Track for Growth to Saving Money with Sage, business partners rely on Sage Software to help fuel sales, save money and grow the bottom line. Along with enhancements to existing programs, Sage Software has added two new coaching programs for sales and marketing:

Helping Sales People Succeed - Sage Software's new sales coaching program, Helping Sales People Succeed, is built upon the fundamentals of the Sage Sales Academy and the work of Mahan Khalsa to deliver concise, effective and powerful online education and tools. The self-paced program gives business partners the training, systems, coaching and leadership training needed to create and close more sales opportunities.

Duct Tape Marketing - Sage Software has teamed with John Jantsch, small business marketing coach and award-winning author of "Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide," to offer Sage business partners three programs based on the expertise of Jantsch. "Duct Tape Marketing" is a series of seminars and workshops where Sage business partners get direct instruction from Jantsch on creating a marketing strategy and company positioning to help differentiate one's business from the competition. "Referral Flood" gives Sage business partners the tools to set up and reap the benefits from a profitable referral network. For more grassroots marketing, "Search Engine Local Directory Listings" provides one of the lowest cost methods of raising local business search results. All three programs are offered at reduced rates and are tailored for Sage business partners.

Support for Business Management

Sage Software is introducing a series of initiatives that help business partners to improve their day-to-day business management. Among them are BenefitProtect and TimeShare Recruiting, two new programs designed to help business partners better manage the issues surrounding employee hiring and retention.

BenefitProtect - The Sage BenefitProtect Program enables Sage business partners to offload the time-consuming tasks of identifying, selecting and administering employee benefit packages. BenefitProtect works with well-known insurance companies, such as Aetna, Humana and Assurant, to provide a variety of coverage options plus administers the entire benefit program. BenefitProtect representatives develop company-wide programs for Sage business partners or work directly with each of their employees to design affordable, personalized health, dental and life insurance coverage. Business partners reap the benefits of A-rated insurance coverage at no cost to the company, plus a competitive edge when recruiting employees.

Timeshare Recruiting - An innovative approach to controlling the cost of identifying and hiring quality employees, Timeshare Recruiting leverages Sage Software and its extensive business partner network to guarantee flat rate recruiting services. Recruitment and hiring costs of a traditional recruiting firm can cost business partners up to 40% of a new hire's first-year salary. Sage Software has negotiated a flat rate of $6,500 with two renowned recruiting firms providing nation-wide coverage. Coupled with Sage Software's award-winning training programs, Timeshare Recruiting enables Sage business partners to maximize their personnel investments.

Radically Simplified Marketing Support - Following the mantra of making marketing easier for business partners, Sage Software continues to hone programs to simplify the entire marketing mix. Among many enhancements, Co-op now features One-touch Co-op Processing, a program that enables business partners to use co-op funds to purchase marketing services direct from Sage Preferred Vendors without processing ANY additional paperwork. Sage Software also has increased its Preferred Vendor network three fold, giving business partners greater variety and selection of marketing services.