How the Vendor growth programme works

The purpose of the VGP is to engage our invited Vendors in agreed, planned, marketing activity with us over a 12 month period. These activities will be jointly funded by Probrand and our chosen Vendors.

The VGP has five levels of participation by Vendors. The level at which a Vendor would enter the programme would depend on different factors, including the level of business we have done with a specific Vendor to date and the level of growth we want to achieve with that Vendor in a 12 month period.

The level of activity carried out with a specific Vendor and the funding contribution required is directly related to the level at which a Vendor is invited to join the programme.

The VGP consists of a package of marketing components that give Vendors increased exposure to our customer and prospect base. The main components of the VGP are:

Vendor Stores

The Vendor stores are dedicated areas of The IT Index, The IT Index Gov and Probrand stores that solely promote and feature the products of each VGP Vendor. Each Vendor at VGP levels one or two will be entitled to a bespoke Vendor store built on their behalf and are entitled to four store updates/changes as part of their annual contract.

Top Banners

Every Vendor entitled to Vendor store update automatically benefits from top banner advertising featured at the top of all three stores promoting their Vendor store updates and promotions.

Newsletters

Every Vendor on the programme is entitled to feature on the weekly 'The IT Index' newsletter. Vendors will get up to 12 newsletter features per year, depending on their level.

Website Newsletter

A website version of the Newsletter is featured on The IT Index and The IT Index Gov but with additional functionality such as baskets, product listings search and Vendor store links.

Feature Blocks

Feature blocks appear on the home pages of both The IT Index and The IT Index Gov stores and are used to promote the content of the Newsletters on the websites, where applicable. These are changed on weekly basis to encourage visitor interest.

Special Offers (Only Level 1)

These are offered at our sole discretion and appear on the 'special offers' page and front page.

Sales Team Access

Structured training and one to one sessions are arranged to provide maximum exposure to sales.

Level 1 VGP Vendors will have access to the sales team as part of their annual contract. Any sales team access by Vendors of other levels will be at our discretion.

Telemarketing/ Telesales

A dedicated telemarketing team is available, supported by experienced Sales professionals, to get your marketing messages out to the B2B channel. Whether your product is hardware, software, solutions or services we can put together a results driven project to suit your budget, delivering measurable Return On Investment.

Whether you want lead generation, appointment making, customer recovery, list cleansing or account profiling we will deliver a vertically aligned telemarketing solution with impact and measurable results. Prices available on request

Vendor specific funded head

Dedicated point of contact within Probrand to manage the vendor activity (managing call out days, provide product and collateral for marketing and report on performance) and support the Probrand sales team from a product and customer services perspective. Prices available on request

Public Relations

All VGP Vendors at level 1 will be featured in our PR activities and we would expect our Public Relations company to work closely with the press representatives of the chosen Vendors.

Events

VGP Vendors will be invited to participate in seminars and product launch/briefing events throughout the programme duration.

Business Planning and Review

Level one partners will have access to quarterly reviews and planning with the Partner Manager and/or the product and Category Manager as part of the agreement.