The 3CX Partner Program – AKA the Abusive Spouse

The 3CX Partner Program is… a shock to many. When compared to how most phone systems partner programs operate, 3CX does not follow the industry norms, something that catches almost every partner by surprise. In this post I will dive into the main points of the Partner Program and why 3CX Partners might complain.

Main Points

  • Sales Channels
  • Price
  • Partner Levels
  • Leads
  • Website Listing
  • Communications
  • Offerings
  • Products
  • Training
  • Support

Sales Channels:
Lets start with the biggest shock – the sales channel. Almost every commercial phone system out there that sells through partners ONLY sells through partners. 3CX claims the same, but this simply isn’t true. It is 100% possible to purchase and renew a license directly through 3CX, cutting out all partners.

Price:
Many phone systems do not list pricing publicly – instead driving interested parties to contact a partner and get pricing from that partner. This leaves partners in a position to sell a phone system for whatever price they deem fit, without being questioned about public pricing. 3CX lists pricing publicly, and while they give partners a discount off that pricing, that information is also publicly available. This leaves all the “price negotiation” power in the hands of the customers.

Partner Levels:
3CX, like most companies with a partner program, has different levels of partnership. These levels are primarily driven by the amount of sales a partner does in a specific time period (calendar year for 3CX). 3CX changes these levels constantly, which leads to partners being unable to “advance” to the next levels. These levels drive multiple items, including discount on list price, leads provided, and website listings.

Leads:
3CX captures “Lead” information on their website and provides that lead to 3CX partners to follow up/close the deal on. Leads are only provided to higher level partners, which leads to newer partners not being provided information which can help them gain new customers and advance their partnership levels. This may not be such a loss, as according to multiple partners I’ve spoken to, most leads are fairly useless and are not of high quality prospects.

Website Listing:
3CX will only list a partner that includes back-links on their website to 3CX. The link must include their logo and a short 2-3 sentence statement of what 3CX is. While this is common and normally done, when combined with the price and direct sales model mentioned above, this can lead to partner concerns.

Communications:
Unlike most other companies, 3CX will directly communicate with the customer. You may think you’ve sold a 3CX license to someone and you are their point of contact, but 3CX has no problem directly emailing the customer for any reason. Additionally, 3CX does not prioritize communications to partners – that is to say that if a communication is sent out, you won’t necessarily receive it first or at all – leaving some partners to hear about new information about 3CX from their customers.

Offerings:
As discussed in the sales channel point above, 3CX will sell direct to customers. That extends to more then just the 3CX software – they will also sell hosting and maintenance directly to the customer. In fact, they will reach out to the customer (see the above communications section) to upsell them to their hosting and maintenance regardless if it partner is active in that space. This can lead to a customer moving services direct to 3CX and a loss of service with the partner.

Products:
3CX does not offer all products through partners. 3CX StartUP, their (reborn) multi-tenant solution, is only available as a direct offering from 3CX. Partners are not able to host it themselves, set prices, get purchase discounts, have central logins, etc.

Training:
3CX offers the same training courses and certifications to partners as it does to customers. The trainings and the certification exams are free and open for enrollment by anyone with a valid email address.

Support:
3CX offers support directly to the customer, provided they pay for a support ticket ($75 per ticket). Depending on your partner level, the same fee applies to the partner if they open a ticket with 3CX.


Based on the above, it’s fair to say the 3CX Partner Program is not friendly to partners who are used to other vendors partner programs.


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