We at Incentive Solutions are excited to share some big B2B tech news with you: we are acquiring channel marketing leader OneAffiniti! Expect this alliance of channel experts to bring about some big changes, all of them positive for Incentive Solutions, OneAffiniti, and our client families.
In a 2021 tech stack analysis, Forrester sales channel expert, Jay McBain, identified Incentive Solutions and OneAffiniti as channel incentives management (CIM) and through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) leaders, respectively. It was natural, then, for the two companies to join forces and become a united channel management technology provider.
The decision to acquire OneAffiniti boiled down to these three reasons:
1. Consolidation is the way of the future for channel sales.
As B2B markets play catch-up with the tech-savvy B2C world, B2B tech news shows more and more business tech solutions on the market all the time. As these specialized tools grow in number, it becomes harder for B2B companies to manage their tech stacks. While it’s great to add advanced tech capabilities to your organization, it’s important to have easy access to channel data all in one place.
A 2020 Market Study completed by Acclaro showed us that more than” 40% of B2B companies are likely to switch to take advantage of consolidated channel tools and tech providers.” Both Incentive Solutions and OneAffiniti saw this trend reflected in the needs and requests of our client partners. Our customers told us they wanted to consolidate their supplier relationships and ensure channel technologies worked seamlessly together.
“Unlike other ‘all-in-one’ channel marketing providers that spread one R&D team thin across a range of products and features, OneAffiniti and Incentive Solutions will maintain separate product and engineering teams,” says OneAffiniti Founder and CEO, Joel Montgomery. “We’ll stay focused on innovation across our respective products, without resource overlap.”
Incentive Solutions has always touted the importance of collecting clean sales and customer data to improve channel strategies. What better way to help clients accomplish this than offering them a wider range of technology and data sources via a powerful, all-in-one platform?
“We will be one of the first to bring a full suite of B2B solutions together and get to market,” says Incentive Solutions CEO Mark Herbert. “It’s a game changer.”
President & CEO of Incentive Solutions, Mark Herbert, and Founder & CEO of OneAffiniti, Joel Montgomery, team up to formally announce the acquisition!
2. We serve similar industries.
It’s always been important for us at Incentive Solutions to focus on serving the industries that best benefit from our technology and expertise. In partnering with OneAffiniti, we’ll be able to expand while still applying and perfecting our transferable, industry-specific knowledge.
Both Incentive Solutions and OneAffiniti service technology, manufacturing, finance, insurance, tire/automotive, medical device, and building/HVAC industries. Though these industries are where Incentive Solutions honed our success model, we’ve been able to help many companies outside these realms.
“We already provide many various industries who work through the channel, outside of our target market,” Mark Herbert says. “Examples include jewelry, travel and hospitality, healthcare, plumbing and more.”
We plan to continue improving service all of these markets where we have proven success, as well as expand our solutions to any companies that sell through other businesses.
3. Our corporate culture and values align.
Both Incentive Solutions and OneAffiniti were excited to see that we’re corporate culture twins! It was when we looked at how similar our cultures are that we were truly excited about an acquisition. We both built our corporate cultures around the basic principles and values we uphold. Where we say, “Make it better!” they say “Challenge the norm!” Where we say, “Act now!” they say “Step up and own it!”
At Incentive Solutions, we extend a philosophy of accountability, transparency, and growth to both our internal approach and our relationships with our client family. Our in-house incentive technology is powerful and advanced, but it’s collaboration and creativity that really turn our incentive programs into incentive solutions. For that reason, it was essential for us to acquire a company that we could see as true collaborators.
“Both companies are made up of very close teams, focused on growth for the employees, clients and even vendors,” Mark says. “Our focus will be centered on holding each other accountable, finding solutions to our target markets’ problems, while growing our clients and ourselves. Every day, we choose to grow together.”
Because our values and approaches are so well-matched, OneAffiniti already feels like family!
So, what’s next?
For the time being, Incentive Solutions and OneAffiniti will continue operating as two separate brands. Both businesses are very strong as we are, and we don’t plan to disrupt that.
Our focus is on the nitty-gritty of sophisticated API that will merge our channel solutions and provide a seamless experience for both clients and their participants. Expect some minor brand changes, major expansions of product offerings and channel programs, and more B2B tech news from us to come!
For more information about OneAffiniti, check out their blog post about the acquisition.
For additional coverage on this acquisition, please see:
MarTech Cube, BusinessWire, Channel Marketer Report, Destination CRM
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