Introduction – Why Partner Discounts Are Negotiable
Many SAP customers assume a reseller’s quote is set in stone. In reality, partner pricing is highly negotiable – if you know how to ask. SAP partners (Value-Added Resellers, or VARs) purchase licenses from SAP at wholesale discounts (often 20–35% off the list price) and then resell to you at a markup.
That markup is how partners make their money, and it’s where your negotiation opportunity lies. Most customers don’t question a partner’s first quote, and most partners won’t volunteer a better price unless pressed. The good news: you can press politely and effectively.
By understanding the flow of partner pricing, you gain leverage. SAP still has to approve the final pricing that a partner offers you, which means there’s an SAP-sanctioned minimum (floor) price for your deal.
The partner’s quote is often significantly higher than that floor, leaving a cushion of profit for the reseller. Why let them keep it all? If you treat that cushion as a negotiation playground, you can push the partner to pass more of SAP’s discount on to you.
And remember, SAP wants the sale regardless of who resells it, so creating a competitive environment with multiple partners ultimately benefits you without alienating SAP.
Conversational Tip: “The margin between SAP’s discount and your quote is your negotiation playground.”
How Partner Discounts Work Behind the Scenes
Let’s pull back the curtain on how SAP’s partner pricing model works. SAP maintains a global list price for all licenses – think of it as the sticker price. When an authorized SAP partner (reseller) sells you licenses, they first purchase them from SAP at a discounted rate and then add their margin to determine your price.
In other words, SAP gives the partner a chunk off the list price (the partner’s discount), and the partner passes some (or none) of that chunk to you, depending on how much margin they want to keep.
Read our comprehensive guide to SAP partner licensing and negotiations, Negotiating with SAP Partners & Resellers: Getting the Best Deal Indirectly.
Crucially, SAP sets a “floor price” – the lowest price they allow the partner to sell at. The partner can charge you more than that floor (and usually will, if unchallenged), but they cannot go below it without SAP’s approval.
Key Insight: SAP sets a “floor price” for partners – they can’t sell below it, but many partners stop far above it when quoting customers.
In practical terms, think of the pricing components like this:
| Component | Description | Negotiation Tip |
|---|---|---|
| SAP List Price | The official catalog price for the licenses. | Use it as your baseline benchmark. |
| SAP Partner Discount | The price SAP charges the partner (typically 20–35% off list). | Ask how much of that discount the partner is passing on to you. |
| Partner Quote | The price you pay, which includes the partner’s markup. | Request a transparent breakdown of costs (list price, SAP discount, partner margin). |
As the table suggests, always anchor your discussion on the SAP list price and the percentage discount off that list.
Ask the reseller directly: “How much discount has SAP given you on this, and how much of that are you giving me?” A savvy customer will also request to see or know the SAP-approved price for the deal. SAP often provides partners with an approval document or quote at the discounted rate. Don’t be shy about asking for confirmation of that number.
Pro Tip: Always ask the partner, “What’s SAP’s approved price for this deal versus your resale price?” This signals that you know how their pricing works – and that you expect transparency on their margin.
Using Partner Competition to Drive Pricing Down
One of the most powerful tactics to maximize your discount is partner competition. Resellers know they’re not the only game in town, and nothing motivates a better deal like the prospect of losing business to a competitor.
Here’s a step-by-step approach to leverage competition:
- Request Multiple Quotes: Reach out to at least 2–3 certified SAP partners for quotes on the licenses you need. Don’t settle for just one option – let each know you’re shopping around.
- Standardize Your Requirements: Provide identical scope and details to all partners (same SKUs, quantities, support terms, etc.). This ensures you can compare quotes apples-to-apples without confusion.
- Ask for List-Price Reference: Require that each quote show SAP’s list price and the discount being applied. This anchors the conversation in transparency and makes it clear you know the baseline.
- Compare the Discounts: When the quotes come back, calculate the percentage off the list price in each. Who’s giving 15% off? Twenty percent? The bigger the discount, the less margin they’re keeping.
- Leverage the Lowest Offer: Use the best quote as a benchmark to push others lower. Tactically share that you have a better discount elsewhere – without necessarily naming the competitor. For example: “Another partner has come in at a higher discount level. Can you match or beat it?” This puts pressure on them to sharpen their pencil.
Additionally, consider keeping SAP in the loop on these discussions. CC your SAP account executive or let them know you’re obtaining multiple partner quotes. This transparency keeps everyone honest. It also signals to SAP that whichever partner wins, you expect the deal to be approved at the best possible price. (SAP won’t play favorites if they see you’re serious about cost.)
For example, you might write to each reseller with a line like:
Sample Email: “We’re evaluating multiple SAP partners for this purchase and are seeking transparency on the total discount off SAP list pricing that you can provide.”
This polite but clear message sets the expectation that you want a competitive, transparent offer. Remember, competition keeps everyone honest – it encourages partners to trim unnecessary margin and even prompts SAP to support deeper discounts if needed to win your business.
Conversational Tip: “Competition keeps everyone honest — including SAP.”
Timing Leverage – When Partners Are Most Flexible
Timing is a secret weapon in partner negotiations. Just like SAP’s direct sales team, resellers have quarterly and annual targets, and their willingness to deal can skyrocket at the end of a reporting period. If you time your negotiations right, you might hear “no” in early weeks turn into “how low do you need it?” as deadlines loom.
Here’s how to use timing to your advantage:
- Quarter-End Pressure: SAP’s fiscal quarters typically end in March, June, September, and December (with year-end in Dec). In the final weeks of these quarters, partners are eager to book revenue. They may have manufacturer incentives or rebate programs that kick in if they hit a certain sales volume. Your deal could be the one that helps them meet their goal – giving you leverage to ask for a last-minute extra discount.
- SAP Incentives and Promotions: Sometimes SAP runs promotions or focuses on a product line (say, pushing more cloud licenses or a new analytics product). In those cases, SAP might offer extra partner discounts or rebates for deals in that product. A clued-in partner will then be more flexible on price for you, knowing they’ll recoup margin via SAP’s rebate. It’s worth asking, “Is SAP offering any special incentives this quarter that we could take advantage of in this deal?”
- Partner Tier Milestones: Partners have levels (Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc.), which come with sales targets. If a partner is close to reaching the next tier or maintaining their status, they might cut you a great deal to book that revenue. The end of the year is a common time for this scramble. A quick conversation about their timeline can yield hints – for instance, a rep might mention, “If we can close by this month, it would really help us on our end.” That’s your cue that now is the time to press for more.
Checklist – Maximizing Timing Leverage:
- Align your negotiation to coincide with SAP’s quarter-ends (especially Q4/year-end) when discounts tend to peak.
- Don’t be afraid to ask the partner if there are any quarter-end bonus programs or rebate targets in play – it shows you know how the game works.
- Try to schedule the final decision or signing in that last week of the quarter. You’ll often find previously rigid prices start to soften as the clock ticks down.
Pro Tip: “The last week of SAP’s quarter is when partner *‘no’*s magically turn into ‘how low do you need it?’” Use that time-sensitive urgency to your advantage.
Negotiating the Margin – What You Can Ask Directly
Let’s be clear: you’re not just negotiating the price, you’re negotiating the partner’s margin. Many customers focus on “we want X% off,” without distinguishing whether that reduction comes out of SAP’s pocket or the reseller’s. You can and should target the reseller’s cut directly.
After all, if SAP has already given the partner a 30% discount off list, and the partner is quoting you only 10% off list, the 20% difference is pure partner markup. Here’s how to tackle it:
Start by asking direct questions to signal that you know how the pricing works and to prompt the partner to justify their share:
- “What portion of this discount is coming from SAP versus from your own margin?” – In other words, how much are they contributing beyond SAP’s base discount?
- “Are you able to pass through more of the SAP discount to us?” – A polite way to ask the reseller to reduce their markup.
- “What is the SAP-approved floor price for this deal?” – You want to know the lowest amount SAP would accept. This often prompts the partner to reveal how far off your quote is from that floor.
By asking these, you make it clear you’re aware of the back-end discount they get. A transparent partner might answer frankly; if they dodge, that’s a clue they’re keeping a healthy margin.
Next, push for transparency in writing. It’s reasonable to ask for written confirmation of the final numbers. For example, request that the partner include the total percentage discount off the list in the quote and even reference the SAP deal approval code or document.
You might even bake transparency into the agreement. Consider including a clause in your purchase order or contract that ensures you see the true discount. For instance:
Sample Contract Clause: “Partner agrees to disclose the total discount percentage off SAP list price for this purchase, including SAP’s approval reference, for verification.”
This kind of clause compels the reseller to be upfront (and gives you recourse if they aren’t). It might feel bold, but remember you are the customer – it’s within your rights to know what you’re paying for and at what terms.
Negotiation Checklist – Tackling Partner Margin:
- Insist on transparency: Ask the partner to break down the quote (list price, SAP discount, partner-added discount). Seeing the math highlights their margin.
- Get SAP’s price in writing: If possible, obtain a copy of the SAP-approved quote or at least an official email confirmation of the final net price SAP gave to the partner. This prevents any “creative” pricing.
- Negotiate tiered deals: If you’re making a big purchase, see if the partner will give a better rate for higher volumes or if you commit to future phases. (E.g., “If we add 20% more users, can you improve the discount by another 5%?”) This leverages their desire for a bigger sale.
- Don’t settle for headline discount: If the partner says “You’re getting 15% off,” you can respond, “Thanks, but SAP usually gives you around 30% – I need you to share more of that with us.” Sometimes just calling it out plainly is effective.
By zeroing in on the partner’s margin, you’re effectively putting money back in your pocket instead of theirs. It’s a balanced ask – you’re not demanding something unreasonable, just a fairer split of the savings SAP is already providing on the back-end.
What to review in the contracts, Key Terms in Partner Contracts: What to Watch Before You Sign an SAP Reseller Agreement.
Keeping SAP Contract Protections Intact
A major concern when buying through a third-party is ensuring you don’t lose any protections or rights you’d have if you purchased directly from SAP. Rest assured, you shouldn’t lose them – and you shouldn’t accept any deal that does. SAP partners are simply a sales channel; the software and support are still from SAP, and so are the contractual terms that govern their use.
Here’s how to safeguard your rights:
First, ensure that your purchase is tied to SAP’s standard license agreement. Typically, this is the SAP Software Use Rights Agreement (SURA) or a similar master agreement. In practice, even if you’re transacting through a reseller, you might be asked to sign SAP’s standard contract paperwork (with the partner listed as the seller). If a partner presents their own terms and conditions for the licenses, red flag – the core usage terms should be SAP’s, not the partner’s. Insist that the SAP agreement is attached or referenced in your contract. This is what guarantees your rights to use the software and SAP’s obligations to you.
Next, double-check that no critical clauses have been altered or lost in the process. For example, SAP’s audit rights (the right for SAP to audit your software usage) should remain exactly as they are in SAP’s standard agreement – you don’t want a scenario where a partner’s contract changes how audits are handled, as that could lead to compliance issues. Similarly, warranty and liability clauses should remain per SAP norms; a partner shouldn’t be tweaking those for their benefit. Essentially, anything that affects your legal right to use the software or SAP’s responsibilities should be the same as if you bought it directly.
Another important point is SAP support (maintenance). When you purchase licenses, you typically also pay an annual support fee (around 22% of net license cost per year) for SAP’s updates and support services. Clarify how this will work through the partner.
Best practice: Pay SAP directly for maintenance or ensure the contract states that maintenance fees go to SAP. Some partners might want to invoice you for maintenance themselves – avoid that if possible, or make sure you see proof that they forward those fees to SAP.
You want SAP to acknowledge your support contract in their systems, so there’s no interruption in service. It also means you’re protected by SAP’s standard support terms (for example, the right to call SAP support, get patches, etc., just as any direct customer would).
Finally, get SAP’s approval documentation for the deal and keep it in your records. If you’ve negotiated hard on price via a partner, have the partner confirm (or show) that SAP approved the deal at that price.
This can simply be an official quote or an email from SAP to the partner. It gives you peace of mind that the licenses are fully valid and recognized by SAP at the agreed price.
In the unlikely event of a dispute or an audit question, you have evidence that SAP was on board with everything.
Checklist – Preserving SAP Protections through a Partner:
- Make sure the SAP master agreement (e.g., SURA) is the governing contract for your licenses, even if the order is placed through a reseller.
- Verify that audit, usage, and support terms in your paperwork match SAP’s standard terms – no weakening or odd exclusions introduced by the partner.
- Ensure your maintenance/support is handled by SAP (the partner can facilitate, but SAP should ultimately be providing the support under their terms).
- Obtain written confirmation of SAP’s deal approval (an official quote or confirmation code from SAP) and keep it with your contract documents.
When done right, buying via a partner should feel just like buying from SAP, just at a lower price. If anything feels off in the contract, push back – reputable SAP partners will accommodate these requests because they know SAP requires these protections anyway.
After all, partners sell SAP licenses — they don’t own them. Your relationship with SAP remains, and so should all the protections that come with being an SAP customer.
Conversational Tip: “Partners sell SAP licenses — they don’t own them. Make sure your contract reflects that.”
Example: How Partner Competition Creates Savings
To illustrate the power of making resellers compete, let’s look at a simplified example scenario:
- Partner A initially offers a 15% discount on SAP list prices for a certain license package. This might sound decent if you don’t know any better.
- Partner B, aware they’re in a competitive bid, offers 22% off the same SAP list prices for the identical scope. They’ve essentially given up more of their margin to win your business.
- SAP approves both quotes without issue. (Neither offer went below SAP’s floor price; Partner B just went closer to it.) This is telling – it means Partner A’s 15% off quote was well above the minimum they could have offered. Partner A was pocketing the difference as an extra margin until they realized they might lose the deal.
In the end, the customer chose the better discount (or got Partner A to match it). Let’s say this deal was for a large license purchase over three years – the improved discount translated to €280,000 in savings over that period, for the exact same SAP software and support. Both partners would have delivered the identical licenses backed by SAP’s standard contract; the only difference was price. That €280k was essentially excess margin that Partner A was willing to take until competition forced it out.
Lesson: Competition doesn’t change your SAP terms — only the price you pay for them. By inviting multiple partners to the table, the customer in this example kept all the normal SAP protections and simply paid a lot less.
5 Tactics to Maximize Partner Discounts Without Losing SAP Protection
To wrap up, here are five concrete tactics to drive the best deal through SAP partners while retaining all the standard SAP safeguards:
- Get at least 2–3 partner quotes, and always compare multiple reseller offers for the same SAP licenses. Competition and choice put you in control and force better pricing.
- Ask to see SAP list prices and approval references – Demand transparency. Insist on knowing the list price and the discount applied, and even ask for SAP’s approved deal price. This keeps partners honest about their margins.
- Negotiate the partner’s margin directly – Don’t shy away from the tough questions. Push beyond the headline discount and explicitly ask the reseller to trim their markup. Every percentage point you claw back is money saved.
- Keep SAP copied for transparency – Involve your SAP account manager in the process. Copy SAP on key emails or let them know you’re bid-shopping. This prevents any behind-the-scenes surprises and ensures the final deal gets SAP’s blessing.
- Ensure SAP’s license and support terms govern – No matter which partner you buy from, never compromise on contract basics. Make sure you sign under SAP’s standard terms (usage rights, audit rights, support entitlements). You get the big discount and the peace of mind that your SAP relationship and protections are intact.
By following these tactics, you can make SAP resellers compete for your business and win on price – all without sacrificing the quality, terms, or protections of your SAP software agreement. Happy negotiating!
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