Kaspersky Lab says it wants to commit to partners that will commit in it, and part of its efforts to drive that will be a loyalty program for its solution providers.

The Moscow-based anti-malware vendor this week introduced Kaspersky Total Rewards, a program that will see reseller reps earn cash rewards through a reloadable cash card.

The program was previewed by Gary Mullen, head of corporate marketing for the Amiercas at Kaspersky, at the company’s C3 Partner Conference in Riviera Maya, Mexico last week. At the show, Kaspersky channel managers were giving partners a card good for a $25 head start in the program.

As much as the program is about rewarding sales, the company is also looking at it as a way to motivate partner sales reps to get to know its products. Under the program, reseller sales reps will earn rewards for completing training and passing exams on Kaspersky products. The company believes that the more reseller sales reps know its products, the more often it will be invited to the table in deals – a major theme of discussions at C3.

The Total Rewards site will also feature the company’s partner sales training as well as marketing and communications materials.

The company will also soon revamp its partner portal, Mullen said, bringing together its partner communities from North America and Latin America. Mullen said the site will “piggyback” on the unified partner portal approach the company has taken in Europe, and will offers “a single sign-on gateway to all the tools” the company offers partners.

Other new programs on the horizon include a Kaspersky evaluation portal, which is a one-stop shop for product evaluations, online demos and additional information. A series of how-to videos answering solution providers’ frequently asked questions is also on the way.

Over the course of 2010, the company introduced new channel management and hired more channel-facing resources across all regions of the Americas. For 2011, Nancy Reynolds, sales chief for the anti-malware vendor, said the priority is on getting closer to its top partners.

“We want to evolve into a business partnership,” Reynolds told partners. “We’re going to sit down with our partners in their region, in their time zone, and have a business discussion.”

The partners in attendance at C3 collectively represent more than 6,000 salespeople and 3,500-plus technical resources for Kaspersky, and will be the deciding factor in how much the company grows in 2011, Reynolds said, calling the channel “the difference between incrementally good and exponentially good.”