There are many variables in the success of a vendor’s partner program.
One of the elements missing is Channel Marketing. It is different than traditional marketing directed at Buyers. Big partner programs understand that they have to Market their partner program to partners.
Providers want Partners to sell their stuff, yet absent in the conversation is why partners should partner with them. When they are 2000 companies selling the same thing, the vendor has to tell the story of why them!
Beyond the WHY You (and not them), identifying your target customer and your value proposition provides a baseline for partners to orientate towards vendors that match their own business initiatives.
Especially for vendors leveraging TSDs, channel marketing involves these 2 parts.
1. Win the partner before you win the customer.
You have two audiences: the partner who chooses to recommend your solution and the customer who ultimately buys it. Your message must explain not just why the product is good, but why selling it benefits the partner’s business—through revenue, differentiation, or stronger customer relationships.
2. Make it easy for partners to market and sell.
Awareness alone isn’t enough. Partners need clear positioning, ready-to-use campaigns, customer proof, and practical sales tools. The goal is to help them bring your solution into customer conversations—not simply give them more content.
On our podcast, Wig likes to say: Remove Friction! How hard is it to work with you? Do you have the resources to work with partners? Is there a commission report? Order status? Is there delays in quotes and contracts? Is there a PMO team for managing the implementation? If there are billing issues or support problems how easy is it for the partner to get help for their customer?
Here are 2 ways to identify Friction: (1) Secret shop your program or (2) start an advisory panel with 3 top partners. Get and accept the feedback.
The best email from a channel manager isn’t the new feature. It is who bought the new feature and what did they do with it. That is the difference in effective channel marketing.
Connecting the dots is a great form of Channel Marketing. Go from the press release of we offer Agentic AI, to we have in production 30 businesses in the HVAC and services industry that are leveraging the Agentic AI to answer calls after hours and email a summary of each call to a technician who can act on it.
CMO’s come and go because the head of marketing has a lot of moving parts. If your partner program is the key to growth, make certain that Channel marketing is part of the equation.
This is a random idea:
Do a podcast for employees! Telling them what is going on. Most companies fail at internal communications.