Best of LinkedIn: Channel Marketing CW 21/ 22

00:00:00: This episode is provided by Thomas Allgaier and Frayness.

00:00:03: Based on the most relevant LinkedIn posts about channel marketing in calendar weeks, twenty-one and twenty two.

00:00:09: Frennus is a B to B market research partner helping ICT and tech providers identify niche Channel partners by compressing The full journey from identification To qualified first meeting into four or five weeks.

00:00:21: you can find more info In this description.

00:00:23: i mean imagine building This state of the art storefront right.

00:00:26: You stock it with incredible products?

00:00:28: You unlock the doors And then uh you realize you built It dead in the center of the Sahara Desert.

00:00:34: That is exactly what thousands of B to B tech companies are doing on cloud marketplaces right now?

00:00:41: Yeah, welcome to The Deep Dive everyone!

00:00:43: Today we're unpacking the top channel marketing trends surfacing across LinkedIn specifically for well you be-to-be marketing professionals and that desert storefront analogy perfectly captures the friction we're seeing right now.

00:00:55: like everyone wants to be in a big cloud marketplace but just being there it's not enough anymore

00:01:00: Not even close.

00:01:01: I mean, the landscape is shifting so dramatically.

00:01:03: we are looking at a complete operational overhaul of how partnerships actually drive revenue And it starts right at those digital marketplaces.

00:01:13: Yeah,

00:01:14: let's start exactly there.

00:01:15: I was looking through the research The Frannis team pulled together for this week and um...the sheer volume of Digital real estate expanding out There is just staggering.

00:01:25: Oh yeah huge like For example Nicole Desson and Jui Saha recently highlighted that Microsoft Just launched multi-party private offers.

00:01:35: thirty countries in the European economic area.

00:01:38: Massive growth, honestly but maybe let's clarify what that actually means mechanically because multi-party private offers sounds like you know really dense procurement jargon.

00:01:46: right yeah lets unpack.

00:01:48: for anyone who isn't living and partner center every day how does a multi party offer work in practice?

00:01:53: So traditionally selling enterprise software through a partner involved massive paper trail.

00:01:58: I mean the vendor sold to the partners or the partners sold at customers.

00:02:01: Shun is exhausting.

00:02:02: it was and the customer had to onboard a totally new vendor into their procurement system, literally took months.

00:02:09: Wow!

00:02:10: But a multi-party private offer essentially means that the software vendor, channel partner or end customers are all executing a custom discounted deal under one single digital contract.

00:02:25: Oh right inside cloud marketplace

00:02:27: Exactly The customer just uses there existing Azure or AWS Cloud Budget completely bypasses the entire procurement headache.

00:02:36: Which explains why everyone is desperately trying to get their software listed on these hyperscaler marketplaces, you know?

00:02:42: Your Amazons or Googles your Microsofts... Well

00:02:44: totally!

00:02:45: Everyone wants a piece of that.

00:02:46: But this brings us back to that desert storefront problem you mentioned earlier, because Roman Khrusanov posted a pretty stark warning about this.

00:02:53: Yeah I saw it.

00:02:53: He pointed

00:02:54: out getting listed on cloud marketplace is literally just the starting line

00:02:57: Right and too many companies treat their market place listing as like standalone partnerships initiative.

00:03:04: You know Check box move-on Exactly.

00:03:06: They check technical boxes give each other high five And then wait for hyper scaler sales reps To magically start selling software

00:03:16: Which is

00:03:16: crazy.

00:03:17: It is Roman notes that without actual sales buy-in from your own team and Without a really clear go to market infrastructure wrapped around that listing you cap Your growth on day one, okay?

00:03:29: So let's play this out.

00:03:30: if I'm an account executive at Microsoft i have my own quota To hit right right And I Have A massive Catalog of My Own Products To Sell Why On Earth Would I Care About Pulling Some Random Partner Software Into My Deal?

00:03:42: You Wouldn't

00:03:43: not Unless.

00:03:43: That partner Makes Your Life Incredibly easy and that really comes down to operational friction.

00:03:48: Yeah,

00:03:49: That makes sense.

00:03:49: Raceberry actually shared a brilliant tactical example of how to solve this so his team was pushing thousands of deals per week through Microsoft's partner center.

00:03:58: Wait!

00:03:59: Thousands Of Deals A Week?

00:04:00: That is the serious operational load.

00:04:02: It's insane.

00:04:03: And at that volume The manual bottlenecks become well glaringly obvious.

00:04:07: I bet they noticed their co-sell deal were just stalling in limbo for days And this was before a human at Microsoft even looked at them.

00:04:15: Wow, so they're just sitting there?

00:04:17: Right

00:04:17: because when a deal hits the operations desk at a hyperscaler A Human reviewer has to look at this unstructured data and decide.

00:04:26: You know is it's real opportunity or Is This Just a lazy partner throwing a logo over the fence

00:04:31: right hoping Microsoft does all heavy lifting for Them?

00:04:34: Exactly

00:04:35: So Reese's team started treating every single data field like a psychological lever.

00:04:39: He found that adding just seven simple words to their submission notes changed their entire pipeline velocity.

00:04:46: Seven words, what were they?

00:04:48: This

00:04:48: is a Bant qualified deal.

00:04:50: Bant!

00:04:51: Okay.

00:04:51: so budget authority need timing.

00:04:53: you got it.

00:04:54: They mirrored Microsoft's own internal sales qualification language right back to them.

00:04:59: Oh That Is So Smart

00:05:01: Right.

00:05:01: By stating it was band qualified, they explicitly signaled to that Microsoft reviewer.

00:05:06: Hey we've already done the homework!

00:05:08: We know they have a budget...we spoke with the decision

00:05:10: maker.".

00:05:11: And what's the result?

00:05:12: Reeves noted their acceptance rates jumped by five percent immediately and their routing time dropped by days.

00:05:18: Yeah I love this hack but let me push back here.

00:05:22: if i'm desperate partner manager trying hit my quarterly numbers can't just slap Bant qualified on a bunch of garbage, totally unqualified leads just to get Microsoft's attention.

00:05:35: I mean you could but you would only do it once.

00:05:39: Right because if you lie about a deal being fully qualified and then a Microsoft rep jumps on A call only to find out the customer has no budget And know idea why they're even there.

00:05:48: You burn your reputation Instantly instantly,

00:05:51: you will be blacklisted internally?

00:05:53: And as Billy Baker noted in his post you have to fundamentally build Your business around how these hyperscalers actually sell.

00:05:59: You know, you have to make it repeatable and trustworthy.

00:06:01: But

00:06:02: there's a fatal flaw here isn't there?

00:06:03: I mean if every legitimate company starts rigidly tagging their deals is banned qualified And the volume goes from thousands to say tens of thousands The manual review process Microsoft or AWS will eventually just collapse, right?

00:06:17: Like human beings simply cannot process that much unstructured deal data at scale.

00:06:22: Which tells you this manual data entry phase is a stepping stone.

00:06:26: You are exactly right.

00:06:27: Okay.

00:06:28: so what's next?

00:06:28: That's why the hyperscalers are suddenly ripping out their manual forms and replacing them entirely And this where the conversation on LinkedIn shifts heavily toward AI Specifically agentic AI.

00:06:40: It's becoming new baseline for partner operations.

00:06:43: We hear AI thrown around as a marketing buzzword constantly.

00:06:48: But you're saying this is an actual mechanical shift in how deals are registered?

00:06:52: Yes,

00:06:52: absolutely!

00:06:53: Look at the massive update on AWS Partner Central that Matt Yanchishan and Shri Kanthasai highlighted recently.

00:06:59: AWS agents now support natural language deal creation.

00:07:02: Okay walk me through what it actually looks like for partner sellers sitting at their desk on a Tuesday.

00:07:07: Well previously a seller had to log into a portal Navigate like twenty different drop-down menus, find the exact regional code and input structure data just to register a deal.

00:07:17: Sounds terrible!

00:07:18: It was... Now they can skip the form entirely.

00:07:20: Cellar just types or speaks of plain language description Like hey I'm working on dealing with ACME Corp for fifty K. They need our cloud security addon by Q three And CIO gave green light.

00:07:32: AI figures it out?

00:07:33: Yeah

00:07:34: The AIAgent reads that extracts the BANT data and automatically maps it to the correct structured fields in the AWS database.

00:07:42: Okay, I mean that sounds amazing in theory but honestly i've seen how messy sales reps can be with their notes.

00:07:50: oh for sure.

00:07:51: doesn't this run a massive risk of garbage in garbage out like if your partner sellers don't know how to prompt the AI correctly.

00:07:58: aren't they just going to generate a bunch of incomplete deal registrations?

00:08:02: And

00:08:02: that still requires human cleanup.

00:08:04: Yes, there is the exact vulnerability.

00:08:06: We spent last decade assuming tech literacy and now we are assuming AI Literacy which is incredibly dangerous!

00:08:12: I mean a lazy prompt yields a lazy output.

00:08:14: Totally so.

00:08:15: how do you fix that?

00:08:16: That's why Brian

00:08:17: O.'s

00:08:17: post on this was so foundational.

00:08:19: He argued that raising AI literacy across your entire revenue team isn't like an optional HR initiative anymore.

00:08:27: It'a critical operational requirement.

00:08:29: Yeah That makes sense.

00:08:30: To solve that exact garbage-in problem, he suggests building what he calls a prompt improver agent

00:08:36: A PROMPT improver?

00:08:37: Wait so like an AI that fixes your prompts before they go to the main

00:08:41: AI?

00:08:41: Precisely it's a lightweight intermediary tool that uses the reflectee framework.

00:08:45: Okay I know reflectee is an acronym.

00:08:47: uh break down the mechanics of how it actually works.

00:08:49: Sure

00:08:50: Reflect stands for role task format constraints context tone and examples.

00:08:56: okay Think of this prompt improver agent like having a bilingual paralegal sitting next to you.

00:09:01: If a sales rep shouts, I want to sue this guy for breaking the contract!

00:09:05: The paralegal doesn't just hand that exact quote to the judge...

00:09:08: Right they translate it

00:09:09: Exactly.

00:09:10: They take the raw intent Ask if you clarifying questions and turn into highly structured ten page legal filing That the Judge in case the AWS AI can actually process

00:09:21: Got It.

00:09:21: So the seller types-in a messy half baked deal.

00:09:25: note The prompt improver intercepts it, analyzes against the reflectee framework and realizes its missing the say timeline in budget constraints.

00:09:36: And then actually prompts the seller to fill-in those specific blanks.

00:09:40: Exactly!

00:09:41: Then at outputs an oven ready highly structured prompt.

00:09:44: You're systemizing AI inputs so you don't have train every single one of your channel sellers To be some kind master prompt engineer.

00:09:51: That is incredibly smart because it just removes the human error rate at the very top of the funnel.

00:09:56: And we're seeing this kind of API first flexible architecture popping up everywhere in partner tech right now, I was actually reading a post by Michael Cole over at Everflow about this.

00:10:06: Oh yeah what did he say?

00:10:07: He talked about how their API First Partner Marketing Platform has designed exactly for this moment like they aren't forcing you to use some clunky proprietary AI that they build in-house.

00:10:18: They provide the reliable data backbone so you can plug in whatever the newest fastest AI model is, whether that's OpenAI or Anthropic and just build these personalized tools on top of your own data.

00:10:30: And Latif Hemlani brought up Partner Assistant AI which is doing this specifically for AWS Co-Selling.

00:10:36: Oh nice!

00:10:37: When you piece all together These agentic workflows represent just a massive operational advantage.

00:10:43: They drastically reduce your operational expense, Your OPEX because you don't need a team of administrators copying and pasting data all day

00:10:50: Right And it speeds up the time to market for every single deal Exactly.

00:10:54: But here's the reality check.

00:10:56: AI

00:10:56: agents can handle the data entry sure... ...and the Marketplaces can handle procurement but none.

00:11:01: that infrastructure matters if your pipeline is empty.

00:11:04: Right, yes sell air

00:11:05: Exactly.

00:11:05: You still need actual demand, you need trust to feed that machine which means partner marketing has to fundamentally evolve.

00:11:13: like swag distributions and vanity impression dashboards do not pay the bills.

00:11:18: No they definitely don't.

00:11:20: it is time to mature past the quarterly brand decks.

00:11:24: Tim Grieve captured this perfectly in his post.

00:11:26: What was his tape?

00:11:27: He pointed out that real partner marketing isn't about giving a partner more brand impressions.

00:11:32: It's about pulling actual intent data and handing highly specific engagement signals straight to the partner sellers who are actually trying to close the deal.

00:11:42: Okay, walk me through the mechanics of that because you know intend data is another one.

00:11:45: those terms we throw around super loosely.

00:11:47: yeah fair enough what does it look like on a random Tuesday afternoon for a partner marketer?

00:11:53: Well let's say your running an air cover campaign You aren't just looking at click-through rates, you're looking a dashboard and seeing that specific prospect.

00:12:05: let's say midsized healthcare network.

00:12:08: Just hit your pricing page five times this week.

00:12:10: okay they downloaded technical white paper in the attended joint webinar.

00:12:16: That account is pulling three time normal engagement benchmark

00:12:20: so throwing off massive signals.

00:12:22: there are an active buying cycle

00:12:24: Exactly.

00:12:25: So true partner marketing is taking that specific intent data, picking up the phone calling The Partner Rep who owns That territory and saying do not cold call today.

00:12:34: Call these two specific accounts right now.

00:12:37: And here's exactly what they were reading.

00:12:39: Wow so the air cover Is literally just a warm-up handing them.

00:12:43: the actionable list is the actual work.

00:12:46: And speaking of actionable and specific, I loved Chad Kaiser's playbook on vertical specialization.

00:12:51: Oh that was a great

00:12:52: post!

00:12:52: Yeah he shared pretty brutal truth about how generalist partner programs are just getting absolutely crushed right now.

00:12:59: his company apparently ran a Generalist Partner Program for two years targeting basically anyone who would listen...and

00:13:06: let me guess mediocre results.

00:13:08: Totally mediocre, but then they built a vertical specific program just for financial services the result in that one single Vertical exceeded their entire generalist programs to your history.

00:13:20: I mean it makes complete sense when you think about It.

00:13:22: if You're a buyer In a highly regulated industry and partner claims They can help anyone with IT Your immediate assumption is That they don't actually understand your specific problems

00:13:33: exactly.

00:13:34: Chad made this exact point.

00:13:35: He said, you don't just target a broad category like healthcare.

00:13:40: You target and I'm quoting here regional hospital networks with five hundred to two thousand beds under CMS compliance pressure.

00:13:47: Let's

00:13:47: pause on that because That level of specificity is honestly the secret sauce for

00:13:52: sure.

00:13:53: CMS compliance Pressure refers to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services changing in data privacy or reporting role right.

00:14:00: so a massive hospital network is suddenly terrified of a multi-million dollar fine if they aren't compliant by Q four.

00:14:07: Yeah, they're panicking.

00:14:08: generic IT firm cannot help them But it's specialized channel partner who comes in with the vendor solution mapped exactly to that CMS rule.

00:14:16: They win the deal every single time

00:14:17: Exactly because you build your partners certifications around that exact vertical pain point.

00:14:22: You build the case studies and the ROI calculators specifically for that compliance issue.

00:14:28: It requires way more investment up front from the marketing team, but the conversion rates are wildly better.

00:14:34: And this raises a really critical point about defensibility which Elena Zapp framed brilliantly with her concept of the ecosystem moat.

00:14:43: Oh I like that term Ecosystem Moat.

00:14:46: It's so good.

00:14:47: Think about the reality of software.

00:14:49: right now AI can write code and replicate software features faster than most human product.

00:14:56: teams can even ship a beta version.

00:14:58: It's wild!

00:14:59: And if you lower your price, your competitors match it almost instantly.

00:15:03: The window where the product is actually unique Is shorter that has ever been in the history of tech.

00:15:08: So If Features are commoditized...and pricing is commoditised What is left to defend your business?

00:15:15: Your ecosystem?

00:15:16: That's Alayna's point.

00:15:17: A competitor can copy your code overnight, but they cannot copy the trust you've built over

00:15:21: years."

00:15:22: That's right

00:15:22: true!

00:15:23: They can't copy your co-marketing relationships...they cant' copy dozens of specialized channel partners who are quietly vouching for software in private meetings during a buyer long research phase

00:15:33: Right which usually happens months before your direct sales team even knows that prospect exists

00:15:38: Exactly…that web of Trust is THE ONLY DURABLE MOAT LEFT.

00:15:42: I am obsessed with this concept of the trust mode, and it totally validates Ben Wright's extreme channel first approach that he posted about.

00:15:50: What is his team doing?

00:15:51: At

00:15:51: his organization they are actually compensating their own internal SDRs like their direct outbound sales reps on unearthing opportunities for their partners.

00:16:01: Wait let me make sure i'm hearing this right.

00:16:04: They're paying their internal sales team to find deals Even when there is no immediate direct revenue for their own company on that deal.

00:16:13: Yes, they're SDRs will log a customer need.

00:16:17: realize Their own software isn't the perfect fit but a partner's services.

00:16:20: They pass the lead to the partner and the sdr actually gets a commission payout

00:16:24: for it.

00:16:24: Wow I have a really hard time believing your traditional CFO would ever sign off on that.

00:16:29: now if i'm looking at the balance sheet saying Why do we just pay a five hundred dollar bonus?

00:16:34: For a deal that went to our partner?

00:16:35: We didn't make a dime.

00:16:37: And that is the exact internal political friction every partner manager faces.

00:16:42: But, the counter-argument like... The way you justify that budget.

00:16:45: Is this fundamentally a customer acquisition cost?

00:16:48: Ah so

00:16:49: Because when you hand a highly qualified closed one deal to your partner They owe you!

00:16:55: Right they are going make their absolute top priority.

00:16:59: When they stumble across a five hundred dollar K enterprise deal next quarter Who do think they're bringing in?

00:17:05: You?

00:17:05: Okay, you see it

00:17:06: exactly.

00:17:07: that trust transfer builds the ecosystem moat Elena was talking about.

00:17:10: faster than anything else.

00:17:11: It's a fascinating psychological shift for revenue team.

00:17:14: Honestly Yeah You're basically treating goodwill as a measurable metric.

00:17:18: yeah Exactly.

00:17:19: but building that kind of robust ecosystem mode requires a hard honest look at who is actually in your network Which brings us to a somewhat uncomfortable reality.

00:17:29: Yeah, for talking about ecosystem strategy we have to talk about the brutal truth of partner programs.

00:17:33: All right I am ready for The Brutal Truth.

00:17:36: lay it on me!

00:17:37: The brutal truth is that a Partner Program is not about hoarding logos on a slide deck just so your website looks impressive.

00:17:44: It's about rigorous orchestration and filtering.

00:17:48: Martin Schultz had this fantastic one-liner in his post.

00:17:50: he said partnership polyamory has its limits.

00:17:54: you cannot love everyone

00:17:56: Partnership polyamory.

00:17:57: That is incredible!

00:17:59: It's so true though, he pointed out that having thirty completely inactive partners isn't a partner ecosystem it's a waiting room.

00:18:06: Yeah, that's a great way to put it.

00:18:08: True partnerships are highly collaborative not just transactional.

00:18:11: you have to enable them train them and activate them repeatedly right?

00:18:15: And as the sheer capacity constraint your team simply cannot do that with a massive roster of partners who aren't engaging.

00:18:22: You have to be willing to off-board The deadweight cleanly and professionally.

00:18:25: so It's really a pivot too quality over quantity.

00:18:29: But how do you enforce that quality before you waste six months onboarding them?

00:18:32: That's

00:18:33: the million dollar question.

00:18:34: Well, Lilian Pearson shared a really tactical way to force this early on.

00:18:38: It's based on the strategy Balindran Thaveraja used at Get Me!

00:18:41: They started charging a meaningful non-negotiable upfront licensing fee before they would commit any new partner.

00:18:49: To filter out bad actors even before ink is dry?

00:18:52: Exactly

00:18:53: it completely filters out talkers and reminds me of psychology behind premium gym membership.

00:18:59: Oh, how so?

00:19:00: Well if the Lochery Gym chart is a massive you know A thousand dollar upfront initiation fee it automatically filters out The people who just want to show up on January first take in New Year's resolution selfie In the mirror and never come back right.

00:19:13: The tourists

00:19:14: exactly.

00:19:14: You only get the People Who are actually going To show Up at five am And lift heavy weights.

00:19:18: when Channel partners have Their own money On the line Up front.

00:19:21: They assign a real Dedicated team they set A strict Revenue target and They Actually go to market.

00:19:26: okay But let me play devil's advocate Here for a second.

00:19:28: sure If If you are a Microsoft or Salesforce, sure.

00:19:31: You have the market dominance to demand.

00:19:48: That is a very fair point.

00:19:49: So if you don't have the brand leverage to demand cash, You Have To Demand Time and Commitment as The Fee.

00:19:56: Like what?

00:19:57: Like...you require their executive sponsor to attend A mandatory half-day workshop or you require three of Their Engineers to pass a rigorous proctored certification before they get access to your collateral.

00:20:07: Oh I see!

00:20:08: ...the currency changes but the mechanism Is the same..You just have to force skin in game.

00:20:12: that makes alot Of sense.

00:20:15: Enforcing that level of discipline, whether it's demanding fees or off-boarding dead weight requires incredibly strong leadership.

00:20:21: Definitely.

00:20:22: Ashur Hathu actually shared some fascinating data regarding this.

00:20:26: The title of chief partner officer Or CPO is on a massive rise.

00:20:31: He counted twelve thousand two hundred and eighty two Of them in climbing.

00:20:34: Wow!

00:20:35: That's A lot.

00:20:35: Clearly CEOs are recognizing what he calls Ecosystem gravity But Asher made a crucial distinction.

00:20:42: I think everyone needs to hear.

00:20:44: A title doesn't make a CPO.

00:20:46: So if the title doesn' t make the leader, what does?

00:20:49: Budget and authority.

00:20:51: If your so-called chief partner officer is operating on borrowed dollars basically begging the CMO for marketing leftovers to run a co-branded webinar that's not strategy.

00:21:04: Capital allocation of strategies...and more importantly authority The authority to prioritize, but mostly the authority to say no.

00:21:12: Yeah that's huge

00:21:13: without the budget to invest in intent data and the authority To decline bad partnerships or fire inactive ones.

00:21:20: you aren't actually leading an ecosystem.

00:21:22: You're just coordinating it?

00:21:24: an administrator with executive

00:21:29: branding.

00:21:29: That is a gut punch for anyone carrying a partner title right now.

00:21:32: who doesn't actually have check writing power.

00:21:35: Seriously?

00:21:35: You need

00:21:35: the mandate from the board, not just the title on LinkedIn.

00:21:38: Exactly!

00:21:38: The market is moving aggressively toward these highly orchestrated deeply integrated trust networks...the casual partnerships are dying out.

00:21:47: Yeah they really are.

00:21:48: And that brings us to this final somewhat provocative thought I want.

00:21:51: leave you with connecting all of those dots we've discussed today.

00:21:54: Oh let's hear it.

00:21:55: If your ecosystem moat that tight network of trusted vetted partners.

00:21:59: Is your only true defense against AI commoditizing your software?

00:22:04: How long until AI agents are the ones actually negotiating with each other on behalf of those

00:22:08: networks?".

00:22:09: Oh wow!

00:22:10: Right, The agentic future we talked about isn't just about AI filling out deal registration forms on AWS.

00:22:16: it's about orchestration at a massive scale.

00:22:19: We're looking

00:22:22: So, like your AI evaluates a partner's AI to see if the compliance standards match before a human ever even speaks?

00:22:29: Exactly.

00:22:30: The real question is are you building your foundation of Human Trust fast enough right now so that you're ready when the agents take over the execution.

00:22:39: That is a wild slightly terrifying thought-to end on Agent To Agent orchestration.

00:22:44: Are we building trust fast enough for the

00:22:45: A.I.?

00:22:46: Wow!

00:22:46: Something to think about...for sure

00:22:48: If you enjoyed this episode, new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:22:51: Also check out our other editions on account-based marketing field marketing AI and B to be marketing MarTech.

00:22:56: go to market and social selling.

00:22:59: Thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive.

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