Best of LinkedIn: Channel Marketing & Partner Ecosystem CW 41/ 42

00:00:00: provided by Thomas Allgaier and Freeness, based on the most relevant LinkedIn posts about channel marketing in partner ecosystem.

00:00:07: In calendar weeks forty-one and forty two.

00:00:10: Freenes is a B to be market research company that supports enterprise marketing teams and unlocking full potential of their customer data with help from AI.

00:00:18: you can find more info in description

00:00:21: if your joining us today.

00:00:22: this deep dive specifically for bdb marketing leaders who want no fluff actionable insights into the top channel marketing and partner ecosystem trends that are just dominating LinkedIn right now.

00:00:34: Yeah, exactly I mean we were really moving past that era of vanity metrics Right?

00:00:39: And those structure first-partner programs?

00:00:42: Oh absolutely so.

00:00:43: today We're basically exploring three key themes.

00:00:46: we got strategy in program design The actual realities of co-selling marketplaces and then how AI is rewriting the rules of trust In partnerships.

00:00:57: So let's just start right at the foundation, right?

00:00:59: Strategy and program design.

00:01:02: The overarching trend we're seeing is this massive shift away from bloated generic partner tiers.

00:01:08: You know everyone's moving toward programs that are meticulously designed around business outcomes.

00:01:13: Right an internal alignment too.

00:01:15: Yeah

00:01:16: I mean Teresa Carroll Gold brought up a really great insight here.

00:01:19: She basically said We have to stop starting our program design with tears.

00:01:23: Yes!

00:01:23: The whole gold silver bronze thing?

00:01:26: Exactly It's dead.

00:01:28: You have to ask how the partner actually creates market value today,

00:01:32: so

00:01:32: for example are they doing managed services or is it like a quick implementation?

00:01:38: The business model has to shape the program not the other way around

00:01:41: which makes total sense because A Managed Service Provider needs completely different support structure than someone who just does technical setups

00:01:50: Right and Patrick Finn really builds on this perspective.

00:01:54: He noted how CROs are constantly asking for, you know more partner pipeline.

00:01:59: But the fix is almost always running your existing partners better

00:02:03: not just adding new ones.

00:02:05: I mean i Always think of this like a leaky bucket.

00:02:07: You know why?

00:02:07: Are we so obsessed with pouring and new water Like New Partners in instead Of patching The holes And enabling the current partners first?

00:02:15: it's So true We love the top of funnel vanity metric but Leslie Guido has This framework to actually Fix It.

00:02:22: She says it has to be strategy, then structure than people.

00:02:25: Okay, strategy-structure people?

00:02:26: Yeah

00:02:27: And when you're building a new partnership function the biggest mistake is creating this massively over scoped job description.

00:02:34: You have to identify one primary outcome explicitly and This is the crucial part.

00:02:39: Define what your explicitly not asking them to solve yet.

00:02:42: Oh wow I love that defining The NOT doing part gives them room To actually align internally which brings up Heather Mason's point.

00:02:49: she shared crazy story about Kristen Fyandak at Vonage.

00:02:53: Oh, the

00:02:53: revenue growth story right?

00:02:54: Yeah it grew partner-source revenue from two point five million to fourteen million dollars in four years.

00:03:00: That's

00:03:00: just wild

00:03:01: It is.

00:03:02: and she did by aligning with internal sales ups Right.

00:03:05: She joined product calls And even made friends With a finance team To make sure deal submissions were actually handled on time

00:03:11: Which Is so unglamorous but SO necessary.

00:03:14: Finance is basically The hidden engine of any part or program

00:03:17: Exactly.

00:03:18: But it's not just internal discipline, its external too.

00:03:21: Like Kirsten Newbold Knipp pointed out with HubSpot their agency ecosystem reached like forty percent of revenue and they did because the had this intense ideal customer profile or ICP discipline.

00:03:33: They made a really deliberate choice about which customers would not serve directly.

00:03:38: Right.

00:03:38: leaving that space for partners.

00:03:40: Yeah but let me push back for second Because if you have quoted Turning down direct revenue is terrifying.

00:03:47: You're intentionally leaving money on the table, right?

00:03:50: Well you're not leaving out of the table...you're multiplying it!

00:03:52: But you're right.

00:03:53: CXOs hesitate to do that.

00:03:55: Greg Portnoy gave a great reality check on this.

00:03:57: He said executives hesitate to invest in partnerships because the data's just missing.

00:04:02: Ah

00:04:02: Right

00:04:03: Partner leaders bring soft metrics to The Board meeting.

00:04:06: Exactly

00:04:07: If you want to seat at the executive table you have to track the metrics.

00:04:10: CFOs actually care about Win rates sales cycles, ACV cost per dollar sourced

00:04:17: instead of just like portal logins.

00:04:19: Right

00:04:20: and as Ralph Himes points out the urgency here is real.

00:04:24: traditional reseller models are fading out fast.

00:04:27: customers don't want standalone software seats anymore.

00:04:29: they need bi-directional API integrations in joint customer outcomes.

00:04:33: so your partners have to be deeply integrated.

00:04:36: but this a big butt.

00:04:38: if strong strategy's foundation how does that translate?

00:04:42: How do you actually close deals?

00:04:44: Exactly.

00:04:45: It translates to highly orchestrated COSEL motions, and we need to talk about marketplaces too because they're just the infrastructure not the strategy.

00:04:54: Mike Mason observed that a marketplace listing simplifies procurement but it does NOT create the deal.

00:04:59: Yes!

00:05:00: COSELL creates alignment around opportunity And the marketplace gives it path to transact.

00:05:06: I always compare a marketplace to like, high-speed toll booth.

00:05:09: It makes the transaction fast but you still need CoCell build the highway and actually drive cars into it.

00:05:15: That's perfect analogy.

00:05:17: And building that highway takes precision.

00:05:19: Jonathan Lewis detailed mechanics of this from his time managing fifteen million in CoCel pipeline as Microsoft seller.

00:05:25: Okay what was take away?

00:05:27: He said partner designation just gets on your list.

00:05:30: You don't get pulled into a deal unless you bring in a vertical customer story and the clear reason why they belong there.

00:05:36: It's all about relevance, which means generic enablement decks are useless!

00:05:41: Beka Flack made that point that enablement has to speak specific sellers' math.

00:05:45: The metrics they actually care for their commission?

00:05:48: An Azure seller wants to know about Mac Burndown while an AWS Seller needs totally different metrics.

00:05:55: Really quick.

00:05:55: For listeners who aren't deep in the Azure world, what exactly is a Mac burn down?

00:05:59: Oh right so MAC stands for Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment.

00:06:03: It basically means that customer committed to spending certain amount on azure and seller's quota Is tied with customers actually consuming their spend.

00:06:11: So if your software runs on azures and uses compute power You help them hit their quota

00:06:16: Exactly!

00:06:17: If you don't explain it to the seller they won't champion your product.

00:06:21: And timing is just as critical.

00:06:23: Max Bevin advises bringing implementation partners in before the demo, not after the signature.

00:06:28: Oh that makes a lot of sense.

00:06:29: That grounds the scope early on.

00:06:31: Yeah it reveals true cost ownership up front.

00:06:33: so you don't stall deal later with surprise service costs.

00:06:36: It actually closes deals faster

00:06:39: But keeping all that coordinated requires serious ops infrastructure.

00:06:43: Reese Berry shared a story about going to make friends with your CRM admins.

00:06:46: Yes,

00:06:47: the CRM Admins!

00:06:48: Right he had a client who did a CRM migration and because they aligned early was sales ops.

00:06:54: They saved years of co-sell processes from just totally breaking.

00:06:57: it all comes back to internal alignment.

00:07:00: But zooming out Megan Arnold noted that The most valuable asset in ecosystem orchestration isn't even the immediate pipeline It's the seller to seller relationship.

00:07:09: when the campaign ends two people still know who to call

00:07:12: That.

00:07:12: human connection is the bedrock of all this.

00:07:15: It really is!

00:07:16: Now, before we move to our final theme – how AI disrupts all these – if you're getting value from this deep dive take a second subscribe so that you don't miss future additions.

00:07:25: Highly recommend hitting that button.

00:07:28: So…we've established that Human Relationships are The Bedrock but...AI is injecting massive operational efficiency.

00:07:35: it's creating weird tension between automation and trust.

00:07:40: Asher Matthew shared some crazy data on this.

00:07:43: Ninety-seven percent of partnership organizations are using AI right now.

00:07:47: Ninty seven percent?

00:07:48: Yeah, that's almost everybody!

00:07:50: And it is saving partner managers an average of four point four hours a week.

00:07:54: but

00:07:55: the new challenge is redirecting time toward high value activities like cobuild, comarket, cosel and cosserve.

00:08:02: But there was flipside to efficiency right?

00:08:04: Feud or shimik made observation about HubSpot recent layoffs.

00:08:08: They let go of six hundred sixty people, but they notably spared the partner team.

00:08:13: Oh interesting!

00:08:14: Why was that?

00:08:15: Because Partner Programs run on trust.

00:08:18: A partner manager who actually knows the business and has access to customers is invaluable.

00:08:24: AI provides efficiency But Efficiency isn't Trust.

00:08:27: That's a great point...but

00:08:29: lemme challenge slightly.

00:08:30: If AI Is already saving four-point-four hours per week on ops Isn't it inevitable that AI will eventually start managing the actual partner relationships

00:08:40: too?

00:08:40: Or is there like a hard limit to what partners will accept from an algorithm.

00:08:45: Well, I think the paradigm is shifting entirely.

00:08:47: Jessica Baker has this fascinating vision of the future.

00:08:50: She says partner programs are gonna have to govern Partner AI agents.

00:08:55: wait govern autonomous agents?

00:08:58: Yes

00:08:58: Think about it.

00:08:59: today.

00:09:00: programs govern the partner organization and the human beings who work their.

00:09:04: Tomorrow.

00:09:05: they have to govern the actions permissions and revenue attribution of autonomous partner agents that are connecting directly to your ecosystem.

00:09:12: That is mind-blowing.

00:09:14: writing

00:09:15: rules of engagement for their algorithms

00:09:17: exactly,

00:09:18: but you have to build it right.

00:09:20: So got a sonyal warned that.

00:09:22: You can't just treat Your partner AI assistant as a standalone chatbot project?

00:09:26: Can't just slap a wrapper on it.

00:09:28: Right It has to be built alongside the program across twelve distinct use cases Things like MDF planning, deal health scoring and stage-based enablement.

00:09:37: So it actually grows smarter as the program does.

00:09:41: Right, MDF market development funds.

00:09:43: if a partner wants those funds The AI should analyze their past ROI And draft a proposal not just hand them a form

00:09:51: Precisely!

00:09:52: This is playing out at the highest enterprise levels too.

00:09:55: Matthew W Proctor highlighted that Accenture isn't betting AI safety evaluators with Anthropic.

00:10:02: It's a mutual investment of over a billion dollars.

00:10:05: Wow, a billion?

00:10:06: Yeah.

00:10:07: GSIs aren't just selling implementation capacity anymore.

00:10:10: they are competing to own the trust layer that makes egenic AI durable inside global two thousand enterprises

00:10:18: because The board is terrified at risk.

00:10:20: right so Accenture steps up to vouch for model safety.

00:10:23: Exactly They underwrite the Trust

00:10:25: Which brings us To the sheer scale.

00:10:28: Jay McBain analyzed Meta's one hundred billion dollar AI push.

00:10:33: They launched an AI assistant called Muse for the one hundred forty-one million small businesses worldwide.

00:10:39: That is

00:10:39: a staggering amount of capital.

00:10:41: it, but enterprise software is rarely won by product alone.

00:10:46: meta success Is going to depend entirely on building a scalable partner ecosystem?

00:10:50: To orchestrate across tools like Shopify slack and zoom.

00:10:53: they can't do it alone right

00:10:55: Even with a hundred billion dollars.

00:10:56: You still need partners to integrate into the daily workflows of those businesses

00:10:59: exactly.

00:11:01: The technology is only as effective as the ecosystem that integrates it.

00:11:04: and oh, we've covered so much ground today We

00:11:07: really have from tearing down generic tiers.

00:11:10: do AI agents?

00:11:11: If you enjoyed this episode new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:11:15: also check out our other editions on field marketing MarTech AI in B to be go-to market ABM And social selling.

00:11:22: yes Thank you so much for listening.

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