Forecastable's Education Center -- The best advice on building partner programs that produce forecastable revenue.
What channel conflict is Short answer: Channel conflict is what happens when your direct sales team and your partners, or two of your partners, compete for the same customer or the same deal. It matters because the damage is rarely the one lost deal, it is the trust you lose with the partner who watched […]
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What a B2B partner marketing strategy is Short answer: A B2B partner marketing strategy is the plan for how you market to partners, through partners, and with partners, so partner relationships turn into pipeline rather than logos on a slide. It works when each of those three audiences has its own goal and the whole […]
What a channel partner marketing plan is Short answer: A channel partner marketing plan is the written, one-page artifact that says what you and a partner will do together this quarter to source pipeline, who owns each part, and how you will measure it. It turns a marketing strategy into a specific set of commitments […]
What a channel partner marketing strategy is Short answer: A channel partner marketing strategy is the plan for generating demand through your partners, using co-marketing, funding, and partner-ready assets to produce pipeline in their markets. It is a through-channel motion you design and fund, not a one-off co-branded webinar you run when someone remembers to. […]
Channel partner types range from resellers to ISVs to SIs and MSPs, each with a different role in the deal. Here is how to match the type to your motion.
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Partner program management is running a partner program as a revenue function, not an admin job. Here is the operating model that turns partners into pipeline.
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Vertical channel conflict is friction between a vendor and its own partners or channel tiers. Here is what causes it and how to fix it without losing partners.
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Short answer Short answer: Channel sales vs direct sales is a routing decision, not a loyalty test. It comes down to who owns the customer relationship and who carries the cost of acquiring it, and most companies at scale run both, sending some segments direct and others through partners based on margin, deal size, and […]
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Short answer Short answer: Horizontal channel conflict is when two partners at the same level, two resellers, two agencies, two integrators, compete for the same customer or deal. It happens because two partners see the same opportunity and both believe they have the right to it, and it is prevented mostly by clear rules of […]
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Short answer Short answer: Channel sales compensation plans are the margin, incentives, and rewards you use to get partners and their reps to sell your product instead of a competitor’s. They work when they pay for the behavior you actually want, sourcing new deals, not just fulfilling ones, and when the reward is simple enough […]
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What strategic partnership management actually is Short answer: Strategic partnership management is the discipline of running your handful of most important partnerships as a deliberate, measured revenue motion rather than a set of relationships you maintain. It works when each strategic partnership has a shared goal, a joint operating rhythm, and a number both sides […]
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What is a strategic alliance Short answer: The clearest strategic alliance definition is two independent companies committing shared resources to a joint goal that neither can reach as fast or as fully alone. It is a mutual investment relationship, not a vendor contract, so both sides put something at risk (people, roadmap, market access) and […]
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What good strategic alliance examples have in common Short answer: The strategic alliance examples worth studying all share one trait, which is a joint revenue motion that both companies can measure, not a logo swap or a press release. They pair complementary products, name the shared customer, and agree in advance on who sells what […]
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What partnership tiers actually are Short answer: Partnership tiers are the bands a program uses to sort partners by how much they produce and how much investment they earn back. They should be a function of sourced revenue and executed plays, not company size or relationship warmth, so that moving up a tier means a […]
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