Forecastable's Education Center -- The best advice on building partner programs that produce forecastable revenue.
What are strategic alliances? Short answer: Strategic alliances are formal, long-term partnerships between two companies that agree to pursue shared goals while staying independent. They span joint go-to-market, technology integrations, reseller arrangements, and co-development, and they exist because each company can reach or build something faster together than alone. The alliance is a bet that […]
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What is channel marketing? Short answer: Channel marketing is the practice of generating demand through your partners rather than only through your own direct team. It equips resellers, agencies, and technology partners to market your product to their audiences, and it measures the pipeline that motion produces. Done right, it turns partners into a demand […]
What is partner marketing? Short answer: Partner marketing is marketing done with and through your partners to reach audiences you could not reach alone. It spans co-branded campaigns, joint content, referral and affiliate motions, and technology-partner integrations, all aimed at borrowing a partner’s trust and reach. The goal is pipeline that comes recommended, not cold. […]
What is channel marketing? Short answer: Channel marketing is marketing that generates demand through your partners rather than only through your own direct team. It equips resellers, agencies, and technology partners to promote your product to their audiences, and it measures the pipeline that motion returns. In short, it is marketing that reaches buyers through […]
What are strategic alliances? Short answer: Strategic alliances are formal, long-term partnerships between two companies that agree to pursue shared goals while staying independent. They span joint go-to-market, technology integrations, reseller arrangements, and co-development, and they exist because each company can reach or build something faster together than alone. The alliance is a bet that […]
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What is channel management? Short answer: Channel management is how a vendor recruits, enables, and runs the partners who sell or influence deals on its behalf, so that partner-sourced revenue is predictable rather than accidental. It is the operating discipline that sits between signing a partner and getting paid through one. Done well, it turns […]
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What is a channel partner strategy plan? Short answer: A channel partner strategy plan is a written statement of which partners you will invest in, why they will sell you, and what revenue that will produce, with the motions and metrics to get there. It is the difference between a partner wish list and a […]
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What is a SaaS channel partner strategy? Short answer: A SaaS channel partner strategy is a plan for growing recurring revenue through partners whose economics reward retention and expansion, not one-time resale margin. It recognizes that a SaaS deal is the start of a relationship, so partners must be chosen and paid for the whole […]
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What is the difference between AEs and CSMs on partner referrals? Short answer: AEs vs CSMs on partner referrals comes down to motion: an AE owns a referral when it is a net-new sales opportunity that needs to be qualified and closed, while a CSM owns it when it is an expansion or relationship play […]
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What is partnerships team structure? Short answer: Partnerships team structure is how you organize the roles, ownership, and reporting lines of a partner program so the work of recruiting, activating, co-selling, and measuring partners has a clear owner at every step. It is the difference between a program where revenue is someone’s job and one […]
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What is MEDDIC for partnerships? Short answer: MEDDIC partnerships is the application of the classic sales qualification frame (Metrics, Economic buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, Champion) to co-sell and partner-sourced deals, with a partner-side mirror on every letter so the host AE and the partner counterpart qualify the same opportunity on the same […]
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What is a partner battle card? Short answer: A partner battle card is the one-to-two page AE-facing enablement asset that names the joint value, the named buying personas, the co-sell motion, and the head-to-head competitive position when a host product and a partner product are sold together. It exists because AEs cannot remember the joint […]
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What is execution discipline in partnerships? Short answer: Execution discipline in partnerships is the operating habit of running a small number of joint motions on a fixed weekly cadence, with named owners on both sides, a written artifact for every step, and a forecast-grade metric that finance accepts. It is not heroics; it is the […]
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For broader industry context, see Partnership Leaders’ practitioner community. What Does Alex Buckles Think About Partnerships? Short answer: Alex Buckles’ partnerships work is grounded in one operating belief, partnerships is a measurable system, not a relationship motion. I run Forecastable, an independent third-party professional services firm that designs partner-led GTM systems for B2B SaaS companies, […]
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