Nearbound Marketing: What It Is and How It Works
Demand generation that runs through partners by borrowing their trust, measured as pipeline.
The latest insights on the most effective go-to-market strategies
The best advice on building partner programs that produce forecastable revenue.
What is an AI-native PRM? Short answer: An ai-native prm is a partner relationship management platform built from the ground up around AI capabilities rather than bolted on later. It treats the data model, the user interface, and the workflow layer as AI-first surfaces from day one. That distinction matters because traditional PRMs were architected […]
Read ArticleDemand generation that runs through partners by borrowing their trust, measured as pipeline.
Short answer: most MDF (Market Development Funds) programs in B2B SaaS waste 50 to 70 percent of their budget. The cause is structural, not size. MDF gets framed too narrowly as marketing money. It then goes to partners who will not run the activity that drives pipeline. The fix is a defensible MDF program that […]
Short answer: joint demand generation campaigns with partners produce 2x to 4x the ROI of solo demand-gen when designed correctly. They produce 0.5x or worse when designed wrong. The difference comes down to four design decisions. You need a shared ICP, a single accountable owner, lead-level attribution, and a structured handoff motion. Get those four […]
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, […]
Read ArticleWhat are always-on comms? Short answer: Always-on comms is the structured, recurring cadence of brief, value-add 1:1 communications from a vendor’s partner team to named contacts at partner firms. They are not newsletters, not marketing blasts, and not pitch sequences. They run quietly in the background of a partnership and keep mindshare from decaying between […]
Read ArticleWhat is AWS Marketplace co-sell? Short answer: AWS Marketplace co-sell is the sales motion where an ISV transacts a deal through AWS Marketplace while simultaneously working the opportunity with an AWS field seller through the ACE (AWS Customer Engagements) system. It pairs a private offer with a registered, accepted opportunity, so the AWS rep gets […]
Read ArticleWhat is AWS Marketplace strategy? Short answer: AWS Marketplace strategy is the set of strategic decisions an ISV makes about whether and how to use AWS Marketplace as part of their go-to-market motion. It covers strategic intent, listing model, pricing approach, channel design, and operational stack, and the answers shape everything from your pricing page […]
Read ArticleWhat is building a partner program? Short answer: Building a partner program is the end-to-end exercise of designing and launching a partner-led growth system from zero, with a defined thesis, archetypes, operating model, partner journey, and measurement scoreboard. It is a system-design effort, not a hiring decision. A working partner program has three properties. It […]
Read ArticleWhat is co-sell activation? Short answer: Co-sell activation is the structured process of taking a partner from signed to actively producing co-sell pipeline. It is the difference between a paper partnership and a producing one, and it lives or dies on a recurring deal-review cadence run for the first six to eight weeks after signature. […]
Read ArticleWhat is a co-sell advisor? Short answer: A co-sell advisor is an external advisor, fractional partnerships leader, or consultant on retainer who helps a partnerships org design and run its co-sell motion. They sit alongside the in-house team, diagnose what is actually broken, design the operating model, and coach the team through the first cycles […]
Read ArticleWhat is a co-sell agency? Short answer: A co-sell agency is an external firm that runs co-sell programs on behalf of a vendor. It is different from an advisor (who coaches) or a consultant (who designs). The agency executes the mechanics: account mapping, partner cadences, deal reviews, attribution reporting, and partner-program operations. The agency model […]
Read ArticleWhat are the strongest Impartner alternatives in 2026? Short answer: Impartner alternatives worth a real evaluation in 2026 are Allbound (now Channelscaler), ZINFI, Introw, Magentrix, Kiflo, PartnerStack, and Mindmatrix. Each is the better answer for a specific buyer condition, not a generic replacement for one of the deepest enterprise PRMs in the category. Buyers shop […]
Read ArticleWhat is the difference between OEM and reseller? Short answer: OEM vs reseller is the decision between embedding your product inside a partner’s offering (OEM) versus letting a partner sell your product as-is alongside theirs (reseller). The two motions look adjacent and produce opposite operating models. The economics, the legal posture, the support model, and […]
Read ArticleWhether starting with a single sales team or a single partner, any co-sell motion can be live in 2-4 weeks.
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My journey from Education to Operations has equipped me with a unique perspective and skill set that perfectly aligns with Forecastable’s mission to help businesses improve sales collaboration through partner co-selling strategies.
At Forecastable, I am passionate about empowering teams and organizations to unlock the full potential of strategic partnerships. By leveraging my expertise in communication, leadership, and operational efficiency, I contribute to creating seamless co-selling processes that align with business goals and deliver exceptional results.
The intersection of my educational foundation and operational experience fuels my dedication to fostering alignment, building trust, and enhancing collaboration between partners. I am driven by the opportunity to contribute to a platform that not only optimizes sales strategies but also strengthens relationships that lead to long-term growth.
Paul Johnson has 20+ years of software development and consulting experience for a variety of organizations, ranging from startups to large-enterprise organization with highly-complex needs.
Mr. Johnson has a long track record of successful technology deployments.
This, combined with his deep passion for machine learning and exceptional user experience design, allows him to lead our technical direction from the front with confidence.
After serving in The United States Marine Corps, Alex Buckles spent the next two decades as a student of revenue production and an advocate for innovation.
Along the way, he has helped numerous companies achieve double and triple-digit growth by crafting and executing high-performing go-to-market strategies, with co-selling at the center of each.
As a once-advanced technical marketer, an expert sales & partner professional, and a strong customer success advocate, Mr. Buckles understands the impact of these functions aligning not only on revenue production, but on the day-to-day execution of the go-to-market strategy. This concept of revenue-team alignment is what quickly became the foundation of Forecastable back in January of 2018.
In his free time, you’ll find him spending quality time with his children, one of whom is on the autism spectrum. 1 in 36 children in the U.S. are on the spectrum and boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed than girls.
With that in mind, Mr. Buckles plans on dedicating the rest of his life serving those living with autism, through his organization Pathways for Autism. From his perspective, there must be a scalable and financially self-sustaining infrastructure established to put as many individuals with autism as possible on a path towards complete independence as adults.