The best advice on building partner programs that produce forecastable revenue.
What is partner pipeline for the CFO? Short answer: Partner pipeline for the CFO is the view of partner-influenced and partner-sourced revenue translated into the language a finance leader uses to make budget decisions, conversion rates, attribution clarity, and a defensible return on the program’s cost. It is the difference between a partnerships team that […]
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What is an MDF event? Short answer: An MDF event is a partner-funded or jointly funded field marketing motion where market development funds underwrite a customer-facing activity (executive dinner, regional workshop, conference booth, or industry breakfast) with a named pipeline target and a sourced and influenced reporting back to the funding partner. It is not […]
Demand 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 […]
What is a co-sell program? Short answer: Co-sell programs are the structured systems companies use to run joint selling across many partners at once. They are the layer above an individual co-sell motion, governing partner selection, the operating model, enablement, attribution, and review, so co-sell becomes a predictable revenue source rather than a set of […]
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What is co-sell reporting? Short answer: Co-sell reporting is the practice of measuring joint selling so finance can fund and forecast it. It captures what a co-sell motion sources, influences, and closes, in the same fields and with the same rigor as direct-sales reporting, so partner pipeline becomes a number a chief financial officer trusts. […]
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What are co-sell tools? Short answer: Co-sell tools are the software two companies use to find shared accounts, work joint deals, and report on the pipeline they build together. They span three distinct layers, ecosystem data, partner program operations, and marketplace co-sell operations, and most teams need a tool from more than one layer. The […]
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What is the difference between co-sell and co-marketing? Short answer: Co-sell vs co-marketing compares two partner motions that work at different stages of the same funnel. It is not a question of which to pick: co-marketing creates joint awareness and demand, co-sell works joint deals to a close, and a mature partnership runs both with […]
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What is the difference between co-sell and cross-sell? Short answer: Co-sell vs cross-sell compares two revenue motions that sound alike and work nothing alike. It comes down to one distinction: co-sell is selling with a partner to win a deal, and cross-sell is selling more of your own products to a customer you already have. […]
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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 […]
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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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What 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 […]
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What 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 […]
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What 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 […]
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What is partner vetting? Short answer: Partner vetting is the structured evaluation a program runs before signing a partner, judging whether the partner has the fit, the intent, and the capacity to actually produce, rather than signing anyone willing to sign. It is the gate that decides which relationships get the program’s finite time and […]
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Whether starting with a single sales team or a single partner, any co-sell motion can be live within 30 days.
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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.
