Channel Partner Collaboration

Every consumer brand today understands that to grow and scale profitably, they have to be omnichannel. Simply because their consumers are. Whether it is commerce or content consumption, consumers are doing it across channels seamlessly. Research offline, buy online, and vice versa is extremely common For example- 70% of consumer durables/electronics research begins online, but 70% sales are still offline. The keyword searches for many categories on Amazon/Google is only a small % of actual sales happening online. Same for youtube views on product review videos And now, with the advent of Quick-com, there are categories like beauty, general merchandise where research/discovery is happening on Nykaa/Amazon/Google/offline and purchase on Q-com For brands which have both D2C websites and EBOs, the best/highest converting footfall in the EBOs are actually people who have visited and researched the products on the website But despite understanding all of these, most consumer brands fail miserably when it comes to being truly omni-channel. So, if you are looking to scale across channels successfully, here are some must-dos across 4 heads a) Organization Structure & KPIs : Traditional structures simply won’t work if you are trying to build omnichannel. Most often we see different sales heads for different channel. We also see independent teams for e-commerce/modern trade resulting in internal competition for same consumer and often conflicting promotions And as a result channel conflict emerges from different margins across channels, Separate targets and KPIs and separate marketing budgets by channel Even for many new age brands who have a good D2C business and have newly opened EBOs, there are no synergies. The team that drives D2C has absolutely no incentive to drive relevant consumers to EBOs. In fact I will not be surprised if D2C teams in these companies will hide/remove the store locator to improve site conversions as that is what they are incentivized for The first way to solve it is to structurally remove silos and align incentives. Incentives drive behaviour. Have common joint goals and KPIs. At Atomberg, the growth team which drives e-commerce demand is also responsible for generating searches on Google and Youtube as this has highest correlation with offline demand. They are also responsible for generating leads that can be forwarded to the local teams. They are also responsible for driving footfalls to our marquee MBOs using the store locator. And all of these at a city level and a state level. So, in addition to channel wise targets at a national level, there are region wise targets for all channels combined which is of equal importance for the growth team The link to the complete post is in the first comment. It covers technology, product portfolio and pricing/promotions must dos for an omnichannel brand Do read

I've had a few epiphanies in my first year as CRO of 6sense. One big one? There’s a #1, totally clear signal that a customer is planning to renew with you. They TELL you. I came to this shockingly simple realization after spending hours analyzing data science models, digging into all the signals, and trying to predict renewal likelihood. I read a report that said the No. 1 predicter of a renewal is customers tell you. My MIND was BLOWN, and Project “Just Ask” was born. Here’s what it looks like: Part 1. Salespeople are trained to draw out objections, but CSMs not so much. We started by enabling our CS team to explicitly ask customers about their renewal plans. They may not always hear what they want to hear, but knowing is key to a great path forward. We trained our CSMs "Sandler style” — we’ll take a yes, we’ll take a no, but not we will stop at, “I’ll think it over.” We really wanted them to get to the bottom of the situation. Part 2. At the advice of Insight Partners, we kicked off Project “Just Ask” with a bang — or, more accurately, a blitz. In one week, our CSMs called 90% of our customers to ask about their intentions, and we came away with a lot of yes’es whoop whoop and for the no/ maybe’s - all good we now had a plan to get to yes. Part 3. Based on what we learned, we designed mutual success plans with each of those customers using Gainsight. Part 4. Project “Just Ask” is now an ongoing part of our workflow — it's the first step in our 6-step renewal process. After this a-ha moment, things got SO MUCH simpler. We have achieved: ➡ Clarity in forecasting ➡ Direction for the team on starting renewal conversations early and often ➡ MOST importantly, alignment with customers on success. Do we still use data and signals to predict renewals? Of course. But this one proactive, simple, step is a super-powerful and effective tool to add to the toolbox. Would love to hear any and all customer success plays that have worked — please share your best tips/approaches in the comments!

Your most effective channel is losing you sales. You can often make campaigns more effective by moving money to less effective channels. What? Marketing Science maestro Simon Toms explains how: In the example image, the blue line represents a channel that’s 2x more effective than the pink one at every spend level. $1M invested in Channel 1 returns $2M in incremental revenue (A). But split the $1M between Channel 1 and 2 (50:50) and you’d drive $2.5M total incremental revenue (B + C). That’s 25% more revenue from investing in a “less effective” channel. So what? Don't accept average metrics alone, always look to understand the marginal returns. Ideally you should know the curves for all your investments. MMM can obviously help with this, but incrementality testing typically provides more detailed curves based on actual sales rather than modelled ones. Incrementality testing is not A/B testing. It's test and control - the test group see the ad, the control group (who match the ad audience but are withheld from the ads) don't. The difference is the incremental impact. (In an A/B test you do not withhold a segment of your audience from seeing the ad, so it can't measure incremental impact.) Here's where curves from incrementality testing can help: 1. Optimal Full Funnel  Different optimisations have very different curves. The curve for reach spend is very different to conversion spend which can be very different to ASC activity etc. Plotting curves helps you understand where you should pull back investment and where you should double down, critical insights for maximizing incremental returns. 2. Channel synergy The curve for one channel changes depending on your investment in others. Charlie Oscar found that social reach improves paid search performance by 32%, YouTube improves email by up to 25%, most crazy of all, 70% of the value from social and video channels is their impact on other channels with only 30% direct. 3. Plan at the margins  Don't use average ROIs to determine where to shift your budget. It depends on the curve, not the average. Incremental returns show which channels to invest in, marginal returns show how much. Your most effective channel isn't often where you should put your next $. Bottom line:   To make your campaigns work harder, you need to understand how each investment works at the margins. That's the route to higher returns across the mix.

Lou Gerstner walked into IBM in 1993 expecting a strategy problem. What he found was worse. Here's what leaders need to learn: Every division had a strategy. Every executive had a vision. Every team was chasing a different goal. Engineering was building for one future. Sales was selling into another. Marketing had its own roadmap entirely. At his first exec meeting, each leader presented different success metrics: Revenue. Market share. Innovation. NPS. Same company, completely different definitions of winning. Gerstner didn’t write a new strategy. He did something more powerful: He mandated one framework for priorities. Same metrics. Same language. Same scorecard. Within 6 months, misalignment became visible. Within a year, IBM started moving as one. I saw the same pattern play out in a Fortune 500 basement. The quarterly review was nearly over when the Head of Ops paused: “I need to be honest. I don’t even know what our top 3 priorities are right now.” Silence. Then heads nodded. The CMO had been focused on brand. Sales thought revenue was the priority. The CTO was deep in infrastructure rebuild. The CFO was chasing cost control. 9 executives. 27 different priorities. 3 overlaps. That’s not a team. That’s a collection of soloists. Strategy isn’t the problem. Alignment is. Everyone knows the strategy. But what are they actually optimizing for this week? I’ve seen it again and again: • Monday: “Retention is everything” • Friday: Sales signs three bad-fit clients to hit quota • Product starts chasing new features • Success never gets the memo 5 days. Alignment gone. So how do you fix it? 1. Make priorities visible weekly Every Monday: top 3 org-wide priorities, posted publicly. No guessing. No side quests. 2. Create explicit handoffs Marketing, sales, product, and success - define the exact criteria for every handoff. Spotify did this. Discovered 40% of handoffs had misaligned expectations. 3. Run weekly alignment checks One question: What are you optimizing for this week? If it doesn’t match the org’s top 3, you catch drift instantly. 4. One source of truth No more 50 dashboards. Microsoft did this with their Customer Success Score. Every division had to contribute to the same North Star. Alignment doesn’t happen by accident. It deteriorates by default. Great companies don’t assume alignment. They build it systematically. That Fortune 500 team? 6 months later, they went from 27 priorities to 3. Revenue grew 18%. Engagement jumped 43% → 71%. All because they stopped guessing. Want more research-backed frameworks like this? Join 11,000+ execs who get our newsletter every week: 👉 https://lnkd.in/en9vxeNk

Too many strategic alliances with Global System Integrators (GSIs) fail to deliver promised revenue. The #1 reason? They skip the basics — and then scale chaos. 👇 Here’s how to do it right. If you’re partnering with GSIs like Accenture, Capgemini, TCS, or Infosys, you already know they’re powerful growth channels — but only if your alliance is strategically designed, operationally aligned, and commercially activated. At Alliance Best Practice, we’ve studied over 800 high-tech alliances and found that commercial success with GSIs isn’t magic — it’s method. The most successful partnerships follow a repeatable pattern across three critical stages: 🔹 Initiation: Get the Foundation Right Secure real executive sponsorship (not lip service). Co-create a joint value proposition that solves real customer problems. Build a 12–24 month joint business plan with targets, priorities, and a shared “why now.” 🔹 Activation: Make It Real Launch field enablement with role-based playbooks, demos, and deal support. Identify 10–50 strategic accounts for joint pursuit. Share pipeline, assign pursuit leads, and celebrate early wins publicly. 🔹 Acceleration: Scale What Works Invest in repeatable, co-branded solution offerings. Launch joint marketing campaigns and track sourced/influenced revenue. Embed governance, metrics, and incentives that make the alliance sustainable. 💬 As one alliance leader told us: "If you can’t describe how the GSI makes money with you, they won’t put you in front of a client.” If you're building or rebooting a GSI alliance and want a proven roadmap — ✅ Read our latest article: Best Practices in GSI Alliances 📍 Now live on the Alliance Best Practice site: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eJaHMXE #alliances #partnerships #GSI #channelstrategy #cosell #strategicalliances #growth #b2bpartnerships #alliancemanagement #hightech

Here's the new rule of GTM for 2025: it's about about TRUST not DISTRACTION. In 2024 and earlier, most companies were STILL playing the volume game: More cold emails More ads More noise But here's what I learned building partner programs at WeWork and Amex: 1. Identify Trusted Advocates Customers are more likely to trust recommendations from voices they already know and respect. Who influences our target audience? Who already has their attention and trust? These could be industry leaders, complementary solution providers, or niche communities. Build partnerships with those who already have a strong connection to your ideal customers. 2. Collaborate to Add Value, Not Noise Instead of interrupting your audience with another cold email or ad, collaborate with partners to create meaningful, value-driven touch points. - Co-host a webinar addressing a shared customer pain point. - Develop a joint white paper showcasing both brands’ expertise. - Offer bundled solutions that make life easier for the customer. 3. Leverage Existing Trust to Open Doors Partners are amplifiers AND bridges. They help you cross the “river of distraction” and reach customers without the noise. A well-placed introduction or co-branded recommendation carries far more weight than another outbound message. 4. Measure the Shift from Interruption to Influence If trust-building is your new GTM focus, your success metrics need to change too. Track things like: - Partner-Sourced Leads: Leads generated through trusted partner referrals. - Engagement Rates: How customers interact with co-created content or campaigns. - Pipeline Velocity: How quickly partner-driven deals progress compared to direct sales efforts. Breaking through the noise requires genuine relationships. It's no longer about whose voice is the loudest, it’s whose voice your audience already trusts. The future isn't about interruption and distraction. It's about trust.

I‘ve spent many years in the Channel Redesigned Channel Programs for IBM, Lucent & Avaya. Moved partners from transaction to profit by selling ‘solutions.’Today, with the same goal, we’re building ‘productized service portfolios.’   Since 2005, we‘ve expanded our client list: Amelia, CloudCoCo Plc, Deutsche Telekom, Ingram Micro, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions, NTT, O2 (Telefónica UK), Oracle, Xerox...   In 2024, we’re expanding our programs: EMEA Copilot Readiness, WW Onboarding Acceleration, Sales Journey Assessments (Secret Shopping), Portfolio Management/Packaged Offer Development, Telco Maximize GTM Workshops, CloudAscent Acceleration...   While looking at 2024, I started to think..   What to do - if I was a Channel Director today?   1. Customer Insight Know to whom, what, where & why my partners are selling. Use these insights to monitor maturity & therefore investments. Add critical updates to Partner Program & cleanup DBs for unmanaged partners. Drive Customer Insight Milestone Attainment for coop access 2. Skilling & Resourcing Most IT companies have skill & resource gaps, particularly at presales & deployment. Add value with GTM Business & technical training. Improve knowledge of & success in Marketplaces. Where it makes sense, make #P2P plays 3. White Space Want partners to sell more? Show them the business case. Analyse their portfolios-capabilities & ambitions. Identify opportunities for growth: upsell, packetized services, bundles, co-sell, skilling, IP… manage improvements through a Development Plan 4. Walk Don’t Talk Customer Experience. Jay McBain said it best while at Forrester: ‘There‘s a clear correlation between superior customer experience & revenue growth.‘ Understand what it‘s like to buy hardware, software & services from partners & help them improve where they can offer better CX. What experience do we want to offer? Is it helping to close - not abandon - the buying process? What is the Benchmark & the Improvement Plan for corrections 5. GTM Advisory Create a Business Academy for learning through best practice key product-sales & marketing motions for growth   6. Create Offer Development Guidance for Compliancy Regulations Many companies will face new compliancy regulations: CSF, CIP, or for any company selling into the EU – NIS2. These are continuous multifaceted compliancy regulations with expensive risk for noncompliance. Ensuring the People-Process-Legal & Technical compliancy for customers is a big value add for CEOs if done correctly – & a significant potential loss of reputation, revenue & maybe even the customer themselves if done incorrectly. I’d put in the planning time to do this right & provide the guidance.   7.  Leads Now that we know where we’re targeting, what we’re selling & are sure we can close, find clever ways to fill the pipeline – eg. using propensity data against customer lists with tools such as Microsoft CloudAscent & others What would You do if You were a Channel Director today? #channel

I shared some thoughts last week from my co-selling roadshow on tips for scaling co-sell with AWS. TL:DR it was about focusing where you are already strong in your GTM for any cloud co-sell. This week, I want to talk to you about teaching your sales team how to sell with cloud providers. Co-sell deals live and die in the field, between your sellers and cloud sellers. Don't leave this delicate dance to chance. If you are an Alliance Leader, learn all you can about the partner cloud sales team and incentives. You are the translator between your sellers and the partner cloud sellers. Dive deep. Be the expert. But that isn't enough. You need your sellers to know what to expect and be ready for a co-sell call with a cloud seller. We are different than your other partners. We aren't a reseller, our sales team is large, and every cloud provider has tons of native services and solutions they are selling (AWS has more than 200). We also think differently, we are customer obsessed, work backwards from customer problems and are long-term focused (a cloud transformation is a long journey). Your sellers need to understand: - who they may run into on the call - demystify the roles at a cloud seller - how they are paid on co-sell deals, what's in it for each seller - how big the cloud seller patch is and how it aligns to your field team territories - what they can ask for from a cloud seller (and what to avoid) - what expectations to have going in to a co-sell call If you are early in your co-sell journey, you need to babysit all these co-sell calls. You may not have the right to educate and enable your whole sales team right now, so instead, focus on just-in-time prep of a seller before a co-sell call and YOU run the call for maximum outcomes. As you gain mindshare and wins with the cloud partner, use your sellers as your PR team, have them share their wins with their peers at every sales team call. Once the co-sell flywheel starts spinning, survey your sellers on what they know and don't about cloud co-sell and build a solid training and enablement plan. Every new hire needs to learn the ropes, each seller should be able to understand the co-sell strategy and mechanism at your company and how we help each other. Are you thinking about your cloud co-sell session at Sales Kick off? You should be. Call to action: End the year strong with a few key co-sell wins, some sellers who have drunk the cool-aid (and made money), and earn the right to take the stage at SKO to talk about cloud co-sell for 2025. Need to learn more about co-sell with AWS? Link in the comments is to a co-sell foundation course with AWS. Great for alliance leaders and sellers to take (all types of partners: consulting or ISV partners). Want to learn more? Let's talk.

Not everyone should be your partner. Just as you have an ideal customer profile (ICP) for your sales efforts, you should have an ideal partner profile (IPP) to maximize the time, investment and mutual benefit of your co-selling relationships. As more companies lean into partner programs and ecosystems as a foundational component of their predictable pipeline systems, I'm seeing some generate massive value and others struggle mightily. A key difference is how they define, rank and engage partner types. Not all are equal on a wide variety of variables. Key considerations should include: 😍 Maximum ideal customer overlap 😍 Minimal services/offering overlaps 😍 Natural entry points that already align with the buying journey 😍 Aligned values and selling motions "Leaning in" as a partner signal is a slippery slope. Without positive alignment on the above variables and more, it can be a whole lot of talk and not very much action or pipeline value. Smaller, less intuitive partners often can be your best. They are hungry (just like you), and often with fewer (if any) of your competitors sniffing around as well.

The biggest marketing arbitrage for brands right now? Building a cross-channel creator community. If you're on TikTok Shop, this means launching a DTC creator affiliate community and pushing those affiliates to repurpose their content across all channels. Here's how to do it, even if you're not planning to scale big from the start: Base level - Protect your investment + boost performance: 1. Set up with Superfiliate or Social Snowball if you're a Shopify brand on TikTok Shop. 2. Create a Discord channel for all creators to protect against platform disruptions. 3. Give affiliates unique discount codes or links. 4. Coach them to share TikTok content on IG Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Meta Reels. This multiplies impressions, engagement, and sales without additional product seeding. But that's just the beginning... Advanced - Scaling your cross-channel community: 1. Build monthly influencer lists of 4k+ creators on Instagram and YouTube. 2. Use tools like Saral and Onsocial for sourcing. 3. Filter for followers (2k-100k) and engagement rate (2%+). 4. Use cold email software for outreach at scale. 5. Set up a 3-step email sequence with an auto-reply for interested influencers. 6. Seed product to new influencers. 7. Create an onboarding flow with Klaviyo, including a welcome challenge. 8. Invite active creators to your Discord. 9. Push Instagram and YouTube affiliates to create TikTok Shop content / and vise versa 10. Use your community as a content engine for UGC and partnership ads. This strategy onboards 100+ new opt-ins monthly to your DTC affiliate program with minimal friction. It's the direction we're pushing our clients to increase affiliate performance while protecting against potential platform disruptions. Remember, it's all about maximizing your reach and minimizing risk. Cross-channel is the future.