Why Boards Don’t Invest (enough) In Channel Marketing

To the outside, your channel and partner marketing probably looks successful. You’ve got a bunch of partners signed up. You’ve got regular campaigns going out. You’ve probably got a partner portal. It might even have content in it! You’ve spent a fortune on your tech stack. You’re full of ideas that you want to implement. So why won’t your board spend more on your channel and partner marketing?

Because here’s the hard truth:

80% of your partners generate zero revenue (let’s be honest, it’s probably even higher than that)
Most partners are not even engaged with you
Your “top” partners are frustrated and quietly evaluating competitors
Your channel marketing team is stuck in a campaign hamster wheel because your campaigns are not cutting through with your partners
Competitors are stealing market share while you wonder why your channel is stagnating
You can’t prove ROI from partners

And it gets worse – board meetings get defensive. You’ve got direct channel conflict with your sales teams because they don’t understand the value of working with partners – or are just plain not interested in doing it.

So, what’s going wrong?

I’ve worked in the channel for 20 years running agencies, in distribution and running global partner marketing for tech and SaaS vendors, and I see the same problems over and over. Big agencies with gorgeous creative deliver campaigns that flop. Partners just don’t engage. At the top level of your company, the board just aren’t as committed to channel as we think they should be. It’s frustrating, right?

And every quarter you don’t fix the problem it gets worse:

Channel growth stalls
Partners stop engaging with you and start eyeing up your competitors
Your board starts questioning your whole strategy
Your budget gets cut and you’re trying to do more, with less.

So, how do you fix it?

Well, the VERY first thing you have to realise is – partners don’t care about you. They don’t! They are not interested in your corporate messaging. They don’t care about your promises – they’ve heard it all before. They definitely don’t want another partner portal.

Partners care about their businesses – not yours. This should not be a mic drop moment, but it kind of is. Because I’ve spent 20 years saying it to people for them to go ‘Oh great – thanks…so if you can just include this messaging in your campaign. This is all the technical stuff partners need to know. Here’s how they access our documents…’

NO! It’s time to stop all this. If you truly want to build and engage your partner channel, help partners understand why they should choose you – what’s actually in it for them?

Without understanding partners’ business goals, customer challenges, and what motivates them, your marketing messages fall flat, campaigns get ignored and your channel revenue slows.
Generic corporate messaging doesn’t resonate with partners. Partners need to understand what’s in it for them and how partnering with you helps them succeed with their customers.

Understand your partner value proposition

So, before you spend another dollar on another partner campaign – diagnose what’s not working first. Really look at your partner relationships, your channel strategy and the partner-facing messaging you’re using (and make sure your partner facing messaging is not just your corporate messaging!).

Make your messaging clear, crisp and understandable, not full of jargon. Be clear about what incentives are on offer for them if they partner with you. Make people available that they want to talk to, in a way they want to talk to. Have easy, simple systems to get them working with you. Reward them properly and value their input.

Don’t spend money on co-marketing, campaigns in or out of a box, or something your intern cooked up on Claude. Partner and channel strategy is more than good AI prompts. It’s a complex web of interconnected demands, people, priorities and business goals.

Get those right first and get your channel working for you.

And of course, if you need some help with that…I might know someone! 😉