Patterns For Channel Led Growth Relationships

Learn more about how our AI solutions power the world’s largest sporting event. Not as a replacement for product, but as the layer that connects technology to business outcomes. That includes deployment, support, optimization, refresh, and sustainability. But enablement alone isn’t the end goal – it’s what partners do with it that drives growth. That is the thinking behind Lenovo 360 for Services, coming available to partners on April 13.

Most CEOs and business leaders underestimate the challenge of switching across these patterns. In a recent post, I laid out a tale of two SaaS company CEOs, one pursuing product-led growth and the other account led growth. Finally, as it grows, the tech company also needs to orchestrate within and across channels. Often called VARs (value-added resellers), they offer add-on services like product bundling and support. First, the company can sell through resellers who list the product in their catalog with agreed upon markups, alongside other products in the category.

Hybrid cloud, AI, edge computing, and distributed workforces are reshaping how organizations operate, raising expectations for partners to deliver across the full lifecycle, from design to ongoing optimization. Today, customers are no longer simply buying devices or infrastructure – they are seeking solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes across the entire technology lifecycle. To grow each pathway, a company needs people with different skills that create the right mix of relationships with reach, depth and power.

Channel Partners

When you create a partner offering, built around your tech product, a lot depends on whether the channel’s focus is on the user or buyer. One of the reasons building channels is hard is because the company’s product is never enough to create an attractive offering for the channel partner. Adjacent products may become competitors, or the buyer’s value chain may need new services. Though some of these patterns are owned by marketing, others may be run by sales or product teams.

• To grow each pathway, a company needs people with different skills that create the right mix of relationships with reach, depth and power.
• The result is a more resilient, scalable business model aligned with how customers buy today.
• Organizations will likely place greater emphasis on helping partners develop differentiated skills that create value beyond product sales.
• An example is Plaid, a tech company offering bank account authentication service.
• Customers are no longer focused on individual transactions—they are focused on how technology performs over time.

Pathways: Sell Thru, Sell To or Sell With Partner Ecosystem

This is common in hardware, manufacturing, and embedded software categories, where the end buyer may not even be aware of the embedded technology. In some categories like business API services, the end user may not even experience the product directly. In such cases a partner network needs to provide capabilities that further the use case, such as completing the user flow, triggering events, or reporting the results. In some software categories, such as collaboration or design tools, product integration is sine qua non to completing the use case – or getting the job done. The spectrum ranges from easy to hard, depending upon the level of product investment needed to enable the user to get the job done. There are three common pathways for a company to partner on products.

• Yet, novel technologies such as a new AI-app or a new chip may not be easy to integrate into current product channels or existing value chains.
• To make this work, you need to have product led growth support for the channel.
• There are three common pathways for a company to partner on products.
• We build the ICP, the positioning and the outbound and ABM system, then run it with you or hand it over.
• Marketing teams could track campaign activity but struggled to understand which initiatives influenced pipeline creation, customer acquisition or revenue performance.

The goal is not just broader market reach but a more connected and http://www.overclockerstech.com/gainward-gtx480-gtx470-details-released/ consistent customer experience across the partner network. Customers now do much of their research before speaking with a sales representative and purchasing decisions often involve larger groups and multiple interactions along the way. The ability to deliver integrated offerings across the full stack is becoming a critical advantage. With the breadth of Lenovo’s portfolio, partners can meet customers wherever they are and expand from there. This shift is also reflected in how organizations are deploying technology. Through Lenovo 360, we bring these elements together, combining enablement, portfolio access, and incentives into a unified framework that supports growth across devices, infrastructure, and services.

Channel marketing focuses on the strategies, tools and programs that help companies sell and market through indirect channels. Stay ahead of the industry with exclusive feature stories on the top companies, expert insights and the latest news delivered straight to your inbox. We are committed to supporting our partners through this transition, providing the frameworks, capabilities, and ecosystem needed to help them succeed. Customers are no longer focused on individual transactions—they are focused on how technology performs over time. This is not about replacing product business, but building on it – attaching services, expanding into higher-value solutions, and creating relationships that extend beyond a single transaction.

Tactics come and go, but patterns of growth I cover here are deeper, and inform crucial strategic choices that make all the difference. Book a free strategy call to discuss your go-to-market challenges and opportunities We come back with the binding constraint as we see it and what we would build first, whether or not you work with us. We build the ICP, the positioning and the outbound and ABM system, then run it with you or hand it over.

Ready to Build Your Partner Ecosystem?

Second, the company can embed their product in a network of partner products who already own or are building the end user experience. For a tech company, a marketplace https://officestrategix.com/tag/partner offers access to users developers, in this case since AWS has aggregated the user demand for multiple categories and various jobs within it. A tech company may select a product focused channel to reach users.

Partner Performance

• These may include distributors, resellers, managed service providers, consultants, systems integrators and strategic partners.
• One of the most important developments in channel marketing is the evolution from traditional channel programs to broader partner ecosystems.
• In more complex software offerings like app development, conversational AI, these partners create new value propositions, customize buyer’s value chain, and transform entire businesses.
• Most CEOs and business leaders underestimate the challenge of switching across these patterns.
• But enablement alone isn’t the end goal – it’s what partners do with it that drives growth.
• Artificial intelligence, automation and advanced analytics will continue to improve visibility and decision-making.

Organizations will likely place greater emphasis on helping partners develop differentiated skills that create value beyond product sales. Organizations are increasingly moving beyond transactional relationships toward long-term partnerships built around shared business objectives. The future of channel marketing will be shaped by ecosystem collaboration, intelligence-driven decision-making and deeper partner specialization. Many organizations manage hundreds of partners across different regions and markets, making it necessary to balance consistency with local flexibility.

Thousands of game and app developers build directly on the platform which takes care of user engagement, pricing, analytics and terms of use. In this case, Plaid enables product integration to their partners developers through APIs, documentation and support. The marketplace enhances the user experience since they can discover, compare and try different products until they find one that best matches their needs. The product team needs to invest in placing the product offering in the marketplace, which allows them to access users at scale.