Partnerships Unraveled

Send us Fan Mail Do you have what it takes to run a global channel? Learn from someone who actually does. Before stepping in as Chief Revenue Officer at RiskOptics, Tim Maloney ran the worldwide channel organization for LifeSize. Sharing memories from his extensive experience, Tim takes you through the early courtship of channel management — think of it like dating — where the foundation is laid f...

Send us Fan Mail How can you turbocharge your partner program’s growth while tackling complex partner operations? In the latest episode, Aaron Howerton, who owns the roadmap for Partner Operations and Partner Experience across all programs at Samsara and runs the PartnerOps Partner, including the popular job board, gets into solving a real-time problem with podcast host Rick van den Bosch around g...

Send us Fan Mail Most Partnerships look great on paper but when it comes down to actual implementations, they never product expected results. In a conversation with the CEO of Ultimate Partner and himself a host of “The Ultimate Guide to Partnering” podcast, Vince Menzione explains how to translate some of the best strategies into actuality.   In a freewheeling conversation with host Rick van den...

Send us Fan Mail Unlock the secrets of thriving channel partnerships with Peter Geytenbeek, Director of EMEA Channel for Delinea, a company delivering PAM solutions for enterprises with complex IT environments.   Peter's decades of industry expertise spanning the entire EMEA region are distilled into pivotal advice for vendors and resellers, revealing how the landscape has shifted from a vend...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to 2024. The best thing about a new year… are resolutions. And while most are meant to be broken, professionally it’s the time of the year to reflect on goals and set priorities for the upcoming year. Hosts Alex and Rick were given the tough task of selecting one new year’s resolve each, if they were Channel VPs or Heads of organisations looking to strengthen their channel...

Send us Fan Mail In this insightful episode, we take a retrospective dive into the world of partner marketing as it unfolded in early 2023. We revisit our discussions with internal teams and external experts to evaluate the trends they predicted and how they actually played out.  Our exploration covers a range of critical areas: * The Focus Shift in Partner Selection * Scaling Strategies: "If...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we dive into the world of partnerships with special guest Barrett King, senior Director of Revenue at New Breed, HubSpot's top solutions partner. King’s on a mission to help unlock meaningful growth for companies and he shares a slice of his experience at HubSpot, revealing the insights he gained while training the team on partnerships. Ever wondered how cust...

Send us Fan Mail Podcast hosts Alex and Rick travel into the world of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs), exploring why major players like Cisco and Microsoft are shifting their focus to this market. The duo analyze current trends and challenges, and strategies in the SMB space. The conversation aims to unravel the complexities of scaling and capturing the SMB space, discussing the pivotal r...

Send us Fan Mail Dive deep into the world of partnerships and ecosystems with our special guest, Ard-Pieter de Man, acclaimed Author and Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and an ecosystem partnering expert. Hosted by Alex Whitford, VP of Partnerships at Channext, this episode delves into the intricacies of successful collaborations with Ard-Pieter sharing his extensive experience, highlig...

Send us Fan Mail One global strategy to guide them all, right? FALSE.  Asking both Channel Heads to Program managers, are you sacrificing the unique spice of local markets for the bland convenience of global strategies? Join us in this episode as we spill the tea on the heated debate, revealing the secrets, struggles, and maybe a few scandals behind the scenes. Alex and Rick dive deep into the con...

Send us Fan Mail Picture this - the traditional transactional business model gradually making way for a dynamic, ecosystem-based SaaS landscape. Intriguing, isn't it? Our guest, Rob Spee, SVP of Channel and Alliances at Beyond Trust, and I delve into this transformative process, revealing the challenges, the necessary shifts in mindset, expectations, and language, and the pivotal role partner...

Send us Fan Mail If you’re not on the brink of working with AI in channel marketing, you could be missing a crucial component of your journey as you scale and cater to multiple regions, languages and preferences... and build scalable processes.  Why is AI more than just a buzzword ? How is it crucial as ever in our current climate? In this episode, we take a  deep dive into how AI is revolutionizi...

Send us Fan Mail Are you drowning in an ocean of partner marketing noise, struggling to make your message heard?  Tune in as we chat with Martin Whitehead, Senior Director Global Marketing at SAP, who shares practical strategies to navigate through this cacophony. Martin catches up Rick van den Bosch on the need for a centralized managed communication portfolio, with reliable information sources a...

Send us Fan Mail How can you build a channel strategy that has an 80% failure rate? No, you simply don’t. Yet, almost all organizations with a strong and functioning indirect sales channel ignore the long tail, focussing on the top 10-20% who deliver volume and significant revenue. Are you building the channel of the future - with scalable solutions to help long tail partners create more opportuni...

Send us Fan Mail The core component of a great partnership strategy is… the partner! In this podcast episode, Asaël Akkerman, SVP of Partnerships and Alliances at Spacewell talks to Rick van den Bosch, CEO of Channext on the  importance of partnerships in scaling a business and becoming a thought leader in a particular industry.  The conversation charts a course through strategy and the right hiri...

Send us Fan Mail  What if you could peel back the layers of a high-performance motorsport team and apply their strategies to your partner program!  Buckle up, as we dive into the world of F1, and explore how their strategies can supercharge your partner program. We kick off by comparing the meticulous process of designing a race car to crafting a partner program, drawing insightful comparisons bet...

Send us Fan Mail Starting our second year of podcasts with a guest every alternate week.   In this episode, we sit down with special guest Will Yafi, CEO of TIDWIT, to explore the fascinating world of partnerships in the IT industry.  From navigating the challenges of content creation to the critical role of AI, we delve into the evolving landscape of partnerships and how businesses are adapting,...

Send us Fan Mail Can you believe it's been a year since our first episode?! Today we are celebrating our one-year anniversary. We appreciate all your unwavering support through our podcast journey, it means the world to us!  Get set for a trip down memory lane as we take you through the past year, revisiting the 52 episodes we’ve put together. We’ll be sharing insights from our most popular t...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered why 80% of your revenue seems to come from just 20% of your partners?  Tune in as we unravel the surprising implications of Pareto's principal and how it shapes focus, recruitment, and incentive models.  In the channel, size doesn't always matter, it's the value that counts. We spotlight the potential pitfalls of working with big partners who view thei...

Send us Fan Mail What if the secret to your channel's success lay hidden in the data you already have? Brace yourself for some mind-blowing insights in today's episode, as we uncover the true power of key metrics and data in channel building. Ever wondered why your channel might be failing despite all your efforts? We're here to shed light on why having the right data and measuremen...

Send us Fan Mail Ready to unlock the secrets of building and scaling a successful channel team?  This episode promises to deliver just that. Together, we unravel the elements of a powerful channel team, with a deep dive into the four vital functions of sales, marketing, technical, and operations.  But that's not all, Alex shares his thoughts on the significance of networking and the need for...

Send us Fan Mail Want to outshine your competitors with an unbeatable compensation strategy for your channel partners? Join us as we demystify the dynamics of different types of deals, including referral-led or reselling. We'll guide you in optimizing your own metrics to formulate a powerful compensation strategy and create irresistible incentives for your partners. We also delve into the nit...

Send us Fan Mail Ready to unlock the secrets of successful channel building?  Brace yourselves, as we decode the mysteries of channel architecture and guide you through its meticulous construction. We promise to reveal the pivotal role of channel architecture in shaping your business, unravel how to tailor it to your unique products, and show you the key factors to consider when recruiting partner...

Send us Fan Mail In the second episode of our podcast series all about building a killer channel from scratch, we're diving deep into the core: channel strategy.  Imagine this: You've got this grand vision, like IBM wanting a laptop in every hand (ambitious much?). But guess what? That vision shapes your channel strategy big time. It's like laying down the foundation for your future...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we are kick-starting a new series about building a channel from scratch. Where we will share the five fundamentals for creating a new channel with the highest likability of success:  1. Channel Strategy: Setting Company objectives 2. Creating a Channel Architecture: How does a channel look like? 3. Compensation: How to handle compensation with the different roles...