In my experience, the number one reason partner strategies fail isn’t anything inside the partner organisation itself – it’s something else within the vendor’s own business. Misalignment.
Too often, partners aren’t embedded in the overall vision, mission, or strategy. Many vendors keep pouring money into expensive direct sales models (even when those teams underperform) yet neglect to invest at the same level in their channel organisation, despite the massive benefits of getting it right.
This misalignment shows up in countless ways: from how vendors treat their own direct sales reps versus their partners, to how they handle incentives and strategy. So, what does misalignment really look like? Here are five of the most common ways it can sabotage your channel success.
1. Value Misalignment
You won’t find this in any textbook, but here’s my personal test of how channel-focused a vendor really is: look at who they celebrate and reward. If every award at the sales kick-off goes to direct sellers except for a token channel mention at the end, that tells you something. If the CEO shows up at customer events but skips partner events, that sends a clear signal about their importance (or lack of). You can say you’re 100% channel-focused – but partners see what you actually do. Actions speak louder than words.
Take an honest look at who and what you’re publicly rewarding – and make sure partners see they truly matter.
2. Compensation Misalignment
If your internal comp plans don’t match your strategy, you’re setting yourself up to fail.
Years ago, I worked with a vendor whose message to Wall Street was that they were going “all-in on cloud and recurring revenue.” But their sales comp plan still rewarded big upfront perpetual deals. One clever rep offered a massive discount to switch a big MRR customer to a three-year perpetual license. He hit target and went to Club. The company lost a key recurring customer. Salespeople don’t do what you want – they do what you pay them to do.
Review your comp plans carefully to ensure they actually drive the partner-friendly behaviours you want.
3. Financial Misalignment
Partners don’t care about your top-line revenue – they care about profit.
I once had a channel manager complain their partner ignored a “$100,000” deal. Turns out it offered only 5% margin. For the vendor, it was a $100K deal; for the partner, it was $5K.
Take the time to understand your partners’ business model – their margins, services attach, and costs. As the old saying goes, “revenue is vanity, profit is sanity”.
Sit down with key partners to understand their margins and profitability drivers so you can structure deals they want to pursue.
4. Sales Motion Misalignment
Who owns the customer? If both vendor and partner think they do, you’re not collaborating – you’re competing. I worked with a vendor who described their partner sales engagement model using the diagram below (ie. the vendor does the initial work to uncover the opportunity, then they work together on the deal, then they both push hard at the end to close it). It looks good, doesn’t it? Until you realise that they are both responsible for 75% of the effort at the end!
That’s why they kept fighting over deal ownership. The other issue was that in reality, they brought the partner in at 80% of the sales cycle, rather than at 20%. If you want to create a loyal and supportive channel, then engage them in the deal early, and work together collaboratively to close it.
Map your sales process with partners and agree on clear roles, so you work together instead of fighting for ownership.
5. Strategic Misalignment
How important are you to your partners?
If they invite you to their strategic planning sessions, that’s a strong signal you’re seen as critical to their future. If you’re never in the room when they make those plans, you might just be a cash machine. Similarly, look at training. Are partners just ticking certification boxes, or sending senior people to stay up-to-date because they truly value your solutions?
Being “strategic” isn’t about revenue alone – it’s about mutual commitment.
Invest time in joint planning sessions to show you’re serious about being part of your partners’ future strategy.
Summary
These are just five of the ways internal misalignment can derail even the best channel strategy. Next month, I’ll share five more critical misalignments you can’t afford to ignore. If you have any other examples, or if you’d like help reviewing your existing channel strategy for misalignment, contact me HERE
