Matthew Gray

You don’t start with recruiting. You start with data. Before engaging formally, we looked at where the reseller already showed up in our deals - and found they were already embedded in a meaningful portion of our top accounts. That was the signal. Instead of trying to “activate” them from scratch, we formalized what was already working and put incentives around it. Margin structures came next, and they had to be negotiated upfront. Clear rules for reseller-sourced versus company-sourced deals, explicit account protections, and zero ambiguity at deal time. That alone removed most friction. Activation didn’t come from executive alignment - it came from AE enablement. We built a simple, internal guide for our sales team covering how to engage the reseller, how margins work, and what paperwork is required. Every deal required a signed order form, no exceptions. Executive sponsorship mattered, but at the right altitude. Quarterly business reviews focused on pipeline, blockers, and account planning - not micromanaging individual deals. Trust the reseller’s sellers to do their job.

This is where most partner programs break. Sending a massive slide deck isn’t enablement. Enablement is giving a partner a customer-facing motion they can sell tomorrow. We start with partner-specific pitches, not generic ones. Services partners get a narrative around API discovery and governance because that fits naturally into the transformation work they already lead. Hyperscalers get a regulated-industry modernization story backed by proof points. The pitch reflects what the partner already does well. We train partners to sell the problem and outcome, not the product. “API sprawl is killing platform teams” lands far better than a feature walkthrough. Partners don’t need to memorize our product - they need to recognize when a customer has a problem we solve. Enablement is intentionally lightweight. A short video on how to spot opportunities, a handful of customer one-pagers, and an optional deeper certification for the minority who want it. Most partners never go past the first tier, so we design for reality. Reinforcement matters too: regular win-sharing, partner summits, and direct access to product teams. If a partner seller can’t explain our value in 30 seconds, the enablement failed.

Co-marketing only works when it directly supports a sales conversation. Logos and campaigns don’t move pipeline - proof does. The most effective motion for us has been joint customer proof points, especially with hyperscalers. When their sellers can point to customers already running our platform alongside theirs, perceived risk drops immediately and sales cycles compress. This has been especially powerful in regulated industries, where proven deployments matter far more than messaging. We’ve also seen strong results from partner-led technical workshops, particularly with emerging systems integrators. These partners already have credibility with delivery teams, and when they run hands-on sessions around API governance or platform practices, those workshops naturally turn into discovery calls and pilots. It works because they can credibly say what our AEs can’t: “We’ve implemented this before.” Finally, executive co-sponsorship at events has been effective when it’s focused and intentional. Aligning with a small number of partners at the right regional or hyperscaler events leads to fewer conversations, but much higher-quality ones. The common thread is credibility. Co-marketing works when it arms both partner sellers and our AEs with proof that makes customer conversations easier. Proof beats logos every time.

We focus on revenue-first metrics and intentionally ignore vanity ones. At the core are partner-sourced revenue and partner-influenced revenue. Sourced revenue captures true incremental bookings where the partner originated the deal, while influenced revenue reflects the broader value partners add across complex sales cycles. Together, they show both direct impact and ecosystem leverage. Win rate matters just as much as volume. Partner-sourced deals consistently convert at a higher rate than direct deals in the same segments, which tells us partners are improving deal quality, not just adding noise to the funnel. Pipeline coverage is our primary leading indicator. We track partner-sourced pipeline weekly to ensure future bookings are on track, rather than waiting for closed-won numbers to tell us we’re behind. Supporting metrics help us operate the motion. We track active versus at-risk partners to focus enablement where it pays off, measure time to first deal to assess onboarding effectiveness, and monitor deal velocity - which is consistently faster on partner-sourced deals. What we explicitly ignore: raw partner counts, training completions without pipeline impact, co-marketing activity not tied to opportunities, and standalone partner satisfaction scores. If it doesn’t connect back to revenue, it’s a distraction. From an ROI perspective, we model partnerships like sales capacity, not marketing spend. We compare total investment in partner teams and programs against closed-won bookings, with a clear year-one return target and multi-year upside. The most common mistake is tracking “partner engagement” without tying it to pipeline or bookings. Our dashboard stays intentionally simple: partner leads, opportunities, pipeline, and closed-won revenue - reviewed weekly. Revenue-focused, no fluff.

First, executive sponsorship has to be real. When leadership treats partnerships as a strategic pillar, it unlocks budget, headcount, and sales attention. Without that, partnerships become a support function instead of a growth engine. Second, sales compensation alignment is non-negotiable. AEs must receive full credit for partner-sourced deals, and partners need transparent incentives documented upfront. Misaligned incentives kill co-selling faster than anything else. Third, you need a clear ICP per partner type. Hyperscalers, services partners, and resellers each win in different scenarios. Without that clarity, partner recruitment and enablement turn into noise. Fourth, a deal registration system - even a manual one at first - is essential. It drives attribution, accountability, and ROI tracking. Partners send more leads when they trust the process. Finally, regular pipeline reviews with sales leadership keep partnerships visible and prioritized. Different partner motions need to be tracked separately, but all of them need senior sales involvement. The hardest truth is this: co-selling doesn’t create value - it amplifies it. If the product isn’t genuinely better with the partner, no process will save you. Where we are today: this model is proven with hyperscalers. The next challenge is scaling it with services partners, where value comes from delivery credibility rather than technical integration.

Trust isn’t built in QBRs. It’s built in deals. The fastest way to create alignment is to win together early, even if the first deals are small. Those initial sub-$50K wins matter because they prove the motion works. Sales teams start trusting partners when they see real pipeline convert, not when they hear strategy decks. Waiting for the “perfect” big deal usually just delays momentum. Compensation is non-negotiable. Sales will disengage permanently if they feel partners are taking credit from them. AEs must receive full credit for partner-sourced deals when they own the account, with partner influence tracked separately. The rule has to be simple, consistent, and enforced every time. Partners also need to make sales’ lives easier, not harder. If working with a partner adds friction - slow approvals, excessive forms, unclear rules - sales will avoid the motion altogether. Fast deal registration, clear ownership, and partners handling procurement go a long way toward adoption. Visibility reinforces trust. Regular, lightweight partner pipeline updates to sales leadership keep partners top-of-mind, highlight progress, and normalize co-selling as part of the core sales motion rather than a side experiment. When conflicts arise, they need to be resolved decisively. Lingering disputes over sourcing or ownership erode confidence quickly. Clear rules, fast investigation, and deal registration timestamps as a tiebreaker keep things moving. Finally, executive reinforcement matters. When leadership consistently highlights partner wins in sales forums, it sends a clear signal: partnerships are a real revenue lever, not optional overhead. The reality is simple: sales teams trust partners when partners help them hit quota. Everything else is noise. Where we’re strongest today is in our most mature partner motions; the next step is extending that trust with enterprise AEs who are newer to services-led partnerships.

This isn’t a binary choice - it’s a maturity model. At the high end, co-selling with solution partners is a high-touch, joint pursuit motion. It only works when partners have deep customer relationships, a consultative sales approach, and real account overlap with us. These partnerships show up consistently in our pipeline, support complex deals with long sales cycles, and justify the heavy investment: dedicated partner managers, executive sponsorship, and a weekly operating cadence. When it works, it drives meaningful ARR and wins deals we wouldn’t close alone. At the other end, corporate resell or referral partners are transactional by design. They move high volumes of smaller deals, often stepping in primarily for procurement or fulfillment. Engagement is lightweight — deal registration, margin or referral incentives, and occasional check-ins — and the motion needs to be largely automated to scale. This model works best for smaller, budget-approved purchases where speed matters more than strategy. How we decide comes down to three things: Account overlap: If a partner consistently appears in our deals, that’s a co-sell signal. If they rarely show up, we keep the motion lightweight. Partner capacity: Partners with dedicated sellers and a clear coverage model can co-sell. Everyone else stays in lead-share. Revenue potential: High six-figure annual potential justifies high-touch investment; anything smaller should be automated. The biggest mistake teams make is trying to co-sell with everyone. You end up spreading your team thin and getting average results across the board. Our operating principle is simple: keep a small, focused set of strategic co-sell partners per region, support a broader pool of lead-share partners at scale, and use enablement-only programs for the long tail. Start with co-sell to prove impact - then scale through lead-share.

A good co-selling process is designed to eliminate ambiguity early and enforce role clarity all the way through close. It starts with deal registration as a quality gate, not a rubber stamp. Partners submit real opportunities with enough context to evaluate intent, and we respond quickly - usually within 48 hours - so expectations are set before the deal goes anywhere. Next comes joint qualification and routing. Within a few days, the partnerships team and the assigned AE decide whether this is a true joint pursuit or a partner-led fulfillment motion. If it’s joint, we assign a single AE owner and a clear partner champion. This step alone eliminates most “phantom pipeline.” The core of the motion is the joint pursuit. Weekly partner–AE syncs, clear ownership of responsibilities, and shared customer-facing artifacts keep deals moving. In practice, partners tend to own procurement and executive relationships, while we own technical validation and solution fit. Deals sourced this way consistently outperform AE-only deals in the same segments. Finally, close and attribution need to be clean. Commercial terms are defined at registration, partner influence is tracked even when they’re not transacting, and CRM hygiene ensures we can actually learn from what happened. The non-negotiables are simple: agreements in place before co-selling, one point of contact on each side, and a cadence that’s frequent enough to matter. Monthly is usually too slow.