Our recent partner marketing dinner in Denver brought together some of the brightest minds in the industry. Connecting marketing leaders from Palo Alto Networks, Cloudera, Workday, Automation Anywhere, Elastic, and Acquia to discuss the evolving challenges and opportunities in today’s landscape.
From partner strategies to sales alignment and the delicate balance of tracking ROI, the evening was packed with valuable insights and lively conversation. Here’s a look at some of the key takeaways from the evening.
The evolving challenges of partner marketing
While issues like sales alignment and tracking ROI have persisted year over year, new dynamics have also emerged. Many participants noted that partner marketing is becoming more decentralized, reactive, and harder to align with overall corporate strategies.
One common theme was the struggle to streamline messaging across multiple teams—particularly between sales and partner marketing when it comes to joint messaging. Misalignment in accounts, overlapping efforts, and the lack of a unified customer experience were cited as significant barriers. A more structured collaboration between sales, marketing, and partner teams was suggested to improve efficiency and ensure a customer-centric approach.
The value of partner marketing is growing, so are expectations
As we’ve seen in our Partner Marketing Study, companies increasingly recognize the value of partner marketing, with 68% of organizations reporting it provides great value in 2024. However, with that growth comes heightened expectations, particularly from CMOs. Many participants mentioned the need for greater education within their organizations about the nuances of partner marketing. CMOs tend to apply the same metrics used for corporate marketing to partner efforts, such as ROI ratios (20:1) and attribution expectations, which don’t always account for the complexity of partner relationships.
One participant likened the partner relationship to a marriage, requiring constant attention and clear communication to be successful. While partner marketing is viewed positively, there’s a growing need for formal strategies that go beyond surface-level engagements.
Is strategy on the right track?
The conversation around strategy was particularly revealing. Interestingly, while 89% of companies claim to have a partner marketing strategy, only 69% have a formal, documented plan in place per our recent study. Several attendees expressed frustration with the difficulty of implementing a cohesive strategy, especially when dealing with different types of partners like C/SIs, CSPs, ISVs, and others given the differing priorities between companies and resources for example.
Smaller organizations were surprised to learn that even larger companies face similar struggles with their partner marketing strategies (or lack thereof). Whether formal or informal, all participants agreed on the importance of an adaptable framework to assist while maneuvering budget cuts, layoffs, and organizational changes.
Attribution and ROI: still a challenge
Attribution continues to be a significant challenge in partner marketing. While 81% of participants felt their programs were effective, 71% acknowledged difficulties in tracking ROI. Many partner marketers feel pressure to “play the game” when it comes to metrics, often manipulating numbers to show better results within tracking systems. However, this creates competition rather than collaboration between different marketing efforts.
A more ideal approach, as suggested by some attendees, would be to treat partner marketing as a channel. This way, marketing efforts could align, and all arrows would point in the same direction. But without greater visibility and influence once the opportunity moves to sales, tracking partner impact will continue to be an uphill battle.
The power of three: Better together and the ecosystem story
Another hot topic of the evening was the “Better Together” and ecosystem narrative. The multi-partner approach, particularly the “Power of Three” concept, has become a powerful tool, especially among tech alliance partners (think Hyperscaler, C/SI, and ISV partnership). Participants agreed that a full solution across multiple providers is the most compelling partner message, but it’s challenging to maintain this narrative consistently throughout the customer journey.
The key to success lies in motivating internal sales teams. While FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is currently the most effective motivator—seeing colleagues land larger, multi-product deals through partnerships—there’s a need for better training and tools to help sales teams understand why partnering matters.
Where third-party agencies shine—and fall short
Attendees had mixed feelings about the role of third-party agencies (publishers, traditional agencies, PR, etc.) in their partner marketing efforts. While agencies offer diverse options and the ability to provide full solutions, they often lack the guidance needed to deliver best practices or innovation. Participants expressed a desire for more historical data and actionable advice, especially in the post-campaign phase. Now that the leads have been generated, what’s next? Agencies could provide more value by helping to map out those next steps.
Full steam ahead: What’s next for partner marketing?
As the evening wrapped up, it became clear that partner marketing has come a long way, but it still has many challenges to overcome. From fostering deeper partnerships to aligning internal teams and tracking the true impact of partner efforts, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
However, the sentiment from the evening was optimistic. Attendees left with a sense of camaraderie, knowing that they aren’t alone in facing these challenges—and that through continued collaboration, there are opportunities to innovate, evolve, and succeed together.
We’re looking forward to hosting more events like this in the future and continuing the conversation around the future of partner marketing. So, come join us October 2nd in the San Francisco Bay Area (Palo Alto) for our next dinner discussion. If you would like to join the community and share your challenges and successes, I invite you to reserve a seat at our next dinner by reaching out to me, Hondo_Lewis@foundryco.com.
