Category: Uncategorised

“We want to grow revenue through our channel…”


Most manufacturers can say that. Very few can explain what it actually means for the next twelve months.

Which markets? Which partner types? What does success look like at 90 and 180 days out?

These questions tend to produce vague answers or a reference to a strategy deck nobody has opened since it was built.

This is the Strategy Gap. Not a partner problem. A program clarity problem.

Partners pick up on it faster than most manufacturers expect. When a vendor doesn’t have a clear direction for what it needs from the relationship, partners fill that gap with their own priorities. Which usually means selling whatever earns them the best margin this quarter. A manufacturer without clarity slides down a partner’s line card pretty quickly.

A well-defined channel strategy answers three questions before anything else gets built.

What do we actually want to achieve out of the program?
Who is genuinely positioned to get it there (and how to attract them)?
Are our products and our processes ready to work with partners?

Without those anchors, even a well-resourced program drifts. The activity happens. The results don’t follow. And everyone ends up blaming the partners.

Could your channel team answer those three questions clearly right now, without looking at a slide?

Partners who’ve worked in the channel long enough develop their own criteria for choosing which manufacturer to bet on. Technical specs earn them a seat in the conversation. What keeps them in the room is something else.

It comes down to operational proof… the product that holds up in the real world. The manufacturer who helped you navigate a complicated installation three years ago. The one who pulled out all stops during a deal that was close to falling apart.

These aren’t soft benefits. They’re evidence that working with this vendor is a manageable risk.

Because when a partner recommends a product to a customer, their own credibility goes with it.

They’re choosing whose risk they’re prepared to carry in front of a client relationship they’ve spent years building.


Technical differentiation earns initial consideration.
Operational trust earns the referral.
And the referral is what actually scales a channel.

Most manufacturers invest heavily in the former and leave the latter to chance.


What makes a partner recommend you and your products?

Partners built their businesses on projects and projects have an end date…


For many partners in broadcast and media technology right now, subscription doesn’t feel like a natural evolution. It feels like a restructuring of everything their business was built around.

The sector ran on project-based revenue for decades. A studio builds a new control room. An integrator designs and installs the system. The manufacturer ships hardware. Everyone gets paid (hopefully).

Clear(ish) timeline, clear margin.

Subscription changes the math for everyone in that chain. The manufacturer’s revenue arrives monthly. The partner’s margin arrives… when, exactly?

That question wasn’t answered cleanly before the model got pushed into the channel.

Partners aren’t resisting subscription because they’re short-sighted. Year one of selling a subscription product often means lower immediate revenue, more complex customer conversations, and a longer timeline to meaningful margin.

Their fixed costs don’t wait for recurring revenue to compound.

The manufacturers navigating this well didn’t just retrain partners on how to sell differently. They rebuilt the commercial terms for the transition period.

New training is necessary but new year-one economics is what actually moves the needle.


What does year one look like financially for a partner who commits fully to your subscription offer?