Referral, tech partner, reseller, SI: someone offered us a partnership, which one is it?

The best plain English glossary of the nine partner types plus 20 metrics to track, which is exactly what you need when you are new and everyone around you is using acronyms.

Channel Sales: What It Is and How to Create Your Program

From HubSpot Blog by Aja Frost 15 min read

• Cites Firas Raouf's rule of thumb: reach roughly $20 million in revenue before launching a partner sales program.
• One channel manager plus several partners can bring in what five or six direct reps do, at a fraction of the cost.
• Three structures to pick from: sell with the partner, sell through them, or have them sell for you (white label).
• Lists 20 metrics to track, including partner attrition, deal acceptance rate, and partner versus direct CAC.

The clearest single explanation of the five partner types and what each is worth, including real margin bands (20 to 30% for VARs, 5 to 10% for referral) and how to compensate your own AEs on partner deals.

The GTM guide to building SaaS channel partnerships

From Bessemer Venture Partners (Atlas) by MP Eisen 20 min read

• VAR margins usually run 20 to 30 percent; pure resellers who only process the transaction get 5 to 10 percent.
• Budget 10 to 20 percent of the purchase price for services and implementation on a partner-delivered deal.
• Comp neutrality (reps retire quota at full list price) is expensive but stops AEs from fighting partner deals.
• An alternative: pay reps on net revenue but require something like 25 percent of quota to be sold with a partner.

An Indian SaaS operator walking through revenue partners versus tech partners, how a startup recruits its first ones, and the common mistakes, framed for founders selling out of India.

All about Channel Partners: ISVs, VARs, SIs and MSPs

On SaaSBoomi (Marketing Nation) by Anand Venkatraman with Arvind Parthiban 45 min listen

Six distinct programs on one page (consulting, GSI, distributor, VAR, affiliate, marketplace) is the fastest way to see how a mature partner portfolio is segmented rather than lumped together.

Zoho Partner Programs

From Zoho 6 min read

• Six distinct tracks: consulting, global system integrator, value added distributor, value added reseller, affiliate and marketplace.
• The VAD track is unusual for SaaS: distributors recruit and support their own reseller network in a region.
• Zoho cites 2,000-plus partners and 9,000-plus affiliates, but publishes no margins or tier thresholds on this page.