Article · 10 min read

How to Get Started With Channel Partnerships for SaaS Businesses

Shubham Sood · GTMnow Free Beginner

Makes the point most first timers miss: channel accelerates growth that already exists, it does not create it, and you should budget at least two months of work per partner after signing.

  • Claims 80 percent of startups over-negotiate the reseller contract and ignore the people who will actually sell the product.
  • Expect to spend at least two months working with a channel partner before they can sell to their customers for you.
  • Resellers accelerate growth that already exists; they will not manufacture it from scratch.
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It answers 5 questions

  1. What is a channel partner, and why would a software company hand over 30% of the price?
  2. Is our product even ready for resellers?
  3. A much bigger company wants to partner with us. Should we say yes?
  4. I have just been handed partnerships as my job. What do I do in the first 90 days?
  5. A reseller has signed. How do I make them actually productive?

Read with it

  1. An investor's readiness test rather than a how to, built around three blunt questions: are you ready, which partner type, and... OpenView Article · 8 min read Why (and When) Strategic Partnerships Make Sense for SaaS Startups Scott Maxwell
  2. Survey data from 950 B2B SaaS companies on who actually runs channel and how much revenue it carries, which is the fastest way... SaaS Capital Report · 9 min read Should Your SaaS Company Have a Channel Sales Strategy? Rob Belcher
  3. A small company showing its own numbers: their partner manager took the program from under 4% to 10% of revenue in a year on... Close Article · 14 min read Building a B2B SaaS Partner Program: Our 8-Step Process Amy Copadis
  4. The founder of Zomentum, who built a business serving 3,500 plus channel partners, on why partner led acquisition stays under... SaaSBoomi (Founder's Deep Dive) Podcast · 50 min listen Empowering the Channel Partner-led GTM Motion Shruti Ghatge with Suresh Sambandam
  5. The clearest single explanation of the five partner types and what each is worth, including real margin bands (20 to 30% for... Bessemer Venture Partners (Atlas) Article · 20 min read The GTM guide to building SaaS channel partnerships MP Eisen
  6. First hand from the person who ran HubSpot's channel for a decade, with the four maturity stages and the argument that support,... SaaStr Article · 10 min read HubSpot's ex-VP of Channel Sales: How to Build The World's Best Channel Sales Program David Shepherd
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →