At our recent Global Channel Leaders Forum event in Los Gatos, senior channel leaders came together to discuss how partner programs need to evolve to reflect the reality of today’s ecosystem.
Moderated by Kenneth Fox, CTO and Founder of Channelscaler, the panel featured:
- Kaushik Ram, Senior Director, Global Partner Program at Broadcom
- Brian Kroneman, AVP, WW Channel Programs & Strategy at SentinelOne
- Thomas Schwab, Channel Chief at Netgear
- Scott Goree, Senior Vice President of Partners and Commercial Sales at Optiv
While many of themes such as partner experience, AI, and solution selling are familiar, what stood out in this discussion was a shift in perspective: what the channel looks like from the partner side, not the vendor side.
The Problem: Vendors Design for Themselves
One of the most direct insights came from Goree, who represents a large solution integrator managing relationships with hundreds of vendors.
His point was simple: partners don’t have time to figure you out.
With hundreds of vendors, thousands of products, and constant pressure to deliver outcomes for customers, partners are forced to prioritize ruthlessly. If your program is complex, unclear, or difficult to navigate, it simply gets deprioritized. That’s the reality.
And it highlights a common issue: many partner programs are still designed from an internal perspective – how they look, how they operate, and how they measure success. Rather than how they are experienced externally.
Simplicity Is Not a Nice-to-Have
“Simplicity is hard” was a recurring theme throughout the discussion.
Not because channel leaders don’t understand its importance, but because simplifying a program often requires undoing layers of legacy complexity in incentives, systems, processes, and governance.
From the partner perspective, simplicity means:
- Clear program structures
- Easy-to-understand incentives
- Fast, predictable processes
- Minimal friction to transact
Or as Goree put it: “if a program requires too much effort to understand, partners will move on.”
This isn’t about making programs “basic.” It’s about making them usable at scale, especially for sellers operating in high-volume environments.
Partner Experience = Operational Design
The conversation also reinforced that partner experience isn’t just about portals or branding. It’s fundamentally about how your operations are designed.
Schwab highlighted that being “easy to do business with” is often overused but rarely executed well. It requires investment in:
- Self-service capabilities
- Fast deal registration and quoting
- Accessible, relevant content
- Responsive support models
And importantly, it needs to work for the long tail, not just top-tier partners.
Because at scale, that’s where growth often sits.
Designing for Different Personas
Another key shift discussed was the need to design for multiple personas within partner organisations.
Partners are not a single audience. They include:
- Sales teams
- Engineers
- Marketing teams
- Executives
Each has different needs, different motivations, and different ways of engaging.
If your program only speaks to one group, typically sales, you limit your influence.
As highlighted in the panel, engineer mindshare can be just as critical as sales mindshare. If technical teams don’t trust or understand your solution, it won’t get sold.
The Shift: From Control to Usability
What emerges from this discussion is a broader shift in mindset.
Successful partner programs are moving from:
- Control to Enablement
- Complexity to Clarity
- Internal optimisation to External usability
And perhaps most importantly:
Vendor-centric program design to Partner-centric program execution
Final Thought
The takeaway from Los Gatos is clear: the bar for partner experience is being set by the partner, not the vendor.
And partners are operating in increasingly complex environments.
If your program doesn’t reduce that complexity, it won’t matter how strong your product is.
Because in today’s ecosystem, the easiest vendor to work with, often wins.
Found this insightful? Explore how AI is already reshaping partner programs in our previous post, AI in the Channel: From Hype to Operational Impact, where we break down real use cases driving speed, insight, and partner engagement.
