Are most of your channel partners producing very little value for your business? Agility requires more than just signing up partners; it demands a dynamic approach to activating and enabling the right ones. It’s about ruthlessly prioritizing relationships that generate mutual value and being nimble enough to change or sunset those that don’t. Today, we’re going to talk about the often-unspoken reality of partner programs: the vast gap between the impressive number of logos on a partner page and the handful that actually contribute to the bottom line. We’ll explore why so many partners become “paper partners”—partners in name only—and how to build a program that focuses on tangible value and repeatable revenue, not just vanity metrics.
To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Peter Fogelsanger, Fractional Partner Executive at Peter Fog LLC. Peter, welcome to the show!
About Peter Fogelsanger
Peter is a seasoned partner executive and partner program consultant. He provides fractional consulting and program advisory services to growth companies. Current engagements include several early-stage PE or VC backed startups.. Prior to consulting, Peter was founding Head for Partnerships and Enablement at Contentstack, building the program from the ground up which produced over $22M in pipeline. Prior to Contentstack, Peter was VP of Partner Engagement (NA) at Thunderhead, an omni-channel customer journey and personalization platform.
While at Thunderhead, Peter led the enablement in NA for Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Interaction Studio, helping drive more than $50M in ARR in 24 months. Earlier in his career, Peter was in direct sales for over eight years at leading CMS vendors Sitecore and SDL. He also spent more than 12 years in sales/marketing at digital agencies helping clients with digital transformation related projects. Major clients have included FedEx, Charles Schwab, Humana, Duke Energy, TD Bank, Stanley Black & Decker, Nasdaq, Marriott, and the Veterans Administration.
Peter has been a speaker on partner programs, enablement, personalization/content management, and active in several related communities. In his spare time, Peter enjoys carpentry and DIY projects and has many years as a coach for youth soccer and high school track.
Peter Fogelsanger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterfog/
Resources
Peter Fog LLC: http://www.peterfog.com
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