Product and partner marketing
Turn your partners into pipeline.
A forward deployed partner marketer who finds the revenue you're missing and builds the joint program the market can buy.
For Series B and C tech companies with partners but no partner marketing engine.
The work
Assess first. Then scale through partners.
The pattern is the same: the product is ahead of the motion. The growth is already in the ecosystem. Someone has to make it scale.
Assess the motion
I sit inside the team and read where product, sales, and partnerships disagree. Founder selling, a stalled channel, a marketplace that never left the announcement. The diagnosis is specific, not a marketing audit.
Name the scale opportunity
Experience in product and partner marketing is what makes the call. Which one or two partners, integrations, or marketplaces can actually change distribution this year, and which logos should be parked.
Write the joint value proposition
Both companies' products, one reason a buyer should take the meeting. Not a feature mashup. A commercial story a partner's seller can repeat, tied to their incentives.
Run the revenue program
Positioning, enablement, a joint go-to-market, and attribution the CRO will accept. I stay through launch and hand off an attribution model the CRO will accept.
How engagements run
Four frameworks. Every engagement.
Every audit and build draws on the same four. They are built to fit almost any company, and go-to-market strategy ties them together.
Partner Fit and Prioritization
A scoring model that ranks every partner by customer overlap, pipeline potential, and effort to activate. It shows where to focus and where to stop.
Partner Messaging and Positioning
A joint value story for each partner type: cloud marketplace, technology integration, and services. Who it is for, the problem solved together, and the proof.
Co-Marketing Playbook
Repeatable plays, each with a template, an owner, and a timeline. Joint demo videos, webinars and marketplace listings, launch moments, and co-sponsored events.
Partner Enablement and Portal
What partners and their sellers need to sell. A partner portal, sales enablement and training, an education video series, and a one-page pitch, demo, and quick-start kit.
Then I measure it. Partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline, tied to your CRM, so you can see the impact.
How the audit works
Kickoff
Goals, partner list, and access to the people and data I need.
Interviews
Sales, partnerships, and one or two partners.
Mid-point readout
What I am finding and where the gaps are.
Working session
The prioritized plan: top three plays for the next 90 days, plus quick wins.
Three situations
Where funded companies stall with partners.
Activation
Partners signed. Pipeline at zero.
The cost. Quarters burn on partners who were never going to sell. The board stops believing the channel.The move. Pick the one to three partners with real overlap. Run a 90-day joint test with clear exit criteria.The proof. Exabeam: 44X Google-sourced revenue and 2023 Google Technology Partner of the Year. Cloudflare: $2M+ closed-won net-new ARR through reseller partners.
Attribution
Nobody agrees on a partner deal.
The cost. Sales counts sourced only. Partnerships counts every co-sell call. Finance trusts neither, so partner budget is first to go.The move. Define sourced and influenced revenue with sales, partnerships, and finance. Lock it in the CRM and review it monthly.The proof. Cloudera: 7K qualified leads and $9M partner-sourced revenue from an ISV demo program.
Complexity
The ecosystem outruns the team.
The cost. Hyperscaler marketplaces, co-sell, integrations, and resellers each have their own rules. One partner manager and a stretched product marketer cannot turn the tech into a commercial story.The move. Pick the one motion that matters this year. Run the joint go-to-market until your team can own it.The proof. Exabeam: $7M+ Google Cloud Marketplace revenue in year one. SADA: a 5-person solutions marketing function supporting $3M+ closed-won.
A first read
Where is the motion stuck?
Three questions. Not a scorecard for the board. A way to see which gap I would open with on day one.
Question 1 of 3
What is true of the partners on your site today?
Question 2 of 3
Where does a joint deal stall?
Question 3 of 3
What would change the next board meeting?
Likely gap
The partner activation gap
The portfolio is a logo slide. The scale move is not more partners. It is a joint value proposition and a 90-day test with the few who can sell.
Start with a Partner Marketing Audit. I will cut the list and name the motion.
Likely gap
Broken partner attribution
You cannot forecast what you cannot count. The opportunity is a shared definition of sourced and influenced revenue, then a monthly review the CRO attends.
The audit includes an attribution check and the CRM fields to lock it.
Likely gap
Ecosystem complexity
The tech is ahead of the commercial story. Pick one motion this year, translate both products into the partner's incentives, and run it until it is owned in-house.
A Partner Motion Build is sized for one marketplace, co-sell, or integration launch.
Where I've worked
What clients say
Mike is a skilled marketer with extensive experience in messaging, positioning, sales enablement, and building successful partnerships. His focus and approach helped to earn a Cloud Partner of the Year award as well as create and market the key value proposition of observability platforms and SIEM technology.
Erin Winchester
Product Marketing Leader, managed Michael at Exabeam
I worked with Michael developing Sales Enablement and Demand Gen campaigns for our channel partners. Michael has such a partnership approach, even in tough negotiations. He is very responsive to partner needs.
Lisa Crawford
Channel Partner Account Manager
Offers
Hire the motion.
Start building partner-led revenue programs today.
Partner Marketing Audit
Credited toward the Build
- Positioning teardown
- Partner portfolio and activation review
- Attribution check
- 90-day plan
Partner Motion Build
Fixed. Includes launch positioning.
- Messaging and one motion built through launch
- Joint value proposition
- Partner enablement kit
- Attribution model handed off in the CRM
Forward Deployed Partner Lead
3-month minimum
- Runs one partner motion from inside the team
- Joins pipeline reviews
- Hands off to an internal owner
My marketing thesis
More content and features don't guarantee more revenue. Access to new segments and larger deals requires connections. Smaller companies get access through partners who are already there.
Michael Moreno
Founder
If partners are not in the forecast, let's fix that this quarter.
The Partner Marketing Audit is two weeks. Positioning, the partner portfolio, attribution, and a 90-day plan. Credited if I build the motion.
One more step.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the Partner Marketing Audit?
A two-week, fixed-fee review of your partner marketing. You get a map of your current partnerships (who drives pipeline, who is dormant, where the gaps are) and a review of your marketplace and co-marketing presence. You also get a positioning check on how you describe the partner story versus how partners describe you. It ends with a prioritized plan: the top three plays for the next 90 days, plus quick wins. See the pricing section for the fee.
Who is it for?
Series B, Series C, and B2B technology companies that have partners but no partner marketing engine. It usually fits a CMO or VP of Marketing, sometimes a head of partnerships, who needs a clear plan without a long procurement cycle.
What happens after the audit?
You own the plan and can run it yourself. Most teams ask me to run it with them, either as a Partner Motion Build or as a monthly engagement. The audit fee is credited if I build the motion.
Do you do the work yourself, or hand me a deck?
I own the strategy, partner prioritization, messaging, and the attribution model, and I stay in the work with your team. For production such as videos and portal builds, I bring in vetted specialists using clear briefs. I am accountable for the quality of everything delivered.
How will I know it is working?
We start with a simple view of partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline tied to your CRM, plus leads, opportunities, and revenue by partner. It is built to be light enough to start in the audit and solid enough that sales, partnerships, and finance all accept the numbers.