MVE: Channel Partners

"We need more feet on the street, so let's sign up as many resellers as we can."

This instinct drives early-stage companies to recruit dozens of channel partners who never produce a single deal. The reseller agreement gets signed. The partner portal credentials get created. Then nothing happens. Months later, the partnership team wonders why their channel program generates management overhead without proportional revenue.

The opposite mistake is equally damaging. Companies avoid channel partnerships entirely, assuming they can reach every market through direct sales. They hit a growth ceiling when they realize their sales team cannot cover every geography, vertical, or customer segment where demand exists.

The MVE framework for Channel Partners provides a disciplined middle path. It helps you build exactly the distribution coverage required for market viability while avoiding too many shallow partnerships that consume resources without generating returns.

Understanding Channel Partners

Channel Partners represent one of the primary Partner Categories, distinguished by their strategic contribution to distribution and sales. While Product Partners enhance your offering and Service Partners support implementation, Channel Partners extend your market reach by selling, reselling, or referring your product to customers you cannot efficiently reach directly.

Within the Channel Partner category, several Partner Types define operational roles.

Resellers purchase your product and resell it to end customers, often adding value through bundling, customization, or local support. They take ownership of the customer relationship and typically handle billing, first-line support, and renewals. Value-Added Resellers (VARs) add significant services or modifications to your core product.

Distributors sell to resellers rather than end customers. They aggregate products from multiple vendors, manage logistics, and provide credit facilities to smaller resellers who cannot purchase directly. Distributors are relevant when you need to reach many small resellers efficiently.

Referral Partners introduce qualified opportunities without taking ownership of the sale. They earn commissions or referral fees when deals close. The relationship is lighter than reseller partnerships but also produces less revenue per partner.

OEM Partners (Original Equipment Manufacturers) embed your product or technology into their own offering, selling it as part of their solution. Your product becomes invisible to the end customer, but you gain distribution through the OEM's sales channels. OEM deals typically involve licensing agreements and volume commitments.

For most early-stage B2B companies, the MVE framework focuses primarily on identifying whether reseller or referral partnerships are appropriate, with distributor and OEM models becoming relevant at scale.

Related Resources

• Minimum Viable Ecosystem - The complete MVE framework
• Having Success with Channel Partners - Tactical guidance for channel programs
• Channel Partner Types (SaaS) - Detailed partner type breakdown
• Qualifying Channel Partners with the 4C Method - Partner evaluation framework
• Referral, Co-Seller, Reseller - Understanding engagement models