And Why #Monetizing the #Channel Must Be the North Star
For years, alliance management has been treated as a role—hire an Alliance Manager, sign more partners, host quarterly check-ins, track certifications, and call it progress.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most alliance programs don’t fail because of a lack of partners. They fail because they don’t generate revenue.
That’s because Alliance Management is not a role. It’s a business function.
And functions exist for one reason: measurable outcomes.
The Problem with “Alliance Manager as a Role”
In many organizations, alliance teams are optimized for activity, not impact:
- Number of partners recruited
- Enablement sessions delivered
- Joint webinars executed
- Logos added to the ecosystem slide
All useful – but none of them guarantee pipeline, bookings, or consumption.
As a result, alliance leaders often find themselves explaining potential instead of delivering results.
Meanwhile, Sales asks:
“How much pipeline did partners create this quarter?”
And the answer is… unclear.
Alliance Management Is a Cross-Functional Revenue Engine
When alliance management is treated as a function, everything changes.
A true alliance function cuts across:
- Sales (co-sell execution, account alignment, deal velocity)
- Marketing (partner-led demand generation, solution narratives)
- Product (ecosystem fit, joint value propositions)
- Finance (ROI, incentives, partner economics)
- Leadership (prioritization, focus, accountability)
This is why the most successful ecosystem-driven companies—especially those operating in platforms like Databricks, Salesforce, Snowflake, AWS, and SAP—don’t rely on isolated alliance roles.
They build repeatable alliance motions.
Ecosystems Don’t Monetize Themselves
Another hard truth: Building a partner ecosystem is the easy part. Monetizing it is the hard part.
Too many alliance programs stop at:
- Partner recruitment
- Enablement
- Relationship management
But revenue only shows up when alliance teams focus on:
- Co-sell pipeline creation (not just intros)
- Account-level alignment with sellers
- Clear ownership of opportunities
- Joint GTM offers tied to buying motions
- Consumption and expansion, not just bookings
Without this, alliances become theater—great slides, low yield.
The Alliance Manager’s Role Must Evolve
This doesn’t mean Alliance Managers aren’t important. It means their role must evolve from relationship stewards to revenue operators.
The modern Alliance Manager should be measured on:
- Partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline
- Conversion rates and deal velocity
- Expansion and platform consumption
- Revenue contribution by partner tier
If it doesn’t show up in the forecast, it’s not a strategy—it’s a hobby.
From Partner Programs to Partner P&L
The companies winning today are asking different questions:
- Which partners are driving enterprise deals—not just registrations?
- Which motions consistently convert to revenue?
- Which alliances deserve more investment—and which should be exited?
This is the shift from partner programs to partner P&L ownership.
And it requires treating alliance management as a function with accountability, not a single role buried under Sales or Marketing.
Final Thought
Partnerships are not downstream of alliances. Partnerships are downstream of revenue execution.
If your alliance team isn’t accountable for monetization, your ecosystem will always look better on slides than in your numbers.
And in today’s environment, that gap is no longer sustainable.
#AllianceManagement #PartnerEcosystem #ChannelRevenue #CoSell #RevenueGrowth #EcosystemStrategy #PartnerLedGrowth #IndirectSales #GTMStrategy #EnterpriseSales #Monetization