July 15, 2026
The Partnership Mistakes That Cost Partners Millions
Success in the Microsoft ecosystem isn't determined by winning individual deals—it's built through a repeatable partnership strategy. In this episode of m365.fm, we uncover the twelve most expensive mistakes Microsoft partners make and explain why many organizations struggle to scale despite having excellent products and satisfied customers. From weak marketplace strategies and poor internal ownership to broken co-sell processes and underused incentives, these execution gaps quietly cost partners millions in missed revenue every year. Whether you're an MSP, CSP, ISV, or consulting partner, this episode provides practical lessons to help you avoid common pitfalls and build a stronger Microsoft partnership.
WHY GREAT PRODUCTS AREN'T ENOUGH
Many partners assume that earning designations, publishing on Microsoft Marketplace, or building an outstanding solution will automatically generate leads. Unfortunately, that's rarely how the Microsoft ecosystem works. We explain why Microsoft acts as an amplifier—not a lead generation engine—and why successful partners invest heavily in storytelling, field engagement, partner readiness, and strategic alignment before expecting co-sell opportunities. You'll also learn why dedicated partnership ownership, executive sponsorship, and properly aligned sales compensation are essential foundations for long-term growth.
THE EXECUTION GAPS THAT HOLD PARTNERS BACK
The biggest challenges often happen behind the scenes. This episode explores common operational mistakes including poor finance preparation for Marketplace incentives, weak Microsoft-focused messaging, relying on certifications instead of customer value, failing to create actionable partner plans, neglecting Partner Center data quality, and overwhelming Microsoft sellers with unfocused co-sell opportunities. We explain how inaccurate reporting, missing referrals, ineffective Partner Development Manager engagement, and weak operational processes gradually erode Microsoft's confidence and reduce long-term partnership opportunities.
INCENTIVES, OPERATIONS, AND SCALING THE RIGHT WAY
Microsoft invests billions into partner programs, yet many organizations fail to capture available funding because they don't understand how incentives, Partner Center, Marketplace transactions, Azure Consumption Revenue, and operational governance work together. Learn why successful partners reinvest Microsoft funding into workshops, events, co-marketing, and pipeline generation instead of treating incentives as general revenue. We also discuss why scaling too quickly without mature operational processes creates bottlenecks that damage customer experience, delay Marketplace offers, and weaken Microsoft relationships over time.
BUILDING A HIGH-PERFORMING MICROSOFT PARTNERSHIP
The episode concludes with a practical recovery playbook inspired by successful Microsoft ecosystem leaders. Discover how engineering alignment, focused go-to-market plays, targeted co-sell execution, strong Partner Development Manager relationships, consistent communication rhythms, and continuous feedback loops transform average partnerships into strategic growth engines. Rather than chasing every opportunity, you'll learn how leading Microsoft partners build repeatable systems that strengthen their relationship with Microsoft, unlock new incentives, improve field engagement, and generate sustainable long-term growth. If you're serious about building a profitable Microsoft practice, avoiding these twelve mistakes may be one of the highest-return investments you can make.
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Here's the problem most partners don't see coming,
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you can win every deal in front of you
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and still stall out at gold.
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That's because winning deals and building a business
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are two different skills.
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One is tactical, the other is strategic.
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Here's a number that should stop you called.
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65% of Microsoft partners could fail by 2026
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if they don't pivot.
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That's not a prediction about the market.
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It's a prediction about the gap
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between what partners think works and what actually does.
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We'll walk through the 12 specific mistakes
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that keep partners stuck.
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Not theory, real mistakes backed by real recovery data
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from partners who made them and pulled out.
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Here's the thing, this isn't a strategy problem.
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You know what you should be doing.
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It's an execution problem and it's costing you millions.
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The expectation gap, the most common mistake
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I see in the ecosystem is early stage partners
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assuming marketplace listing equals lead flow.
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I listed on marketplace so leads should come.
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That's the misunderstanding.
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You publish your solution, get transactable,
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and then sit around waiting for the windfall.
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And it never comes because that's not how this works.
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Microsoft is an amplifier, think of it as a microphone.
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If you don't talk into it, nothing happens.
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You have to put something into it to get amplified.
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Veeam learned this the hard way.
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Early on, their connection to Microsoft
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was basically, we sit on Hyper-V.
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That was their story.
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Great product, happy customers, happy partners.
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But they had no real narrative for Microsoft
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beyond where super cool and where in the stack.
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The hard truth is that leads are a mature output
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of the partnership, not a starting point.
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You don't get leads because you listed.
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You get them after you've shown you can win.
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Demonstrated value and proven that Microsoft's field time
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invested in you is a good bet.
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So reset the frame, be proactive, show up with the story,
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demonstrate value before you ask for anything.
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That's where the partnership actually starts.
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The ownership void.
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Here's the thing about resetting expectations.
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It doesn't matter if nobody owns the relationship.
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That's mistake number two, no dedicated partnership owner.
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So often the Microsoft partnership becomes someone's third job,
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the thing they do on Friday when they have extra time.
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And that's exactly the results you get.
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It's a third or fourth priority for multiple people
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and that shows up in your numbers.
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It also shows up to Microsoft.
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Here's the paradox, high impact partnerships
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come with high complexity.
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Microsoft is a massive company.
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The returns are enormous when you get it right.
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But it requires maniacal focus.
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You need someone who wakes up every day with one job.
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Move that partnership forward.
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That brings us to mistake number three,
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misaligned sales compensation.
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If working with Microsoft feels like a tax to your sales team,
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you've already lost.
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When your reps think these are Microsoft deals,
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so I don't get paid, they'll avoid them
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and poison the well for everyone else.
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This is one of the few things I call a non-starter.
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Do not begin a partnership motion
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until compensation is solved.
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Unwinding a bad start is harder than delaying.
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Once your sales team develops a distaste for partnership deals,
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pivoting is extremely difficult.
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Look at Veeam.
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Their alliance leader sits under channel marketing.
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The VP of channels has an alliance leader on their team.
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And they made sure the alliance folks
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and the cloud sales leaders are in the same room.
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Because when you come out of a working meeting with outcomes,
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you don't want to go do internal selling again.
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You want a joint plan that you're going to run.
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Get the ownership right, get the comp right,
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everything else builds on that foundation.
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The readiness gap, ownership alone isn't enough.
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The organization has to be ready to support the partnership
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and that's where most partners hit a wall.
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Mistake number four, finance isn't ready
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for marketplace payments.
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This sounds like a back office problem,
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but it kills deals.
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Here's what happens.
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Microsoft sends an incentive payment to the partner.
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The finance team doesn't know it's coming.
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They think it's a mistake, so they send it back.
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And once you send it back to Microsoft,
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good luck getting it again.
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That money doesn't come back easily as I've seen partners leave
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hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table
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because their own finance team
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didn't know how to process a marketplace transaction.
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The fix is simple.
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Tell finance it's coming proactively
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before the money hits the account.
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A line on how private offers work,
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how incentives get paid, and where the money goes.
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Because if it hits the bottom line
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and gets absorbed into general revenue, it's gone.
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You can't get it back for the partnership team.
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Mistake number five is even more common.
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Weak Microsoft messaging, partners talk about their product,
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but Microsoft sellers think in package place.
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Those are two different languages.
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There are half a million partners in the ecosystem,
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and a seller can't be expected to understand half a million languages.
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You have to be the one who translates,
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who makes it easy for them.
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What cuts through is specificity.
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Not we solve data problems.
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That's noise.
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What works is here's the play for a security specialist
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covering health care accounts,
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or here's the play for an account technology strategist
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in financial services.
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You map your solution to their role, their quota,
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their priorities.
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Veeam figured this out.
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They broke their entire offering into specific plays,
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identified which seller roles to target,
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security specialists, ATSs, business application specialists,
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and build messaging for each one.
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They didn't go in saying, "We're Veeam work with us."
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They went in saying, "Here's how we help you hit your number
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in these 10 accounts."
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That's the difference between noise and signal,
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and Microsoft sellers have a very high threshold
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for what counts as signal.
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The credibility trap.
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Once you're ready internally,
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the next trap is thinking credentials alone,
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build credibility, mistake number six,
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treating certifications as a logo.
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I have the badge, now give me the business.
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The thing is, certification unlocks potential benefits,
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not instant results.
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Getting that designation doesn't mean Microsoft hands you deals.
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It means you're eligible to participate,
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and that's it.
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You still have to do the work.
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I see partners get the designation
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and then never activate partner reported ACR
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or tap into the incentives it unlocks.
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They treat it as a trophy instead of a tool
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and trophies don't generate pipeline.
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Mistake number seven is closely related,
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having no one page partner plan.
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A 30 page plan that no one reads is worse than no plan at all.
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It gives you the illusion of preparation
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without the reality.
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The one page it does two things.
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First, it proves you actually have a plan.
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You're working towards something you have goals,
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you've aligned with Microsoft's priorities
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and you're tracking progress.
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That's the foundation.
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Second, it gives sellers a quick reference
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when you meet different personas
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across Microsoft at events, on calls,
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or in account planning sessions.
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You need something you can hand someone that says,
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"This is who we are, this is what we're doing together,
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this is how we win."
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V made this shift explicitly moving from,
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"We are certified, work with us,
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to hear exactly how we align with your priorities."
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They stopped leading with the badge
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and started leading with the plan.
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That's a completely different conversation.
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One is passive, the other is proactive
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and Microsoft responds to proactive partners.
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The data black hole, planning matters,
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but data is the currency of the partnership
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and most partners are giving bad signals.
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Mistake number eight, not sharing referrals in partner center
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or worse, sharing irrelevant data.
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This is the foundation of partnership trust.
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Data is how Microsoft makes decisions.
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It's how they know where you're strong,
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what customers you're working with,
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what industries you're penetrating.
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When you log nothing, they have no data to work with.
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When you log partial data, they assume it's complete,
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both are bad.
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But here's where it gets worse.
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Mistake number nine, treating all deals as co-cell.
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Flatten the system with a thousand deals
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when you actually need help on three to five.
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I worked with a partner who was sharing
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about a thousand deals a year,
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every single one marked as co-cell.
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And the problem is obvious,
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there's no way they could take a thousand calls
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with Microsoft sellers,
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even if they could, most of those deals
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didn't need Microsoft's help.
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They've been around for decades
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and can sell most of their solutions by themselves.
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The dilution problem is real.
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When everything is co-cell, nothing is.
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Cells stop paying attention
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because they can't tell which opportunities
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actually need their involvement
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and your signal gets buried in your own noise.
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We made this exact mistake early on.
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They put every deal into partner center,
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hoping it would make them look good
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and it backfired.
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Because when you flood the system,
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you don't look strategic, you look desperate,
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and Microsoft sellers can smell the difference.
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The fix is simple, but hard to execute.
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Identify the three to five high value use cases
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where you truly need Microsoft help.
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The deals where a Microsoft seller can open a door you can't.
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The accounts where your competitor is already entrenched
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and you need a warm introduction
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or the opportunities where having Microsoft validate
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your solution changes the buying dynamic.
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Focus there, be surgical,
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create positive experiences
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with every single co-cell interaction
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because when you narrow your focus,
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you actually create more positive experiences.
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You become the partner who's easy to work with,
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who shows up prepared and who doesn't waste anyone's time
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and that's when the real opportunities start to open up.
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The growth bottleneck,
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even with good data flowing,
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most partners still leave money on the table.
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Mistake number 10 is underusing rewards and incentives,
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letting Microsoft funding sit at the bottom line
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instead of reinvesting it in the partnership.
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Here's how it plays out.
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Microsoft sends incentive dollars to the partner,
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the finance team sees a deposit,
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hits the general ledger and then it disappears into corporate revenue.
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The partnership team never sees it,
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so they can't use it to fund events,
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build co-marketing campaigns or higher headcount.
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It just vanishes.
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I've seen partners leave up to $400,000,
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unclaimed per-deal cycle,
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not because they weren't eligible,
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but because they never activated the programs,
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never told finance it was coming
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and never built the reinvestment plan.
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Winning partners do it differently.
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They use incentives as pre-sales fuel,
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funding customer workshops, sponsoring events,
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and building co-marketing campaigns that generate pipeline.
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They reinvest every dollar back into the partnership flywheel
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because they understand that the money is not profit.
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It's rocket fuel, burn it at the bottom line
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and you don't go anywhere.
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Mistake number 11 is scaling without ops ready
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and this one kills momentum faster than anything else.
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You have a process that works for five deals a month
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so you scale to 50 using the same process
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and it breaks that you didn't amplify a good process.
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You amplified a bad one, making your floors bigger and faster.
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Veeam took the opposite approach.
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They didn't scale until engineering alignment was in place,
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sales play development was locked
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and co-selectivation was proven.
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They built the foundation before they built the house.
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The ops backbone matters.
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Revops needs to be involved early,
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not after you've already started scaling.
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They manage private offer workflows, handle deal registration
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and make sure your CRM talks to partner center correctly.
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If those systems aren't connected, you're flying blind.
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Get the ops right first, then scale.
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Scaling a broken process is just a faster way to fail.
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The communication breakdown.
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Operations matter, but without rhythm, the partnership stalls.
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That's mistake number 12.
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No feedback loop with Microsoft.
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I call this the Kumbaya meeting trap.
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You bring both sides together with big PowerPoint slides
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and executives lining up on both sides of the table.
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You high five each other at the end and then crickets.
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Nothing happens until the next quarterly review.
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And by then, whatever momentum you had is gone,
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the partnership goes stagnant
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because the conversation disappears when it matters most.
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Account planning, pipeline updates and incentive alignment
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are not quarterly conversations.
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They're weekly conversations.
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What works is weekly or bi-weekly tactical meetings
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not monthly reviews or quarterly business reviews.
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You already have the strategy alignment
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so you don't need another deck.
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You need a working session where you tune the machine.
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Veeam figured this out.
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They don't wait for monthly business reviews.
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They hold tactical meetings every Thursday,
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same time, same people.
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They talk about what's working, what's not,
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whether the messaging is resonating
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and whether they need to tune the approach.
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It's not a status update.
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It's a working session.
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And here's the thing about the PDM relationship.
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Your partner development manager
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is the most important relationship you have at Microsoft.
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They navigate programs, connect you with field sellers
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and advocate for your success internally.
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But most partners treat them as transactional.
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They only reach out when they need something
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and they don't build the relationship, share wins
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or invest in the connection.
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The moment you start deprioritizing the rhythm
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and the communication, things go south fast
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because Microsoft is a massive organization.
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If you're not in their field of view, you're invisible
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and invisibility is the fastest path to stagnation.
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The recovery playbook, these mistakes are common
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but they're also fixable
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and the best proof is Veeam's full arc.
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Veeam started as a company
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that couldn't even get Microsoft to return their calls.
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Their co-founder used to joke they were a drinking company
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with a software problem, fun and scrappy,
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but not taken seriously.
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Fast forward to today and they're on track
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to hit $2 billion this year.
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They signed a five year agreement
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with Microsoft and Microsoft made an investment in them.
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That's not a pivot, that's a transformation.
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So what did they actually do?
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Three pillars and the auto matters.
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First, engineering alignment.
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00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:36,400
They had to build deep technical hooks into Microsoft's roadmap,
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not just saying we sit on Hyper-V
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but actual integration and product level commitment.
348
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That came first because without it, nothing else is credible.
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Second, GTM packaging.
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00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:48,240
They broke their offering into specific plays
351
00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,440
for specific seller roles, not just we do backup.
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That's a product.
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00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:54,440
A security specialist needs a different conversation
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00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:56,320
than an account technology strategist.
355
00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:57,760
So Veeam built both.
356
00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:00,560
They mapped their solution to Microsoft's compensation structure
357
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and made it easy for sellers to say yes.
358
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Third, co-sell activation.
359
00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:05,880
They didn't go broad, they went deep.
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They identified a targeted set of accounts
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across several operating units, not 1,300,
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but a smaller set with strong sponsorship.
363
00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:14,160
They went hard on those accounts,
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then came back as a team, tuned the messaging and repeated.
365
00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:19,760
The tactical shift is the key.
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Move from where partners work with us to, here are 10 accounts.
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Here's the play, here's the seller role.
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That's a fundamentally different conversation.
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One is a request, the other is a plan
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and the commitment lever matters.
371
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Veeam committed to Azure.
372
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They didn't just say they were aligned,
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they put their own product roadmap on Microsoft's platform.
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They made it logical for Microsoft to invest in them
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because when you have skin in the game,
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the partnership becomes mutually.
377
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You're not asking for favors, you're building something together.
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One more thing.
379
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Veeam uses the customer zero approach.
380
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They use their own tools on themselves
381
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before asking customers to buy.
382
00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,080
They ran their own data resilience assessment internally,
383
00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:54,400
created their own success story
384
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and when they go to a customer, they can say,
385
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here's how it made a difference for us
386
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and here's how it'll make a difference for you.
387
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That's credibility you can't fake.
388
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The bottom line is this, 65% of partners may fail.
389
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Not because the ecosystem is broken,
390
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not because Microsoft changed the rules
391
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but because they won't make these specific pivots.
392
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The mistakes are known, the fixes are proven.
393
00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:15,000
The question is whether you'll do the workers
394
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and so those are the 12 mistakes.
395
00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:19,600
And here's the thing, none of them are fatal on their own
396
00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:20,840
but ignoring them is.
397
00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:22,440
Pick the one that hurts most right now,
398
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the one that's costing you the most money or the most sleep.
399
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Build a recovery plan around it this week, not next quarter.
400
00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:31,360
this week if you're building a partnership that actually works subscribe and I'll
401
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see you in the next one.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,280
Here's the problem most partners don't see coming,
2
00:00:02,280 --> 00:00:03,720
you can win every deal in front of you
3
00:00:03,720 --> 00:00:05,320
and still stall out at gold.
4
00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:07,520
That's because winning deals and building a business
5
00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:09,020
are two different skills.
6
00:00:09,020 --> 00:00:11,740
One is tactical, the other is strategic.
7
00:00:11,740 --> 00:00:13,420
Here's a number that should stop you called.
8
00:00:13,420 --> 00:00:16,800
65% of Microsoft partners could fail by 2026
9
00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:17,760
if they don't pivot.
10
00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:19,640
That's not a prediction about the market.
11
00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:20,960
It's a prediction about the gap
12
00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:23,880
between what partners think works and what actually does.
13
00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:25,720
We'll walk through the 12 specific mistakes
14
00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:27,000
that keep partners stuck.
15
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,120
Not theory, real mistakes backed by real recovery data
16
00:00:30,120 --> 00:00:31,820
from partners who made them and pulled out.
17
00:00:31,820 --> 00:00:33,960
Here's the thing, this isn't a strategy problem.
18
00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:35,100
You know what you should be doing.
19
00:00:35,100 --> 00:00:38,520
It's an execution problem and it's costing you millions.
20
00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:40,920
The expectation gap, the most common mistake
21
00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:43,240
I see in the ecosystem is early stage partners
22
00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:45,800
assuming marketplace listing equals lead flow.
23
00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,360
I listed on marketplace so leads should come.
24
00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:49,640
That's the misunderstanding.
25
00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:52,000
You publish your solution, get transactable,
26
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,720
and then sit around waiting for the windfall.
27
00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:56,920
And it never comes because that's not how this works.
28
00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:00,160
Microsoft is an amplifier, think of it as a microphone.
29
00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:02,240
If you don't talk into it, nothing happens.
30
00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:04,520
You have to put something into it to get amplified.
31
00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:06,240
Veeam learned this the hard way.
32
00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:08,040
Early on, their connection to Microsoft
33
00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:10,360
was basically, we sit on Hyper-V.
34
00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:11,480
That was their story.
35
00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:14,200
Great product, happy customers, happy partners.
36
00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:16,200
But they had no real narrative for Microsoft
37
00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:18,880
beyond where super cool and where in the stack.
38
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:20,920
The hard truth is that leads are a mature output
39
00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:22,960
of the partnership, not a starting point.
40
00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:24,800
You don't get leads because you listed.
41
00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:26,840
You get them after you've shown you can win.
42
00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,920
Demonstrated value and proven that Microsoft's field time
43
00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:31,640
invested in you is a good bet.
44
00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,720
So reset the frame, be proactive, show up with the story,
45
00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:36,840
demonstrate value before you ask for anything.
46
00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:39,640
That's where the partnership actually starts.
47
00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:40,720
The ownership void.
48
00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:42,840
Here's the thing about resetting expectations.
49
00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,440
It doesn't matter if nobody owns the relationship.
50
00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:48,720
That's mistake number two, no dedicated partnership owner.
51
00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:51,760
So often the Microsoft partnership becomes someone's third job,
52
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,160
the thing they do on Friday when they have extra time.
53
00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:56,000
And that's exactly the results you get.
54
00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,840
It's a third or fourth priority for multiple people
55
00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:00,240
and that shows up in your numbers.
56
00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:01,720
It also shows up to Microsoft.
57
00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:03,840
Here's the paradox, high impact partnerships
58
00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:05,200
come with high complexity.
59
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:06,720
Microsoft is a massive company.
60
00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:09,080
The returns are enormous when you get it right.
61
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But it requires maniacal focus.
62
00:02:10,920 --> 00:02:13,600
You need someone who wakes up every day with one job.
63
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Move that partnership forward.
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00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:17,040
That brings us to mistake number three,
65
00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,080
misaligned sales compensation.
66
00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:21,920
If working with Microsoft feels like a tax to your sales team,
67
00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:23,480
you've already lost.
68
00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:25,800
When your reps think these are Microsoft deals,
69
00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:27,680
so I don't get paid, they'll avoid them
70
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:29,360
and poison the well for everyone else.
71
00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:32,000
This is one of the few things I call a non-starter.
72
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Do not begin a partnership motion
73
00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:34,720
until compensation is solved.
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00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:37,360
Unwinding a bad start is harder than delaying.
75
00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,320
Once your sales team develops a distaste for partnership deals,
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00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:42,040
pivoting is extremely difficult.
77
00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:42,960
Look at Veeam.
78
00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:44,920
Their alliance leader sits under channel marketing.
79
00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:47,400
The VP of channels has an alliance leader on their team.
80
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:48,800
And they made sure the alliance folks
81
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:51,000
and the cloud sales leaders are in the same room.
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Because when you come out of a working meeting with outcomes,
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00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:55,400
you don't want to go do internal selling again.
84
00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:57,440
You want a joint plan that you're going to run.
85
00:02:57,440 --> 00:02:59,040
Get the ownership right, get the comp right,
86
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everything else builds on that foundation.
87
00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:04,400
The readiness gap, ownership alone isn't enough.
88
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The organization has to be ready to support the partnership
89
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and that's where most partners hit a wall.
90
00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:11,480
Mistake number four, finance isn't ready
91
00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:12,720
for marketplace payments.
92
00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:14,360
This sounds like a back office problem,
93
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but it kills deals.
94
00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:16,880
Here's what happens.
95
00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:19,680
Microsoft sends an incentive payment to the partner.
96
00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:21,400
The finance team doesn't know it's coming.
97
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:23,560
They think it's a mistake, so they send it back.
98
00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:25,200
And once you send it back to Microsoft,
99
00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:26,360
good luck getting it again.
100
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That money doesn't come back easily as I've seen partners leave
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hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table
102
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because their own finance team
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didn't know how to process a marketplace transaction.
104
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The fix is simple.
105
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Tell finance it's coming proactively
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before the money hits the account.
107
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A line on how private offers work,
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how incentives get paid, and where the money goes.
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Because if it hits the bottom line
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and gets absorbed into general revenue, it's gone.
111
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You can't get it back for the partnership team.
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Mistake number five is even more common.
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Weak Microsoft messaging, partners talk about their product,
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but Microsoft sellers think in package place.
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Those are two different languages.
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There are half a million partners in the ecosystem,
117
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and a seller can't be expected to understand half a million languages.
118
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You have to be the one who translates,
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who makes it easy for them.
120
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What cuts through is specificity.
121
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Not we solve data problems.
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That's noise.
123
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What works is here's the play for a security specialist
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covering health care accounts,
125
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or here's the play for an account technology strategist
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in financial services.
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You map your solution to their role, their quota,
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their priorities.
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Veeam figured this out.
130
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They broke their entire offering into specific plays,
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identified which seller roles to target,
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security specialists, ATSs, business application specialists,
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and build messaging for each one.
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They didn't go in saying, "We're Veeam work with us."
135
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They went in saying, "Here's how we help you hit your number
136
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in these 10 accounts."
137
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That's the difference between noise and signal,
138
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and Microsoft sellers have a very high threshold
139
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for what counts as signal.
140
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The credibility trap.
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Once you're ready internally,
142
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the next trap is thinking credentials alone,
143
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build credibility, mistake number six,
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treating certifications as a logo.
145
00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:58,720
I have the badge, now give me the business.
146
00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:01,520
The thing is, certification unlocks potential benefits,
147
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not instant results.
148
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Getting that designation doesn't mean Microsoft hands you deals.
149
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It means you're eligible to participate,
150
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and that's it.
151
00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:10,400
You still have to do the work.
152
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I see partners get the designation
153
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and then never activate partner reported ACR
154
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or tap into the incentives it unlocks.
155
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They treat it as a trophy instead of a tool
156
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and trophies don't generate pipeline.
157
00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:21,680
Mistake number seven is closely related,
158
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having no one page partner plan.
159
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A 30 page plan that no one reads is worse than no plan at all.
160
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It gives you the illusion of preparation
161
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without the reality.
162
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The one page it does two things.
163
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First, it proves you actually have a plan.
164
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You're working towards something you have goals,
165
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you've aligned with Microsoft's priorities
166
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and you're tracking progress.
167
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That's the foundation.
168
00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:41,400
Second, it gives sellers a quick reference
169
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when you meet different personas
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across Microsoft at events, on calls,
171
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or in account planning sessions.
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You need something you can hand someone that says,
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"This is who we are, this is what we're doing together,
174
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this is how we win."
175
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V made this shift explicitly moving from,
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"We are certified, work with us,
177
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to hear exactly how we align with your priorities."
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They stopped leading with the badge
179
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and started leading with the plan.
180
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That's a completely different conversation.
181
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One is passive, the other is proactive
182
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and Microsoft responds to proactive partners.
183
00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:10,760
The data black hole, planning matters,
184
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but data is the currency of the partnership
185
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and most partners are giving bad signals.
186
00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:17,480
Mistake number eight, not sharing referrals in partner center
187
00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:19,440
or worse, sharing irrelevant data.
188
00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:21,800
This is the foundation of partnership trust.
189
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Data is how Microsoft makes decisions.
190
00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:25,440
It's how they know where you're strong,
191
00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:26,720
what customers you're working with,
192
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what industries you're penetrating.
193
00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,160
When you log nothing, they have no data to work with.
194
00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:33,160
When you log partial data, they assume it's complete,
195
00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:34,080
both are bad.
196
00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:36,920
But here's where it gets worse.
197
00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,880
Mistake number nine, treating all deals as co-cell.
198
00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:42,000
Flatten the system with a thousand deals
199
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,320
when you actually need help on three to five.
200
00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:45,920
I worked with a partner who was sharing
201
00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:47,760
about a thousand deals a year,
202
00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:49,880
every single one marked as co-cell.
203
00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:51,320
And the problem is obvious,
204
00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:53,240
there's no way they could take a thousand calls
205
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with Microsoft sellers,
206
00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:56,280
even if they could, most of those deals
207
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didn't need Microsoft's help.
208
00:06:57,920 --> 00:06:59,000
They've been around for decades
209
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:01,480
and can sell most of their solutions by themselves.
210
00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:03,160
The dilution problem is real.
211
00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:05,120
When everything is co-cell, nothing is.
212
00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:06,400
Cells stop paying attention
213
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because they can't tell which opportunities
214
00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:09,640
actually need their involvement
215
00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,040
and your signal gets buried in your own noise.
216
00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:13,840
We made this exact mistake early on.
217
00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:15,400
They put every deal into partner center,
218
00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:16,880
hoping it would make them look good
219
00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:17,920
and it backfired.
220
00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:19,080
Because when you flood the system,
221
00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:21,280
you don't look strategic, you look desperate,
222
00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:23,400
and Microsoft sellers can smell the difference.
223
00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:25,280
The fix is simple, but hard to execute.
224
00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:27,520
Identify the three to five high value use cases
225
00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:29,560
where you truly need Microsoft help.
226
00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,480
The deals where a Microsoft seller can open a door you can't.
227
00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:34,840
The accounts where your competitor is already entrenched
228
00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:36,720
and you need a warm introduction
229
00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,080
or the opportunities where having Microsoft validate
230
00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,680
your solution changes the buying dynamic.
231
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Focus there, be surgical,
232
00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:44,920
create positive experiences
233
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:46,960
with every single co-cell interaction
234
00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:48,240
because when you narrow your focus,
235
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you actually create more positive experiences.
236
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You become the partner who's easy to work with,
237
00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:55,600
who shows up prepared and who doesn't waste anyone's time
238
00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:57,960
and that's when the real opportunities start to open up.
239
00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:00,080
The growth bottleneck,
240
00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:01,320
even with good data flowing,
241
00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:03,200
most partners still leave money on the table.
242
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Mistake number 10 is underusing rewards and incentives,
243
00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:07,800
letting Microsoft funding sit at the bottom line
244
00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:10,000
instead of reinvesting it in the partnership.
245
00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:11,240
Here's how it plays out.
246
00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:13,160
Microsoft sends incentive dollars to the partner,
247
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the finance team sees a deposit,
248
00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:17,440
hits the general ledger and then it disappears into corporate revenue.
249
00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:18,840
The partnership team never sees it,
250
00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:20,320
so they can't use it to fund events,
251
00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:22,680
build co-marketing campaigns or higher headcount.
252
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It just vanishes.
253
00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:25,680
I've seen partners leave up to $400,000,
254
00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:27,160
unclaimed per-deal cycle,
255
00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:28,320
not because they weren't eligible,
256
00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:30,320
but because they never activated the programs,
257
00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:32,080
never told finance it was coming
258
00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:33,720
and never built the reinvestment plan.
259
00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:35,200
Winning partners do it differently.
260
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They use incentives as pre-sales fuel,
261
00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:39,920
funding customer workshops, sponsoring events,
262
00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:42,600
and building co-marketing campaigns that generate pipeline.
263
00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:45,640
They reinvest every dollar back into the partnership flywheel
264
00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:47,800
because they understand that the money is not profit.
265
00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:49,920
It's rocket fuel, burn it at the bottom line
266
00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:50,880
and you don't go anywhere.
267
00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:53,360
Mistake number 11 is scaling without ops ready
268
00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:55,800
and this one kills momentum faster than anything else.
269
00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:57,920
You have a process that works for five deals a month
270
00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:00,200
so you scale to 50 using the same process
271
00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:02,320
and it breaks that you didn't amplify a good process.
272
00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:05,920
You amplified a bad one, making your floors bigger and faster.
273
00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:07,600
Veeam took the opposite approach.
274
00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,200
They didn't scale until engineering alignment was in place,
275
00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:11,720
sales play development was locked
276
00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:13,520
and co-selectivation was proven.
277
00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:15,720
They built the foundation before they built the house.
278
00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:17,320
The ops backbone matters.
279
00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:18,800
Revops needs to be involved early,
280
00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:20,480
not after you've already started scaling.
281
00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:23,600
They manage private offer workflows, handle deal registration
282
00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,160
and make sure your CRM talks to partner center correctly.
283
00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,680
If those systems aren't connected, you're flying blind.
284
00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:30,440
Get the ops right first, then scale.
285
00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:33,560
Scaling a broken process is just a faster way to fail.
286
00:09:33,560 --> 00:09:35,120
The communication breakdown.
287
00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:38,400
Operations matter, but without rhythm, the partnership stalls.
288
00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:39,960
That's mistake number 12.
289
00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:41,960
No feedback loop with Microsoft.
290
00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:43,680
I call this the Kumbaya meeting trap.
291
00:09:43,680 --> 00:09:46,440
You bring both sides together with big PowerPoint slides
292
00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:48,920
and executives lining up on both sides of the table.
293
00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:51,560
You high five each other at the end and then crickets.
294
00:09:51,560 --> 00:09:53,880
Nothing happens until the next quarterly review.
295
00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:56,200
And by then, whatever momentum you had is gone,
296
00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:57,480
the partnership goes stagnant
297
00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:00,360
because the conversation disappears when it matters most.
298
00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:03,440
Account planning, pipeline updates and incentive alignment
299
00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:05,360
are not quarterly conversations.
300
00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:06,880
They're weekly conversations.
301
00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:09,800
What works is weekly or bi-weekly tactical meetings
302
00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:12,040
not monthly reviews or quarterly business reviews.
303
00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:13,480
You already have the strategy alignment
304
00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:14,760
so you don't need another deck.
305
00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:17,680
You need a working session where you tune the machine.
306
00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:18,760
Veeam figured this out.
307
00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:20,560
They don't wait for monthly business reviews.
308
00:10:20,560 --> 00:10:22,720
They hold tactical meetings every Thursday,
309
00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:24,280
same time, same people.
310
00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:25,880
They talk about what's working, what's not,
311
00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:27,440
whether the messaging is resonating
312
00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:29,640
and whether they need to tune the approach.
313
00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:30,800
It's not a status update.
314
00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:32,040
It's a working session.
315
00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:34,240
And here's the thing about the PDM relationship.
316
00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:35,680
Your partner development manager
317
00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:38,440
is the most important relationship you have at Microsoft.
318
00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:40,560
They navigate programs, connect you with field sellers
319
00:10:40,560 --> 00:10:42,640
and advocate for your success internally.
320
00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:44,680
But most partners treat them as transactional.
321
00:10:44,680 --> 00:10:46,480
They only reach out when they need something
322
00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:48,640
and they don't build the relationship, share wins
323
00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:50,160
or invest in the connection.
324
00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:52,080
The moment you start deprioritizing the rhythm
325
00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:54,360
and the communication, things go south fast
326
00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:56,600
because Microsoft is a massive organization.
327
00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,320
If you're not in their field of view, you're invisible
328
00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:02,600
and invisibility is the fastest path to stagnation.
329
00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:05,040
The recovery playbook, these mistakes are common
330
00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:06,280
but they're also fixable
331
00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:08,640
and the best proof is Veeam's full arc.
332
00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:09,760
Veeam started as a company
333
00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:12,320
that couldn't even get Microsoft to return their calls.
334
00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:14,400
Their co-founder used to joke they were a drinking company
335
00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:16,800
with a software problem, fun and scrappy,
336
00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:17,880
but not taken seriously.
337
00:11:17,880 --> 00:11:19,840
Fast forward to today and they're on track
338
00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:21,480
to hit $2 billion this year.
339
00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:22,720
They signed a five year agreement
340
00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:25,160
with Microsoft and Microsoft made an investment in them.
341
00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:27,520
That's not a pivot, that's a transformation.
342
00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:28,600
So what did they actually do?
343
00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:30,960
Three pillars and the auto matters.
344
00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:32,920
First, engineering alignment.
345
00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:36,400
They had to build deep technical hooks into Microsoft's roadmap,
346
00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:38,560
not just saying we sit on Hyper-V
347
00:11:38,560 --> 00:11:41,240
but actual integration and product level commitment.
348
00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,200
That came first because without it, nothing else is credible.
349
00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:46,280
Second, GTM packaging.
350
00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:48,240
They broke their offering into specific plays
351
00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:51,440
for specific seller roles, not just we do backup.
352
00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:52,480
That's a product.
353
00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:54,440
A security specialist needs a different conversation
354
00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:56,320
than an account technology strategist.
355
00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:57,760
So Veeam built both.
356
00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:00,560
They mapped their solution to Microsoft's compensation structure
357
00:12:00,560 --> 00:12:02,520
and made it easy for sellers to say yes.
358
00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:04,120
Third, co-sell activation.
359
00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:05,880
They didn't go broad, they went deep.
360
00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:07,720
They identified a targeted set of accounts
361
00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:10,600
across several operating units, not 1,300,
362
00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:12,760
but a smaller set with strong sponsorship.
363
00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:14,160
They went hard on those accounts,
364
00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:18,360
then came back as a team, tuned the messaging and repeated.
365
00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:19,760
The tactical shift is the key.
366
00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:22,920
Move from where partners work with us to, here are 10 accounts.
367
00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:24,920
Here's the play, here's the seller role.
368
00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:26,640
That's a fundamentally different conversation.
369
00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:28,560
One is a request, the other is a plan
370
00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:30,240
and the commitment lever matters.
371
00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:31,480
Veeam committed to Azure.
372
00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:32,840
They didn't just say they were aligned,
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they put their own product roadmap on Microsoft's platform.
374
00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:38,360
They made it logical for Microsoft to invest in them
375
00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:40,080
because when you have skin in the game,
376
00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:41,480
the partnership becomes mutually.
377
00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:44,160
You're not asking for favors, you're building something together.
378
00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:45,160
One more thing.
379
00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:47,160
Veeam uses the customer zero approach.
380
00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:48,720
They use their own tools on themselves
381
00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:50,440
before asking customers to buy.
382
00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,080
They ran their own data resilience assessment internally,
383
00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:54,400
created their own success story
384
00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:56,320
and when they go to a customer, they can say,
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here's how it made a difference for us
386
00:12:58,000 --> 00:12:59,880
and here's how it'll make a difference for you.
387
00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:01,960
That's credibility you can't fake.
388
00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:05,320
The bottom line is this, 65% of partners may fail.
389
00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:07,160
Not because the ecosystem is broken,
390
00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:09,120
not because Microsoft changed the rules
391
00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,440
but because they won't make these specific pivots.
392
00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:13,400
The mistakes are known, the fixes are proven.
393
00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:15,000
The question is whether you'll do the workers
394
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,040
and so those are the 12 mistakes.
395
00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:19,600
And here's the thing, none of them are fatal on their own
396
00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:20,840
but ignoring them is.
397
00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:22,440
Pick the one that hurts most right now,
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the one that's costing you the most money or the most sleep.
399
00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:27,920
Build a recovery plan around it this week, not next quarter.
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this week if you're building a partnership that actually works subscribe and I'll
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00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:32,200
see you in the next one.
