Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG)
A go-to-market approach where partners, marketplaces, and integrations are a primary source of pipeline, retention, and expansion — not a side channel.
Ecosystem-Led Growth treats the network around your product — resellers, systems integrators, technology partners, agencies, and marketplaces — as a measurable revenue engine. Practically, it means shared account intelligence with partners, co-sell motions run alongside direct sales, marketplace transacting where buyers already have budget, and attribution that separates partner-sourced from partner-influenced revenue.
Partner Program as a Service →
Partner Program as a Service (PPaaS)
A fully managed model where an external ecosystem team designs, launches, and operates your partner program instead of you hiring a full partnerships department.
PPaaS covers program strategy and design, partner recruitment, onboarding and enablement, co-sell and marketplace execution, and ongoing optimization. It differs from consulting because the team operates the program rather than delivering a strategy document, and it differs from a single hire because the operating team, program architecture, and enablement assets arrive together.
PPaaS overview →
Co-sell
A motion where your sellers and a partner's sellers work the same opportunity together, each contributing account access, credibility, or delivery capability.
Co-sell works when both sides can see the opportunity, know who owns which conversation, and get compensated for the outcome. That requires account mapping, a registration or referral mechanism, agreed deal roles, and reporting both companies trust. Hyperscaler co-sell programs add marketplace transacting and partner-sourced incentives on top of the same mechanics.
Deal registration
The process a partner uses to claim an opportunity so they receive protection, margin, or credit if it closes.
Deal registration exists to reduce channel conflict. A workable policy defines what qualifies as a registerable deal, how quickly the vendor must approve or reject, how long protection lasts, and what happens when direct sales is already engaged. Slow approvals are the most common reason partners stop registering deals.
Partner tiering
A structure that groups partners into levels with different requirements, benefits, and economics based on contribution and capability.
Good tiering ties benefits to behaviour you want repeated — certified people, sourced pipeline, delivery quality — rather than logo size. Each tier should have entry criteria, a clear benefit set, and an annual review, so partners can see the path upward and the program can prune inactive partners without ambiguity.
Market Development Funds (MDF)
Vendor funding given to partners for marketing activity that generates demand for the joint solution.
MDF is either accrual-based (earned as a percentage of partner revenue) or discretionary (allocated to strategic activity). It works when the claim process is simple, the eligible activities are defined up front, and results are reported back against pipeline. Unclaimed MDF is usually a symptom of process friction, not partner disinterest.
Marketplace private offer
A custom-priced deal transacted through a cloud marketplace such as AWS Marketplace, so the buyer can draw down committed cloud spend.
Private offers let a seller set negotiated pricing, terms, and payment schedules for a specific customer inside the marketplace. For buyers the appeal is committed-spend retirement and procurement simplification; for sellers it is faster contracting and access to partner co-sell incentives tied to marketplace transactions.
Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
Software used to onboard partners, share content, register deals, and report on partner performance.
A PRM is a system of record, not a program. It is valuable once you have partner volume, defined deal rules, and enablement content worth distributing; introduced before those exist, it usually becomes an unused portal. Most programs start with CRM plus shared documentation and adopt a PRM when manual administration becomes the constraint.
PRM vs a managed program →
Partner-sourced vs partner-influenced
Sourced means the partner originated the opportunity; influenced means the partner materially helped an opportunity your team already had.
Keeping the two separate is what makes partner reporting credible. Sourced revenue justifies recruitment investment; influenced revenue justifies enablement and co-sell investment. Blending them into one number is the fastest way to lose finance's trust in partner attribution.
Partner enablement
The training, assets, and support that let a partner position, sell, and deliver your product without your team in every conversation.
Effective enablement is measured by time-to-first-deal and by how often partners run a cycle unaided. It usually includes a short onboarding path, a positioning and objection-handling asset, a demo or sandbox, delivery documentation, and a named contact for escalation — deliberately smaller than most vendors' content libraries.
Account mapping
Comparing your CRM accounts with a partner's to find shared customers, overlapping prospects, and warm introduction paths.
Account mapping is the practical starting point for most co-sell motions because it produces a specific, short list of accounts where a partner can help. It is normally run through a secure data-sharing tool so neither side exposes its full customer list, and the output should convert directly into named introductions with owners and dates.
ISV, SI, and MSP partners
Three common partner types: software vendors that integrate, consultancies that implement, and providers that manage services on your behalf.
ISVs (independent software vendors) create joint value through integrations and marketplace listings. SIs (systems integrators) influence platform selection and deliver implementation. MSPs (managed service providers) run the solution for the customer and often own the commercial relationship. Each needs different economics, enablement, and success measures — treating them as one channel is a frequent program design error.