Introduction
The idea of partnering with third parties to increase a business' reach and expand its sales network isn't new, but the types of channel partner programs we see today are very different from the typical brick-and-mortar sales rep asking the store owner to resell their product.
Even though the software was once sold on disks and distributed via a network of physical channel partners, the landscape has changed dramatically in the past decades. Today, you're much more likely to see even consulting firms offer compelling partner programs.
Yet the definition of channel partner remains the same:
"A company — such as an affiliate, referrer, or reseller — that partners with another company to market or sell their services or products."
It's a clear definition that includes 3 types of channel partners. Let's look at each of these to better understand how they can help a company like yours sell more effectively and reach parts of your target market that would otherwise be almost impossible to get to.
What Is a Channel Partner in Practice?
A channel partner is an organization that, either via a custom partnership agreement or through an existing partner program, decides to sign an agreement with your company to boost the marketing and sales efforts on a specific product or service in a specific way (the “channel”). Channel partners act as intermediaries that help SaaS companies scale their growth by providing sales, implementation, and customer support services.

The channel part indicates how and where that marketing and sales effort will take place. For example, an affiliate partner may send out newsletters (the “where”) to a high-value audience of potential buyers that they’ve built through their business blogging efforts (the “how”).
That is a marketing channel that the partner will cover.
So, the idea of establishing relationships with channel partners is to cover as many of these high-value areas as possible in a way that significantly boosts your marketing and sales efforts.
Definition and Benefits of Channel Partnerships
Channel partnerships are strategic alliances between two or more companies that leverage each other’s strengths to achieve mutual benefits. These partnerships can take various forms, including reseller partnerships, referral partnerships, and distribution partnerships. The primary goal of channel partnerships is to increase market penetration, access new customer segments and geographic markets, and provide additional resources such as specialized expertise, technology, infrastructure, or intellectual property.
The benefits of channel partnerships include:
- Increased market penetration and access to new customer segments and geographic markets
- Additional resources such as specialized expertise, technology, infrastructure, or intellectual property
- Cost savings through shared expenses and economies of scale
- Competitive advantage through collaboration with strategic partners
- Mitigation of risks associated with market fluctuations, changing customer preferences, or technological disruptions
- Enhanced customer service through leveraging partner expertise and resources
- Knowledge exchange and learning from each other’s experiences
Why Are Channel Partners Important in Business?
The reason why channel partners make so much sense in business—especially for B2B organizations like SaaS companies —is that they provide a range of benefits to your organization, not just a noticeable boost in sales volume. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are essential tools for businesses experiencing growth and needing to monitor customer interactions.
(Although that’s the primary reason for establishing a partner program)
Some of the benefits channel partners offer are:
- Help your company expand its reach to segments of your target market that were previously either impossible to reach because of constraints such as territory and technology, or that were too costly to get to without losing money.
- On that note, reducing costs related to marketing and sales efforts is another benefit of onboarding channel partners that are aligned with your business goals. Companies are deeply aware of how costly marketing truly is—partner programs are a great solution!
- Creating stronger relationships with both customers and partners enables your company to build a network of connections that make it possible to discover bigger hidden opportunities and go upmarket rather than focusing on just one market segment.
These are only 3 examples of why channel partners and the programs behind them are so important to businesses. We have a handy list with 7 more if you’re curious to dive deeper.
The Goals & Responsibilities of a Channel Partner
Becoming a channel partner comes with responsibilities that should be understood and taken seriously on both ends of the relationship. This is the one area that is most overlooked by companies and where most channel partner programs fail in the first place.
Creating a successful channel partnership involves leveraging the unique strengths and resources of both parties to enhance market penetration, improve customer service, and drive business growth.
Without set objectives that are clearly defined and that fit well with both a partner’s marketing and sales network as well as the issuing company’s culture, a partner program is just an empty shell that comes through as a “partner with us, but we don’t really know why” type of message.
Depending on the types of channel partner, some of their goals may be:
- Driving X targeted monthly traffic to a specific website page that upsells visitors on a personalized offer unique to that partner and converts Y% of leads into customers
- Referring X new leads to your company when certain criteria for each lead are met and provide early support for up to Y months before the success team takes over
- Introducing a discounted $X dollar product offering directly into their sales process as part of their proposal and driving $Y quarterly revenue based on that “special” price
All of these are good examples of objectives that channel partners commit to achieving for something in return, whether that be commissions, revenue share, or product discounts.
The 3 Types of Channel Partners To Know About
Although there are many types of channel partners, there are 3 that we believe yield the best returns to consulting firms and SaaS companies selling to customers via digital means.
Channel Partner Type #1: Affiliates

The idea of an affiliate in business is quite recent, with the term “affiliate marketing” being thrown around for the first time in 1989 as part of an internet sales scheme.
Today, the concept is well-known:
» You sign up for an affiliate program, receive a personalized URL to send potential customers to, and get a commission for each one that purchases something.
It’s a simple concept that revealed itself to be powerful in a world of “virality” and network effects (i.e., the internet). And now it can be applied to B2B sales efforts as well—not just B2C.
Joint marketing initiatives with affiliate partners can enhance brand visibility and reach by leveraging shared goals and customer segments.
An affiliate channel partner is someone who has access to an audience—small or large—that is deeply interested and invested in a specific topic, and that follows that person (sometimes called an influencer or thought leader) to learn and understand more about the subject.
An affiliate channel partner is someone who has access to an audience—small or large—that is deeply interested and invested in a specific topic.
More importantly, though, the audience trusts the person and would happily follow certain directions given to them by the influencer if relevant and non-spammy.
This lends itself really well to selling a specific product or service offered on commission; it doesn’t work as well with one-on-one discounts or perks, as the affiliate will have no control over the individual people they are talking to.
They will be mass communicating essentially.
Of course, that might also mean a huge spike in sales.
So, if you’re looking to invest in this type of channel partner, make sure your internal resources (systems and support teams especially) are able to handle the growth they can provide.
How to Find and Maximize Growth with Affiliate Partners
Affiliate partners promote a company’s product or service on their website, blog, or social media and earn a commission on the sales or leads generated. To find affiliate partners, companies can:
- Identify influential bloggers, newsletter creators, social media influencers, content creators, or website owners in the industry
- Research popular affiliate networks and platforms where businesses and publishers converge
- Use online directories and databases to find affiliate partners
- Leverage professional networks and industry associations to get recommendations for reputable affiliate partners
- Attend trade shows and industry conferences to connect with affiliate partners
To maximize growth with affiliate partners, companies can:
- Create an attractive affiliate program with competitive commissions and incentives
- Offer special promotions, exclusive discounts, or early access to new products or services
- Make it easy for affiliates to benefit from new leads with automated link generation and commission processes
- Establish clear communication channels with affiliate partners
- Provide affiliate partners with marketing materials, promotional content, and content creation strategies
Channel Partner Type #2: Referrers

A "referral" may sound familiar, but you shouldn't mistake it for a customer referral but rather a partner referral. The partner is the referrer in this case, and the prospect is the referee.
You, as the product owner, are the beneficiary, the organization that ultimately benefits from gaining that customer under certain circumstances that benefit the partner as well.
It's important to look at your channel partners as companies you want to share success with, not organizations to exploit for your own benefit only. The relationship should be mutual, and there should be responsibilities and objectives to meet on both ends, not just the partners'.
Referral partners are a great way to grow your sales efforts because they've already gained the trust of the customer on the other end, meaning that the probability of conversion is a lot higher.
Referral partners are a great way to grow your sales efforts because they've already gained the trust of the customer on the other end, meaning that the probability of conversion is a lot higher.
With referrals, there are also expectations on the referees' end that may be a bit different than what you usually experience from the average customer.
That is due to how the referrer talked about your service in the first place, as they may end up purchasing without consuming much of your marketing materials.
It's key for referral partners to get access to that marketing material—especially internal documents that aren't shared publicly—so that they can educate the prospect beforehand.
How to Find and Maximize Growth with Referral Partners
Referral partners are individuals who make qualified customer introductions to a company in exchange for compensation. To find referral partners, companies can:
- Identify customers who already love the product and are excited to talk about it
- Look for individuals or businesses within the industry that target similar customer segments
- Research industry influencers, satisfied customers, or professional service providers
- Build strong relationships with potential referral partners by reaching out and establishing a rapport
- Clearly outline the terms of the referral partnership, including commission structures and expectations
To maximize growth with referral partners, companies can:
- Maintain regular communication with referral partners to foster a strong relationship
- Acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of referral partners through public recognition
- Offer attractive incentives or rewards to motivate referral partners
- Provide on-demand training and resources about products or services
- Regularly evaluate the performance of referral partners and identify opportunities to optimize campaigns
Channel Partner Type #3: Resellers

Our third and final type of channel partner is the reseller, an organization that embeds your product or service within their own sales process, meaning that they will go to lengths to highlight the benefits offered from your solution, almost as if it was effectively theirs.
Managed service providers (MSPs) offer outsourced IT services and manage clients' technology infrastructure, providing comprehensive support, maintenance, and monitoring for businesses.
You can think about a reseller program as a co-branding effort, a product or service sold within a proposal that includes two or more brand names.
In B2B, resellers are some of the most powerful partners you can onboard, as they take on most of the marketing and sales efforts that your internal sales team would normally take on. This is also called indirect sales, and it drives the costs of running sales operations down to a minimum.
Plus, the relationship is a win-win situation on both ends because the reseller usually gets a discounted version of your product that they can pitch in a value-added proposal.
That means that the likelihood of sales increases on both ends; the partner gets their part of the deal (and may use your solution with the customer they’ve landed you), and you get a new customer without having to do any of the heavy lifting.
How to Find and Maximize Growth with Reseller Partners
Reseller partners purchase products or services from a company and sell them to their customers. To find reseller partners, companies can:
- Research the industry and identify resellers who are already active in the market and have experience selling similar products or services
- Ask existing partners, industry associations, professional networks, or customers about reputable resellers they’ve worked with
- Attend trade shows and industry events to connect with potential resellers
- Research partners on online platforms and marketplaces specific to the industry
- Analyze the partnerships of competitors and consider approaching those resellers with a pitch
To maximize growth with reseller partners, companies can:
- Make products or services easy to sell by providing training, support, and marketing materials
- Use partner marketing automation tools to deploy localized Google Ads campaigns with resellers
- Offer attractive incentives and rewards to motivate resellers
- Regularly communicate with resellers to gather market insights and address operational challenges
- Provide resellers with comprehensive product training, technical support, and marketing materials.
Building a Successful Channel Partner Program
Building a successful channel partner program requires a thorough understanding of the target audience and business. Companies should:
- Know their audience and understand their needs, preferences, and pain points
- Know their business and define their target market and sales strategy
- Set clear goals and objectives for the channel partner program
- Research potential partners and evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, and compatibility with the company’s goals and values
- Establish consistent communication channels with partners and provide regular updates on sales and customer interactions
By following these steps, companies can build a successful channel partner program that drives growth, increases customer satisfaction, and provides a competitive advantage in the market.
Start Your Channel Partner Program in Just Days
You now know the benefits of developing relationships with channel partners and the different types of partners that will deliver the strongest ROI on your program.
Now, it's time to create the program!
(Or manage it—if you already have one)
The problem is designing, launching, and managing a channel partner program can be quite a lengthy, time-consuming, and ultimately expensive process. For that, you'll likely need the support and help of a platform that can guide you through the process.

Kiflo is the all-in-one, affordable Partner Relationship Management (PRM) that allows you to design, launch, and manage your new channel partner program effectively.
And it covers all 3 types of channel partners!
With the thoughtfully designed interface and functionality, you'll be able to empower your channel partners to deliver new qualified leads for your business while helping you manage things in the backend and stay aligned on all quarterly or yearly objectives.
It's a powerful tool that allows you to launch your own partner program in just days and iterate on it in a quick yet highly valuable manner. And it delivers the ROI you're looking for.