As a channel marketing veteran, Sharon Zalcberg knows more than most about channel partnerships and their value for B2B marketing. In this episode of The Inspired Marketer, she breaks down what actually separates high-performing channel partnerships from programs that stall out and drain budget.
Sharon covers the mindset shift that changes everything: treating partners as customers. She also gets specific on MDF program structure, co-marketing tactics that convert, and how to measure ROI without fooling yourself with vanity metrics.
If you’re building your first partnerships program or fixing one that’s underperforming, this episode gives you a playbook you can use immediately.
Direct go-to-market is getting harder and more expensive. CAC is up across the board, and outbound is noisier than ever. At the same time, buyers increasingly trust peer recommendations and ecosystem relationships over vendor-led outreach.
Partnerships offer one of the more promising avenues of approach. A well-run partner program puts your product in front of buyers who are already mid-journey, through a voice they already trust. That means you’re not interrupting, but arriving with context.
For B2B founders and marketers, the math behind this is straightforward: channel partnerships extend your reach without proportionally extending your headcount or ad spend. Resellers, integrators, consultants, and technology alliances each open doors that cold outreach can’t. And it gets even better when partners are invested in your success. That means your program gives them real incentives, real support, and real margin. Once that’s in place, they become an extension of your sales and marketing team.
Scaling efficiently in 2026 means building ecosystems, not just pipelines. Channel partnerships are how you get there without burning your runway in the process.
