By Larry Walsh
Partners frequently complain about being overlooked by their vendors, especially their channel account managers (or whatever their channel liaisons are called). The attention and resources go to the larger partners that generate volume in unit sales and revenue. Midtier and smaller partners, which often play significant roles in value creation and customer experience, don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Part of the problem is visibility. And part of the solution is what could be called reverse marketing — partners marketing upstream to their vendors, not just downstream to customers.
The fault lies with both vendors and partners.
Vendors often say they don’t know what their partners do. That’s an overstatement. Channel teams and CAMs generally know what partners are selling and supporting on their line cards. What they lack is visibility into what else the partner is selling, who they’re working with at the customer level, and how they position their broader value to the market.
Research consistently shows that vendors struggle with partner visibility. Channel organizations acknowledge they often neglect partners despite relying on them for growth, while data quality and attribution challenges limit their ability to understand partner capabilities and impact. At the same time, partner ecosystems continue to expand, further diluting vendors’ attention. The result is predictable: Vendors default to the partners they know best, not necessarily the ones with the most potential.
That gap is structural. Vendor systems aren’t designed to capture or maintain a complete view of partner capabilities. Most vendors collect basic firmographic data at onboarding, but few keep it current. CAMs aren’t tasked with understanding the full scope of each partner’s business, instead measuring them based on transactions, pipeline, and near-term revenue. As a result, they focus on the partners already in their field of view.
Partners reinforce this dynamic. They’re taught and supported by vendors to market in a linear fashion — aligned with vendor messaging and directed at end customers. That approach makes sense for demand generation. Vendors and partners should coordinate messaging to increase awareness and improve conversion rates.
But when all the marketing flows in one direction, visibility becomes concentrated. Vendors hear the loudest signals from the largest partners and default to those relationships. Everyone else fades into the background.
This is where reverse marketing becomes necessary. Vendors should carve out some portion of their marketing investments and incentives to encourage partners to communicate back up to them — to articulate their capabilities, customer engagements, and strategic direction. More important, partners should take the initiative to do this regardless of whether it’s formally incentivized.
A small number of partners already do this effectively. One partner in the Midwest, for example, devotes roughly 55% of its annual marketing budget to communicating with its vendors, sharing updates on business initiatives, new customer relationships, capability development, and talent investments.
Another midsize partner hosts an annual conference that brings together vendors and customers. The event serves as a live demonstration of the partner’s ecosystem — its capabilities, its customer relationships, and the value it delivers. Vendors leave with a clearer understanding of how to position the partner in the field.
For partners that engage in reverse marketing, the outcome is concrete: consistent growth with the vendors that respond. Those vendors proactively engage, bring opportunities, and align resources because they understand where the partner is going and how to fit into that trajectory.
On the flip side, some vendors may question why they should support or incentivize this type of activity when it doesn’t directly produce attributable pipeline. That view is too narrow.
CAMs are typically focused on a small set of top-performing partners because that’s where they see immediate returns. They’re not incentivized to explore beyond that group. The result is that partners with real capability and growth potential remain underutilized, leaving incremental revenue on the table.
More — and better — information changes that dynamic. When CAMs have a clearer understanding of what under-engaged partners can do, they can identify new opportunities, match partners to accounts more effectively, and expand coverage. Supporting reverse marketing, even informally, creates an additional communication channel that strengthens primary demand-generation efforts.
For partners, the message is clear. Visibility isn’t automatic; it must be created. That means investing in consistent, structured communication with vendors: regular business updates, clear articulation of capabilities, and demonstrated customer outcomes.
Marketing isn’t unidirectional. Partners that market only to customers are competing for demand. Partners that also market to vendors position themselves to receive it.
If vendors don’t know what a partner can do, they won’t sell through or with them. And in a channel driven by visibility and proximity, that gap is often the difference between growth and stagnation.
*********************************************************************************************
Larry Walsh is the CEO, chief analyst, and founder of Channelnomics. He’s an expert on the development and execution of channel programs, disruptive sales models, and growth strategies for companies worldwide.