The channel is often described as a force multiplier — the most efficient way for technology vendors to extend reach, scale revenue, and penetrate markets they could not cover on their own. Through partners, vendors reach more customers, address more use cases, and build durable growth engines. Yet despite decades of evidence that the channel works, skepticism persists. From boardrooms to field teams, doubts about partner contribution continue to surface, even among organizations that rely heavily on indirect sales.
At the center of that skepticism is attribution.
Attribution is not a philosophical problem. It is a measurement problem. Vendors struggle to explain how partner activity influences complex sales cycles, accelerates deals, expands scope, or improves retention. Revenue is often credited to the last touch, the direct rep, or the system of record, while the partner’s role — shaping demand, qualifying opportunity, influencing architecture, or supporting adoption — is obscured or ignored. Over time, that disconnect erodes trust, weakens investment decisions, and fuels internal narratives that question the channel’s value.
The problem compounds as sales motions become more layered. Multi-party deals, overlapping roles, digital engagement, and long customer lifecycles make simplistic attribution models obsolete. When contribution cannot be isolated and validated, channel investment looks discretionary rather than strategic. Partners feel undervalued. Executives lack confidence in return-on-channel-investment metrics. And channel leaders are left defending programs with incomplete data.
Fixing attribution is not about inflating partner credit. It is about accuracy. Clear, defensible attribution models allow vendors to understand what partners actually do, where they create economic impact, and how those contributions translate into revenue durability and growth efficiency. Without that clarity, channel strategy is guided more by assumption than evidence.
In the latest episode of Changing Channels, Larry Walsh is joined by Frank Rauch, an expert in residence at Channelnomics, and Joe Sykora, CEO of Coro Cybersecurity, to discuss connecting the dots on channel attribution.