1. Help partners where they fall short (with marketing, sales and web development).

A final way to build an effective customer-centric channel is by helping partners generate leads through marketing branding, sales leads and web development.

For solution providers such as Allegiance, being able to work with vendors to generate leads is important, said Hill.

“A lot of partners don’t have big marketing teams, so vendors need to be that arm to them,” stressed Xplore’s Russo.