Podcast
True Collaboration: Why Listening Beats Pushing
The push-it-and-hope model is done. Akilah Murrell and Heather K. Margolis on what real partner collaboration looks like.
The short answer
- Push-it-and-hope assumes the constraint is material volume. It is not.
- Distribution metrics measure vendor activity, not partner revenue.
- Listening produces the specific partner context that makes material usable.
- Collaboration is an information discipline, not a tone of voice.
Push-it-and-hope is a strategy with one assumption: that the constraint on partner revenue is how much material a partner has received. It almost never is.
What pushing produces
Volume on the vendor side and noise on the partner side. The vendor can report how much was distributed; the partner can report that their inbox is full. Neither number is revenue.
What listening produces
A specific understanding of what this partner sells, to whom, and with what capacity, which is the only basis on which material stands a chance of being used. Collaboration is not a tone. It is having enough information to build the right thing.
- Ask what the partner is actually trying to sell this quarter.
- Ask what they have the capacity to execute, honestly.
- Build for that, and accept it will not scale as neatly as a single kit.
- Measure what moved, not what was sent.
Frequently asked
Questions this raises.
- What is wrong with the push model in partner marketing?
- It assumes a partner''s constraint is how much material they have received. The real constraints are capacity, relevance, and clarity, none of which more volume solves.
- What does real partner collaboration look like?
- Knowing what a specific partner is trying to sell, to which customers, and what they can realistically execute, then building for that. It scales less neatly than a single kit, and it produces more.
- How should vendors measure partner marketing?
- By what moved rather than what was sent. Distribution volume measures vendor activity; pipeline and partner execution measure the program.