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B2B Marketing, Channel Marketing, Growth & Scalability, GTM (Go-to-Market), Marketing Strategy, Partner Marketing, Partner Programs

Why 53% of MDF Goes Unspent (and It’s Not Because Your Content is Bad)

Most partner demand generation programs don’t fail because the messaging is weak. They fail because of a “Translation Tax.” Vendors expect partners to do the heavy lifting of turning raw materials into custom, customer-facing content, but for the typical channel partner, who sells dozens of technologies, that “marketing lift” is a bridge too far. The consequence is clear: across vendors with over 100 partners, average MDF utilization sits at just 47%.

The fix is providing content that is already customized before the partner ever opens the file. The issue has never been a lack of desire to generate demand, but a lack of bandwidth. This is where the shift from Generative AI to Agentic AI changes the game.