In this episode of Revenue Insights, host Guy Rubin, CEO of Ebsta, sits down with Alex Rich, VP of Sales North America at GitGuardian, for a strategic conversation on building high-impact channel partnerships and alliances that fuel revenue growth. With a background spanning product management, customer success, and sales leadership, Alex shares how his experience at companies like SecurityScorecard and Sisense helped shape his approach to partner-led sales.

Alex walks through his “Focus Partner Model” for selecting and scaling with a few high-value partners, and explains why partner managers can generate up to 6x more revenue than individual reps when properly aligned. From driving early engagement in deals to avoiding channel conflict through comp neutrality, he shares practical strategies for optimizing partner ecosystems. Whether you’re just launching your channel program or refining an existing one, this episode is a tactical guide to making partnerships a core growth engine.

Ebsta is a revenue intelligence platform that helps B2B sales teams drive predictable growth by leveraging relationship and activity data. With real-time insights into pipeline health and sales performance, Ebsta empowers leaders to make informed, data-backed decisions. Find out more: https://www.ebsta.com/get-a-demo 

The Clock Test for Career Satisfaction
Alex shares that the ultimate test for finding the right career path is whether time flies by during your workday rather than watching the clock. For sales professionals, genuine enthusiasm for the role directly impacts customer interactions and credibility. Understanding and appreciating your product deeply, beyond just reciting features, enables you to explain why solutions matter to end users. This authentic passion allows salespeople to connect the dots between customer pain points and meaningful solutions. Transitioning into a role where you lose track of time indicates strong alignment with your professional strengths.

Strategic Partner Categories Framework
Alex outlines four distinct types of strategic partnerships: value-added resellers, behind-the-scenes technology partners, customer-facing technology partners, and lead generation partners. Each category serves different purposes, from providing credibility to enabling technical capabilities. For cybersecurity specifically, partners act as critical validation vehicles since product failures can have devastating business impacts. The framework helps companies systematically approach partner selection and engagement strategies. This structured approach to partnerships enables proper resource allocation and expectation setting.

Give-to-Get Partner KPI Model
Success metrics for channel partnerships should focus on both engagement KPIs and revenue outcomes. Early partner attachment to deals (post-discovery) and low unpartnered pipeline percentages indicate healthy channel engagement. Partner certification programs and content engagement serve as leading indicators of partner commitment. The ideal model targets 20-25% return in deal registrations from partner utilization. Measuring the delta between partner-sourced and direct sales cycles reveals the true value of channel acceleration.

The Focused Partner Model
Rather than pursuing numerous partnerships, companies should concentrate on 2-5 highly relevant partners who can drive meaningful revenue. Revenue relevance can come through direct sales volume, year-over-year growth, or strategic value-adds like service wrapping. This focused approach reduces channel conflict and enables deeper partner enablement. For maximum impact, partners should be selected based on their ability to become revenue relevant through one of these three pathways.

Post-Sale Partner Engagement Strategy
Partners share the same financial incentives in customer retention and expansion, making them valuable allies post-sale. Their deep customer relationships provide early warning signals about potential churn risks like budget cuts or reorganizations. Partners can facilitate introductions to new stakeholders and identify expansion opportunities through their ongoing customer interactions. Maintaining strong partner relationships enables better customer success outcomes.