What is B2B channel sales, and which partner types are there?
B2B channel sales means other companies sell, refer or list your product for you, and you pay them a share of what they bring in. Channel marketing is the work that makes those partners want to: material, training, joint campaigns and a fair payout. Our suggestion for a small team: make the first partner a referral partner or an agency that already serves your buyers, and leave reseller networks for later.
| Partner type | What they do | How they are usually paid | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral or affiliate | Introduces a buyer or sends traffic; you run the sale | A share of the customer's first-year or recurring revenue | Your product sells itself once someone trusted points to it |
| Reseller | Buys or quotes your product and bills the customer | A margin or discount on the price | Buyers in a region or sector prefer to buy from a local supplier |
| Agency or service partner | Sets up, configures or runs your product for clients | Its own service fees, often plus a referral share | Customers need help getting value from the product |
| Technology integration | Builds a connection between its product and yours | Usually no payout; both sides gain users and retention | Your buyers already live in another tool all day |
| Marketplace | Lists your product and bills the buyer through its cloud account | A listing fee taken from each sale | Buyers want to spend committed cloud budget or skip new vendor paperwork |
The payment column describes common practice, not a rule: each vendor sets its own terms, and the next section shows real ones. The pattern of an agency channel growing a software company is covered in our story of how HubSpot built its agency partner channel.
What commission do referral partners and resellers get?
On the two vendor pages below, rates run from 10% (monday.com's first-deal rate) to 35% (its top tier), and both programmes tie them to tiers or minimum account sizes. Here are two programmes as their pages read on 5 November 2026 (both pages undated):
| Programme | Rate on the vendor's page | Conditions on the page |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot affiliate programme | 30% recurring commission for up to one year | 180-day cookie window; free to join; no minimum sales; higher tiers (30 to 99 and 100+ sign-ups a month, held for three months) add cost per sign-up or custom commission |
| monday.com partner programme guide | Partner-sourced commission listed as up to 15%, then 20% and 25% at higher tiers | From the Bronze tier, a partner-sourced lead earns commission only if the account reaches at least 3,000 USD ARR |
Two things stand out. First, both programmes cap the payout period or tie it to tiers, so the real cost is a share of first-year revenue, not a share forever. Second, the minimum account size on monday.com's page exists to stop partners being paid for tiny accounts. If you copy anything, copy that: set a floor below which you don't pay.
Worked example (sample company). Northwind Ltd sells a $500-a-month product, so $6,000 in the first year. A referral partner on a 20% first-year share earns $6,000 × 0.20 = $1,200 per customer. If Northwind's own outbound costs $2,000 per customer won, the partner customer is $800 cheaper, and the partner did the hardest part: getting a trusted introduction. At 30% the payout is $1,800, still below $2,000. Run the same sum with your own cost per customer before you pick a rate.
What do AWS Marketplace and Salesforce charge?
Cloud marketplaces take a listing fee out of each sale instead of a referral share. These are the published rates, checked 5 November 2026:
| Marketplace | Fee on the official page | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| AWS Marketplace listing fees | SaaS public offers: 3% | Private offers: 3% under $1M total contract value, 2% from $1M to under $10M, 1.5% at $10M or more, 1.5% on all renewals; channel partner private offers add 0.5% |
| Salesforce AppExchange (AgentExchange on Trailhead) | Typically 15% of the app's revenue (percentage of net revenue) | Trailhead says checkout payments carry a standardised 15%; apps that don't qualify pay a flat annual fee instead |
| Microsoft Marketplace | 3% standard store service fee | A 50% discount on the fee can apply to private offer renewals (page dated 22 July 2026) |
Worked example (sample numbers): a $60,000-a-year SaaS deal through an AWS private offer costs $60,000 × 0.03 = $1,800 in listing fees. Sold through a reseller as a channel partner private offer, the fee is 3.5%, or $2,100, and AWS's page says the fee is based on the discounted price you give the channel partner. The same $60,000 through Salesforce at 15% is $9,000, so a marketplace listing only pays for itself if buyers actually come or close faster through it.
How do you start a partner programme small?
Start with three to five partners you can name today, one partner type, and one written agreement. A programme with a logo page and no active partners costs more than it earns.
Week 1: list who already serves your buyer
Ask your last ten customers which agency, consultant or tool they bought just before or after you. Names that appear twice are your first partner list. Our guide to asking buyers where they heard of you gives the question wording.
Week 2: offer one simple deal
One rate, one payout period, one minimum deal size. Write it on one page before the first call.
Weeks 3 to 4: sign two partners and do one joint thing each
A co-written guide, a joint webinar, or an introduction email they send to five clients. Judge the partner on what happens next, not on the signature.
If your partners are agencies, our page on lead generation for marketing agencies shows what those firms are trying to win, which helps you pitch the partnership in their terms.
What goes in a partner agreement?
Point 9 is not optional for affiliates in the US. The FTC's endorsement guides FAQ (undated, checked 5 Nov 2026) tells affiliate marketers to disclose the relationship clearly and conspicuously, and says the closer the disclosure is to the recommendation, the better. Have a lawyer read the final agreement.
Which co-marketing plays work with partners?
Pick plays where both sides contribute something the other lacks, and give each a measurable output.
| Play | Who does what | Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Joint webinar or workshop | Partner brings the audience, you bring the demo | Registrants from the partner's list who become opportunities |
| Integration launch | Both announce the connection to their own users | Accounts that switch the integration on in 30 days |
| Co-written guide or checklist | Partner's expertise, your distribution | Downloads tagged by partner, then meetings |
| Client introduction email | Partner sends a short note to five clients who fit | Replies and meetings per email sent |
| Marketplace private offer | Reseller or marketplace handles billing | Days from proposal to signature versus direct deals |
How do you track partner-sourced pipeline?
Tag every lead with a partner source at the moment it is registered, and report two numbers: partner-sourced pipeline (deals the partner introduced) and partner-influenced pipeline (deals you found where a partner helped). Keep them apart; adding them together double counts.
The minimum setup is three CRM fields: partner name, sourced or influenced, and registration date. Then each month report, per partner, opportunities opened, pipeline value, deals won, revenue won, payout due and cost per customer (payout plus your time, divided by customers won). Review it in the same meeting as the rest of the pipeline; our list of questions for a weekly pipeline review works for partner deals too. Siela's built-in CRM saves each lead with its group and can connect to HubSpot or Salesforce, so a partner field can sit next to the rest of your pipeline.
This week: write the one-page offer and send it to the two names your customers mentioned most.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between channel sales and direct sales?
In direct sales your own team finds, sells to and bills the customer. In channel sales another company does part of that work, such as introducing the buyer, reselling and invoicing, or listing you on a marketplace, and you pay it a share of the revenue or a listing fee for doing so.
What is a typical referral commission in B2B software?
On the two vendor pages checked for this post, rates ran from up to 15% at monday.com's entry tier to 30% recurring for up to a year at HubSpot. Both add conditions such as tiers, payout periods or a minimum account size, so compare the total paid per customer, not the headline rate.
Is a reseller the same as a referral partner?
No. A referral partner introduces the buyer and you make the sale and send the invoice. A reseller sells your product itself, usually at a margin or discount, and often bills and supports the customer. Resellers need a price list, a support split and clear territory in the agreement; referral partners mainly need lead registration rules.
How long does a partner programme take to bring revenue?
It depends on your sales cycle, because partner deals still go through it. A sensible test is to sign two partners, run one joint activity with each within a month, and judge them on opportunities opened over the following quarter. If a partner brings nothing in that time, move your effort to the next name.
Do I need a partner portal to start?
No. A one-page offer, a signed agreement, a shared lead registration form or email address, and partner fields in your CRM cover the first handful of partners. Portals and partner software make sense once you have more partners than you can manage in a spreadsheet and a monthly call.
Sources
- AWS Marketplace Seller Guide: listing fees (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Salesforce Trailhead: Get to Know Your Contractual Model (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: Microsoft Marketplace transact capabilities (updated 22 Jul 2026, checked 5 Nov 2026)
- HubSpot affiliate programme (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- monday.com partner programme guide (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- FTC: Endorsement Guides, what people are asking (checked 5 Nov 2026)