Businesses often create multi-tiered maintenance plans, believing more options are better. However, this complexity overwhelms consumers and makes it harder for technicians to sell. A simplified, single-option plan often leads to higher adoption rates because it's easier to understand and pitch.

To support smaller partners who lack marketing resources, vendors can offer a concierge service through their partner demand center. This provides hands-on human help for executing pre-built, turnkey campaigns. This model drives significant adoption and results from the long-tail segment, which often feels neglected by vendors.

StackAI's early attempts at using resellers were counterproductive because the product and messaging were evolving too quickly. Partners can't sell a moving target. The channel only became successful after the company established a clear ICP and repeatable value proposition.

The obsession with removing friction is often wrong. When users have low intent or understanding, the goal isn't to speed them up but to build their comprehension of your product's value. If software asks you to make a decision you don't understand, it makes you feel stupid, which is the ultimate failure.

While individually small, the collective business from your "long tail" of partners creates a huge compound effect, forming a significant part of your overall revenue. This justifies investing in scalable, simple programs and a two-tier distribution model to serve them. This long tail provides essential market reach and commercial proximity that larger partners cannot.

Brands must view partner and supplier experiences as integral to the overall "total experience." Friction for partners, like slow system access, ultimately degrades the service and perception delivered to the end customer, making it a C-level concern, not just an IT issue.

Traditional revenue tiers (Gold, Silver, Bronze) are vendor-centric. A more effective approach is to classify partners by their business model. For example, an MSSP needs predictable upfront costs to build a service, while a value-added reseller may prefer volume-based rebates. Tailoring your program to their model, not just their size, is key.

When products offer too many configurations, it often signals that leaders lack the conviction to make a decision. This fear of being wrong creates a confusing user experience. It's better to ship a simple, opinionated product, learn from being wrong, and then adjust, rather than shipping a convoluted experience.

To drive adoption of automation tools, you must remove the user's trade-off calculation. The core insight is to make the process of automating a task forever fundamentally faster and easier than performing that same task manually just once. This eliminates friction and makes automation the default choice.