To prove its "partner-first" commitment, Akamai financially incentivizes its direct sales force to work with partners. Sales teams earn a higher commission on deals closed through a partner, even if Akamai initially sourced the opportunity, ensuring internal alignment and prioritizing the channel.
Akamai replaced its one-size-fits-all global partner tiering with a regional model. This new system recognizes the diverse partner landscape in each geography and evaluates partners on value-add contributions, such as sourcing new opportunities and delivering services, rather than solely on revenue.
Akamai leverages distribution partners like Arrow for more than just reach. They enable partners to use the distributor's technical resources for product demos and proofs-of-concept (POCs). This strategy allows Akamai to scale its technical sales support efficiently, avoiding resource constraints on its internal teams.
Akamai leverages its historic strength in edge networking for its compute offering. By allowing customers to build and deliver applications at the edge, closer to users, they can significantly reduce expensive egress fees typically charged by traditional hyperscale cloud providers. This cost-saving angle is a key competitive differentiator.
To stand out among hundreds of vendors, Akamai fosters relationships beyond the executive level. They connect their regional leaders in sales, technical, and marketing roles directly with their counterparts at key partner organizations. This builds trust and deep business understanding at the field level where customer engagement happens.