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How a collaborative robot maker built a partner channel that delivered 38% of new revenue in a year.
A small direct sales team couldn't reach thousands of mid-sized factories. Skillfi designed the channel strategy, partner tiers, margins, deal protection and enablement that turned integrators and dealers into the company's growth engine. It's how our fractional GTM work goes: the right market, the right motion, real revenue.
Great robots, and nobody nearby to sell them.
The company makes collaborative robots and automation cells for small and mid-sized manufacturers. Almost every sale went through a direct field team of nine people, trying to cover thousands of factories across North America.
A few system integrators resold the robots, but with no clear margins, no deal protection and no training, they usually pushed competitors' robots instead. Buyers needed someone local to design, install and support each cell, so deals dragged on for nine months. The board wanted to double growth without doubling the sales team.
Integrators liked our robots, but they had no reason to choose us over anyone else.
CEO, client
Give partners a reason to lead with your robots, and the tools to win.
We started with where the robots win and who buyers already trust, then designed a program that made partners more money with these robots than with any competitor's. Partner margins were modelled with a fractional CFO to protect profitability.
The right partners for the right jobs
Machine tending, palletising and packaging chosen as focus applications, served by three partner types: system integrators, machine tool dealers and automation distributors.
Tiers, margins and deal protection
Registered, Certified and Elite tiers with 15%, 22% and 30% margins, plus 90-day deal registration and direct reps paid the same whether a deal went direct or through a partner.
Everything a partner needs to win
A certification academy, sales playbooks, ROI calculators, discounted demo cells, co-marketing funds and a partner portal for leads and registrations.
12 months, step by step
From a direct-only sales team to a partner network across three countries. Here's how the engagement unfolded.
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Month 13 partner types
Channel strategy
Win analysis, focus applications and partner types chosen, with a target list of integrators and dealers.
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Month 23 tiers
Program design
Tiers, margins, deal registration rules and direct rep compensation agreed with leadership.
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Month 3Academy live
Enablement built
Certification academy, playbooks, ROI calculator, demo cell program and partner portal launched.
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Month 4–58 pilot partners
Midwest pilot
Eight integrators certified and selling, with the program tuned on their real deals and feedback.
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Month 6–935 partners
National rollout
Two partner managers hired and onboarded, recruitment opened nationally and quarterly reviews started with Elite partners.
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Month 10–1252 partners
Canada & Mexico
The program extended into two new countries through distributors already serving local manufacturers.
Three tiers, one clear path
Every partner knows what they earn, what they get and how to move up, with deal protection that makes leading with these robots the safe choice.
Start selling
- Portal & deal registration
- Sales playbook
- Online product training
Design & install
- Application certification
- Discounted demo cell
- Shared leads
Grow together
- Co-marketing funds
- Dedicated partner manager
- Quarterly business reviews
No channel conflict
- 90-day deal registration
- Clear account rules
- Direct reps paid either way
One year after launch
Share of new revenue from partners
$11.4M of new revenue sourced by partners, with no new direct sales hires.
Our partners now sell, install and support our robots in places our own team would never reach. The channel became our growth engine.
CEO, clientIs your growth limited by the size of your sales team?
Our fractional GTM leaders will design the channel strategy, partner program and enablement that let partners sell for you. Need margins that protect profit? Add a fractional CFO.
- A channel strategy & partner map
- Tiers, margins & deal registration
- A partner academy & playbooks
- Recruitment & partner management
30 minutes. No obligation.
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