Channel Pulse
Notes from the channel.
How we think about channel operations — intent, targeting, org trees, and the mechanics of selling through resellers.
Channel account mapping without asking your VAR for anything
Every account-mapping playbook assumes a partner willing to swap lists or join a clean room. Your VAR won't. Here's the vendor-side method: join the account list, org chart, and intent export you already have — step by step.
- Jul 5, 2026·5 min read
How to build a CDW org chart your reps actually use
Most vendor teams have several conflicting versions of the CDW org chart, and reps trust none of them. What to track, how to structure the spreadsheet so it survives rep churn, and the refresh cadence that keeps it alive.
By The VAR Conduit teamRead post - Jul 5, 2026·4 min read
QBR prep in an hour: what actually belongs in a VAR business review
A week of spreadsheet reconciliation for a sixty-minute meeting nobody remembers — that's most VAR QBR prep. The five numbers that matter, what to cut, and how to walk in with in-market accounts instead of pipeline theater.
By The VAR Conduit teamRead post - Jun 4, 2026·3 min read
How to use Bombora or 6sense intent data in a VAR channel
You pay for intent data, and you pay people who know the channel — but the surge scores never reach the rep who owns the CDW relationship, so everyone works a flat list. Here's how to join intent to account ownership with data you already have, no clean room required.
By The VAR Conduit teamRead post - May 28, 2026·2 min read
Is there a system of record for channel operations?
Sales got Salesforce. Marketing got HubSpot. The team selling through CDW, SHI, and Insight got a spreadsheet and a login to each reseller's portal. Here is the scope we chose for a channel system of record — and the parts we deliberately left out.
By The VAR Conduit teamRead post - May 27, 2026·2 min read
Why your VAR org chart spreadsheet keeps breaking
Who does this AE report to? Who at SHI covers your Northeast enterprise accounts? A flat table fights every one of those questions. Here's where the spreadsheet model fails structurally — and what a data model built for reseller orgs does instead.
By The VAR Conduit teamRead post - May 26, 2026·1 min read
Is our channel data safe with you? The security questions, answered
Before you upload a single VAR org tree, your security team will ask where the data lives, who can see it, and what gets logged. Here are the diligence questions worth putting to any channel tool — and our answers.
By The VAR Conduit teamRead post