What Happened:
CrowdStrike rebuilt its global distribution strategy around growth metrics rather than fulfillment, with VP of Global Distribution Daniel Danielli emphasizing that distributors provide unmatched visibility into untapped customer conversations across billions of dollars in technology sales.
The company implemented common scorecards focused on leading indicators like pipeline generation, enablement, and partner progression rather than lagging metrics like revenue, creating discipline and consistency across distributor relationships in different regions.
They recruited former directors and VPs as individual contributors to manage distribution partnerships now valued at multi-hundred-million dollars, treating these relationships as integrated parts of the business rather than external partnerships.
These insights were discussed during Danielli’s conversation on the Partnerships Unraveled podcast by Channext.
Our Take:
In some companies, distribution treated as a pass-through logistics function; in others, it’s seen as the channel’s force multiplier.
CrowdStrike is intentionally pursuing the latter.
This focus acknowledges the customer visibility that distributors possess. They are present in customer conversations that vendors aren't, making them a potentially valuable faction for gaining new market share.
Another important point here is on the talent side of things. CrowdStrike is placing former directors and VPs into individual contributor roles to own these relationships. This signals a shift away from the historical mindset that distribution can be “managed” by junior channel managers.
The emphasis on leading indicators is perhaps the most actionable takeaway for partnership leaders.
Danielli shared his experience of building an SMB segment from scratch that grew from zero to $100 million in ~12 months by maniacally focusing on daily leading metrics (like outbound touch points and partner recruitment). For broad-based, high-volume segments like SMB, hitting leading indicators is the most reliable formula for revenue, allowing channel teams to pivot and correct course months earlier than if they waited for revenue numbers to drop.
Looking forward, the AI opportunity in distribution is substantial, and it goes well beyond efficiency. Distributors sit on rich data like vendor attachment patterns, partner buying behaviors, adjacency trends, renewal cycles, and customer stack compositions.
Danielli suggests using this data as a route-to-market optimizer, surfacing where to focus: which partners are most likely to produce net-new pipeline, which regions are under-penetrated, and which solution adjacencies are ripest for cross-sell.
Listen to the full interview with Danielli here.