By Jay Chaudhrey, Director of Business Development
Not all partnerships are created equal. Over the past four years, I’ve seen what separates the ones that actually move the needle from the ones that just look good on paper. And it’s shaped how I think about building a business more than almost anything else.
I came to Advisory four years ago to lead sales and customer success. My background was mostly account management and renewals, growing existing relationships, but pure new business development was a different muscle. Cold prospecting humbled me fast. It still does, honestly.
What I gravitated toward early and have doubled down on ever since is partnerships. And I think it’s one of the most underrated levers in the MSP space.
Here’s something a lot of people probably don’t know. I actually met Advisory through a partnership before I ever worked here. I used to work at Apple as a Business Pro. A client I was working with needed IT support, and I recommended Advisory. They were happy. That recommendation led to a client for Advisory. So before I was ever building partnerships at Advisory, I was on the other side of one. That experience shaped how I think about them more than anything else.
For an MSP, partnerships aren’t just a go-to-market strategy. They’re woven into how you actually operate. The tools we partner with are the same tools we use internally and deploy for clients every single day. Jamf is the clearest example. Close to 90% of our clients are running it. We use it, we resell it, we build environments in it. Apple, Okta, 1Password, Microsoft, Josys, Ingram Micro. These aren’t logos on a website. They’re the foundation of what we deliver, IT systems, security, and scalability.
The referral partnership.
This is where both sides are selling adjacent to the same buyer and you’re actively sending each other warm leads. Here are two examples I have lived firsthand.
A client goes to Apple wanting to buy Macs for their team. They need help deploying an MDM tool and ongoing IT support, things that aren’t in Apple’s lane. Apple introduces them to us. We come in, handle the deployment, take on the support, and the client gets exactly what they need. Apple looks great for the recommendation.
Same thing happens with Jamf. A company buys Jamf for their Mac fleet, but their internal IT team is PC-native. They know Windows management inside out but have never touched Jamf. We come in, build out the entire Jamf environment, and mirror their existing PC management strategy for Mac. Jamf gets a happy customer who actually uses the platform correctly. We get a client. Everyone wins.
And here is something that while it may seem obvious as I say it, it is often overlooked. Those leads are just different. They convert at a completely different rate than cold outreach because the trust is already baked in. Someone the prospect already has a relationship with said “these are the people you want.” You’re not starting from zero. I’m not saying cold outreach doesn’t matter, it absolutely does, but the ROI on a warm referral from a partner who knows your work is hard to overstate. Time is your most limited resource in sales and I’d rather spend it deepening the relationships that generate warm introductions than grinding through lists.
We don’t want to be customers. We want to be partners.
This is where I think the real depth of a partnership lives and where a lot of vendors fall short without realizing it.
When we bring a tool into our stack or recommend it to clients, we want a real relationship with that vendor. Not just access to a portal. Not just a license agreement. A relationship.
If we’re managing 1Password environments across dozens of clients and something unusual comes up, a one-off situation, something outside the normal playbook, I want to be able to get in touch with an engineer on their side. Not submit a ticket into a queue and wait for days. If we want to run a training session for a client on a platform, I want the vendor in the room with us, invested in that client’s success alongside us. If a client is committing to a platform long-term, I want to be able to get them a discount because of the depth of our partnership and the volume we bring.
That’s what a true partnership looks like.
If we’re deploying a tool for our clients but the vendor has no idea who we are, if we can’t leverage their resources, their expertise, their engineering team when it matters, then we’re not partners. We’re just customers. And so are our clients.
What makes a partnership go sideways.
I’ve seen it a few different ways over the years.
Billing inflexibility is one that sounds boring but is genuinely real. We have a billing cadence that works for our clients, and when a vendor can’t adapt to that, when they insist on their structure regardless of how it impacts your operation or your client’s experience, it creates friction that compounds. The partners I lean on most have been willing to meet us where we are. The ones who haven’t eventually become ones you work around.
But the quieter killer is radio silence. No dedicated rep. No escalation path. No one who actually knows your business or your clients. You’re just another number in the partner portal. And then the moment something comes up, a client in a bind, a situation that needs real human judgment, you reach out and get a copy-paste of their policy telling you no. That’s the moment you realize the relationship only ever went one direction. Those are the partnerships that fade.
The best ones feel like an extension of your own team. The rep knows what you’re working on. They reach out when they see an opportunity that fits your clients. They think about the relationship, not just the transaction.
Where I’ve landed after four years.
If you’re finding outbound sales hard, and I promise you, everyone does, spend real time thinking about your partnership motion. Who is selling adjacent to you, into the same buyer, who could be sending you warm introductions instead of you cold calling your way through lists? Invest in those relationships before you need them. Show up for your partners the way you want them to show up for you.
The best pipeline I’ve ever built didn’t start with a cold email. It started with a conversation, a relationship, and a mutual investment in each other’s success.
Build those. Everything else gets easier.
