Scaling Partner Marketing with Purpose: How to Align, Enable, and Execute Across Alliances

The Complexity of Partner Marketing—Multiplied

As Mike Mahoney puts it, partner marketers aren’t just marketers—they’re strategists, enablement leads, product storytellers, and connectors. And when you work in technology alliances, that complexity compounds. You're not just marketing your platform; you’re marketing joint value, which means aligning with multiple teams across both your org and your partners’.

It’s why Mike describes his job as being the “CMO of Technology Alliances”—because in a given week, he might be collaborating with sales, field marketing, creative, product, and external partner teams—all while making sure the go-to-market motion delivers measurable results.

Start with Objectives—Then Build the Plan

One of the most actionable parts of Mike’s approach is how he frames joint planning. Too often, marketers jump straight into tactics—events, campaigns, content—without ever aligning on business goals.

Mike’s team starts every partnership planning cycle by aligning on a shared set of objectives:

• Are we trying to grow pipeline?

• Increase renewals?

• Accelerate backlog conversion?

• Reduce churn?

Only after those objectives are defined does the team build a tactical plan—co-funded, co-owned, and continuously refined through weekly, monthly, and quarterly checkpoints.

Sales Enablement Is the Dealbreaker

A recurring theme in this episode is how critical sales alignment is to partnership success. According to Mike, partner sellers are flooded with inbound: “Nine or ten asks a week to collaborate.” If your program doesn’t create real pipeline—or show them how—it gets ignored.

That’s why enablement isn’t optional. Mike focuses on delivering proof points that sellers can use in the field: internal wins, external stories, and direct customer value. “The moment sellers start seeing results, they lean in. And that’s when the partnership really starts to scale.”

Scaling with Tiered Programs and Self-Service Kits

Tanium works with partners across multiple tiers—from massive strategic alliances to smaller but high-potential players. To make that scalable, Mike and his team use a tiered approach.

• Top-tier partners get a fully collaborative plan, with weekly working groups and executive-level QBRs.

• Mid- and lower-tier partners receive a self-service experience, complete with partner-in-a-box kits, co-branded materials, and press release templates—tools designed to let them move fast without needing constant support.

This tiering allows Mike’s team to focus where they can have the biggest impact—without sacrificing speed or scale.

AI as an Acceleration Layer—Not a Shortcut

Mike also shared thoughts on how AI fits into the partner marketing engine. While Tanium—being a security company—must be thoughtful about AI usage, he sees huge potential in using AI to accelerate planning, content creation, and operational workflows.

Whether it’s drafting legal language, analyzing messaging, or streamlining campaign copy, AI is helping his team do more with fewer resources—something every marketer today is being asked to do.

But Mike also raised an important caution: When working with partners, AI introduces shared risk. It’s not just your security policies that matter—it’s your partner’s too. That extra layer of diligence is part of the alliance marketer’s job.

The Human Connection Still Wins

Despite all the tools and complexity, Mike brings it back to the human element. “The best partnerships happen when both sides lean in,” he says. And that only happens when trust, consistency, and communication are prioritized.

He shares how collaboration within Tanium mirrors that approach—tapping the right resources across functions, building cross-functional teams, and creating a sense of shared ownership around partner success.

“When you do it right,” he says, “you don’t have to chase people down. They come to you. Because they see the results—and they want in.”

Final Takeaway

From tiered planning to cross-org execution, Mike Mahoney offers a masterclass in what scalable, strategic partner marketing looks like. His message is clear: it’s not just about planning. It’s about aligning around outcomes, enabling people across teams, and delivering value at every stage of the partnership.

👉 Listen to the full episode to dive deeper into Mike’s approach to alliance marketing at scale.