How IBM is Fueling Success with Partners

If the original "PLG" was Product-Led Growth—where the product was at the heart of the company’s go-to-market strategy—the new PLG- Partner Led Growth is about partnerships and ecosystems driving growth and revenue. This new paradigm isn't just a trend; it’s a data-backed strategy for scaling, enhancing value propositions, and reaching new markets.

Product-Led Growth (PLG)

Product-Led Growth is a well-established concept in the SaaS industry:

• It focuses on using the product itself as the primary driver of customer acquisition, retention, and expansion
• PLG strategies emphasize self-service, frictionless adoption, and delivering value to users quickly
• Companies like Datadog, Calendly, and Airtable are cited as successful examples of PLG

Partner-Led Growth (PLG)

While less common, Partner-Led Growth is emerging as an important strategy:

• It's being referred to as "the new PLG" in some circles, indicating a shift in focus from product-led to partner-led strategies
• This approach leverages partnerships and ecosystems to drive business growth
• Many SaaS companies are incorporating some form of partnership-driven motion into their growth strategies

The Power of Ecosystems: IBM's Perspective

A prime example of Partner-Led Growth is IBM’s approach. IBM has outlined plans to substantially increase the percentage of revenue coming from partners:

• IBM announced a "hard commitment" to grow revenue from partners to 50% of total revenue, up from the current 30%
• In the software business specifically, IBM aims to have ecosystem partners generate 80% of software revenues within the next 3-5 years, doubling the current 40%.

This vision underscores a clear commitment to collaboration with a network of partners—hyperscalers, ISVs, and system integrators—who collectively drive innovation and customer outcomes.

IBM's strategy reflects a profound shift in how companies see growth. Rather than relying solely on internal capabilities or products, IBM is positioning itself to harness the power of external partnerships to deliver more tailored, scalable, and efficient solutions. This approach is akin to moving from a solo marathon runner to a team-based relay race—each participant brings their own unique skills, and together they achieve more.

IBM Story: The New PLG in Action

Take IBM’s partnerships with hyperscalers like AWS and Microsoft. By working together, IBM offers Watsonx and other AI solutions on these platforms, expanding the reach of its technology to a broader audience. This collaboration demonstrates that the right partnership can enable companies to unlock new customer segments, accelerate product adoption, and streamline the customer journey—all without the need to develop proprietary channels from scratch.

Strategy to Achieve Goals

To reach these ambitious targets, IBM is taking several steps:

• Launched the new IBM Partner Plus program in early 2023 to replace the previous PartnerWorld program
• Added 2,000 new partners to Partner Plus since January 2023
• Aiming to add 100,000 new customers through partner efforts in the coming years
• Investing in partner enablement, including offering partners the same training as IBM employees at no cost
• Expanding partnerships with major cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and others

Why Partner-Led Growth Works

Partner-Led Growth works because it leverages the collective strengths of an ecosystem, making it easier to scale, adapt, and innovate. Here’s why the new PLG is so powerful:

Access to New Markets: By working with partners, companies can enter new markets more quickly and efficiently. IBM’s partnerships with AWS, for instance, allow it to reach customers who are already on these platforms and looking for complementary AI and hybrid cloud solutions.

Shared Expertise: Partnerships enable businesses to combine their expertise, creating solutions that neither party could offer alone. IBM's co-engineered AI and governance solutions with AWS’ SageMaker exemplify this dynamic. Together, these products provide customers with powerful tools for building, deploying, and managing AI models.

Operational Efficiency: Ecosystems also help streamline operations. Instead of building new tools from the ground up, companies can tap into existing partner networks, reducing time to market. IBM's co-selling model with AWS is a good example, where both companies work together to optimize sales and solution development processes.

Customer-Centric Innovation: At the heart of Partner-Led Growth is the customer. By bringing the best of multiple worlds—IBM’s AI capabilities with AWS’s cloud infrastructure, for example—customers get better, more integrated solutions. The end result is faster innovation and improved customer satisfaction, key drivers of long-term growth.

Partner-Led Growth: The Road Ahead

The shift toward Partner-Led Growth is poised to reshape the tech industry. Data shows that businesses investing in partnerships and ecosystems see increased scalability, higher margins, and stronger customer loyalty. I covered framework to create joint value with partners in this article- Building Bridges: How Partners Create Game-Changing Joint Value Proposition.

This is where the future lies—not in isolated innovation but in collaborative ecosystems where each player brings complementary value.

IBM’s goal of achieving 50% of its revenue through partnerships is not just ambitious; it is emblematic of the broader shift in how businesses approach growth in the 21st century. The metaphor of a relay race rings true here: success isn’t just about individual speed but about passing the baton smoothly between teams to cross the finish line faster and stronger.