Channel Synergy
Both Salesforce and Tableau do much of their business through the channel. But they also take very different approaches to incentivizing their partner ecosystems.
Tableau has a more-traditional network of resellers, whereas Salesforce has eschewed the notion of paying partners with margins on licensing.
"I’d be curious whether Salesforce intends to offer margin for those partners selling Tableau, and whether, as a Salesforce partner, we could begin selling the licensing with a decent competitive margin," said Darren Stordahl, vice president of sales and marketing at FMT Consultants, a Salesforce partner based in Carlsbad, Calif.
While there are notable differences between the channel compensation structures, there are also ways in which the two companies' channel strategies nicely align.
At Tableau's Partner Summit last year, Dan Miller, executive vice president of worldwide sales, service and support, told partners Tableau wants them to "go beyond license transaction" sales.
Miller and other Tableau execs asked partners to ramp efforts in two areas: providing more capabilities for specific vertical industries and lines of business and providing more complete solutions, including services and technical support.
Calls to focus on comprehensive solutions and targeting specific verticals will be familiar to any Salesforce partner as well.
