Partners leave quietly. How it feels to work with you is usually the reason.

Most of the partners you lose this year won't send a breakup email. They just stop selling.

CRN Research put a number on it. In a study early this year, 70% of partners said they had either ended a vendor relationship or quietly stopped selling that vendor's products in the previous 12 months, without ever formally leaving the program. The relationship was over long before anyone updated the CRM.

So what makes a partner stay? Not the biggest discount. In CRN's 2025 Annual Report Card, partners ranked ease of doing business above overall revenue and profit. They will choose the vendor who is simpler to work with over the one who pays slightly more but makes them fight the portal for it.

This is why ISG analysts argued this year that the channel is not broken, the partner experience is. Partner experience is the sum of every interaction a partner has with you. Onboarding, deal registration, approvals, payments, support. When that journey is slow or confusing, partners don't complain. They just quietly reprioritise.