#26: Peeling back on Microsoft’s channel incentives investments, with Scott Peltier

Microsoft Channel Incentives can be a complex and polarizing topic for Microsoft Partners. In this episode of this special series, "Season of Change and Transformation", I interview Microsoft's US Channel Lead - Scott Peltier.

Scott and I peel back the topic of Microsoft channel incentives available to close to 100,000 Microsoft Partners in the U.S Market. Scott simplifies the topic, how channel incentives have evolved to support the transformation and feedback he receives from partners.

Scott does a nice job of discussing his approach to the business. His insights and appreciation for what makes a great partnership and how the approach to partners has evolved to better support the business and is why Microsoft is the place for partners to place their big bets. Scott also gives advice for partners looking to better engage with him and his team.

In the interview, we also discuss his career journey, valuable lessons he learned when he started in his career, role models and advice he gives to the people he mentors.

You can read the entire transcript of the interview below.

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I hope you enjoy this episode!

Vince Menzione

Vince Menzione:             Scott, welcome to the podcast. I am really excited to have you on, my friend. We had the opportunity to work for several years together within the US Partner Organization. Your topic, channel incentives, is one that's near and dear to our partners, so I'm glad you could join us today during this season of change at Microsoft and to tell our listeners all the exciting things that are happening in your role and your organization. So, welcome.

Scott Peltier:                    Hey, Vince. Thank you very, very much. You are exactly right. Channel incentives, I've been running this business for several years and it is an exciting business. It's sometimes a very hard business, but I am delighted to be here with you and to talk through some of the strategies, the things that we're doing, things that as you know are very, very important to partners and that's their profitability. I have been at the heart of that for several years, and I can't think of a more exciting role that I've been able to partake up in the last several years and to really get to know partners and really what makes them work. So, glad to be here and looking forward to our time together today.

Vince Menzione:             We're going to peel back a little bit on that channel incentives piece, but I want to give you a little bit of insight from my side, you and I working very closely together over the years. This is a very complex topic, and it's one that isn't very well understood for a lot of people both partners and internally to Microsoft, so I think this interview will be very insightful for folks. To begin, can you take our listeners a little bit through your role and your mission that you're looking to accomplish for partners?

Scott Peltier:                    Sure, and I'm gonna digress just for a moment because when I visit with whether it's family members, relatives, they all want to know what I do at Microsoft and when you work in Microsoft you can ... You get very complex very fast, but we speak the same language, but to folks like my family members or relatives, they don't understand all of our language used at Microsoft, so interestingly, here's how I describe what my role is at Microsoft to the outside world when they go "Scott, what do you do at Microsoft?" I say, "Hey, have you ever gone to Walmart and opened up the coupon book, and those coupons give you X percent off of what you purchase, let's say, a television?" "Yeah,