Hybrid GTM: Salesforce vs Microsoft lessons

Brian Weinberger is the Chief Revenue Officer at Sisense, a leading analytics platform helping companies embed intelligence into every product experience. With over 30 years in sales leadership across New York’s tech scene, Brian has built and scaled go-to-market teams at every stage—from early-stage startups to category-defining giants like Yext, Segment, and Salesforce.

Discussed in this episode

• The evolution of partner selling — from VARs to SIs to ecosystems
• How to know if partner selling fits your GTM model
• The delivery-first mindset that drives retention
• Direct vs. partner motion: Microsoft vs. Salesforce
• Why enablement is the #1 green flag for partner success
• Partner marketing: how to make resellers self-sustaining
• Using AI to power future-ready GTM models
• The case for hybrid work in high-performance sales cultures

Episode Highlights

00:00 — The “year four” moment when partners are selling for you

01:07 — 30 years of selling through partners in New York

03:22 — Start partner strategy with delivery, not distribution

06:32 — Why partner selling creates “superhuman” sellers

09:59 — Salesforce vs. Microsoft: direct vs. reseller — and why the future is hybrid

12:13 — The startup hack: sell delivery on your paper, subcontract partners

17:16 — A 90-day playbook for integration partnerships

21:39 — Hiring the right people to build a partner business

27:18 — How Sisense runs delivery partners and an Australian reseller

29:55 — White-labeling Snowflake: using resell to get the giant’s attention

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Follow Brian Weinberger

• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianweinberger

Recommended Books

• What Great Salespeople Do by Michael Bosworth & Ben Zoldan — The power of storytelling in sales
• The Power of Nice by Linda Kaplan Thaler & Robin Koval — Why kindness compounds in business
• Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson — Coaching and leadership lessons from the Bulls dynasty

Referenced

• Sisense: https://www.sisense.com
• Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com
• AWS: https://aws.amazon.com
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com
• Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com
• Accenture (SI example): https://www.accenture.com

The GTMnow Podcast
The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.

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