Dispatches from the ground. Real stories from real channel professionals.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Mar 13, 2026
The Burn Report: Salesforce is a contact center company now. Nobody in the channel is surprised.
Salesforce launched Agentforce Contact Center at Enterprise Connect and called it an 'iPhone moment.' The CCaaS partners who built their businesses on Salesforce integrations had a different name for it. Danny collected a few of them.
From the Field · Mike Callahan · Mar 12, 2026
How Residual Commissions Work in the Telecom Channel
Residual commissions are how channel partners build long-term income. Here is the math, the tradeoffs, and what happens when customers churn.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Mar 10, 2026
Five9 just made the smartest channel move at Enterprise Connect. Nobody's talking about it.
The Fusion partner program expansion and AI Agent Connect API are Five9's answer to Salesforce, and they're more defensible than they look.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Mar 9, 2026
Cisco's SD-WAN Just Got Owned by a Nation-State Actor and Nobody Told Your Partner Manager
A perfect 10.0 CVSS vulnerability. Active nation-state exploitation. Five-eyes intelligence scramble. And most partners found out from a blog.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Mar 9, 2026
The Honest Conference Season Survival Guide
Three conferences in five weeks. Your liver, your expense report, and your marriage are all about to be tested. A field guide.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Mar 9, 2026
The only vendor at Enterprise Connect that won't steal your customer
Every vendor at Enterprise Connect claims channel-first. Wildix is the only one that actually means channel-only. Here's what zero direct sales looks like in practice.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Mar 3, 2026
The loyalty trap: why good people stay at bad companies for too long
They keep dangling the next promotion. You keep believing them. Here's how to tell when loyalty becomes a liability.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Mar 1, 2026
PE is turning the channel into the thing we all ran away from
The channel was built by people who couldn't stomach corporate. Now private equity is showing up with org charts and KPI dashboards and wondering why everyone's upset.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Feb 13, 2026
The Burn Report: that SPIFF email you got this morning is a lie
Happy Valentine's Day. Your carrier loves you so much they sent a SPIFF that expires before you can close anything.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Jan 23, 2026
Everything important at a conference happens after 9 PM
The keynotes are fine. The expo floor is fine. The real conference starts when the badges come off.
From the Field · Danny Brunson · Jan 13, 2026
A carrier poached my deal last Tuesday. Again
Channel conflict isn't a policy failure. It's a feature. And the guy who took my deal probably got a President's Club trip for it.
