At Sage FUTURE in San Francisco, Nancy Sperry, Vice President of North American Partner Sales at Sage, shared a practical view into how Sage approaches partnerships, co-selling, and AI enablement.
The conversation focused on operational execution - how to help partners scale faster, create industry-specific customer outcomes, and build durable businesses together.
One theme came through consistently: Sage is designing its ecosystem strategy around partner growth, not just partner participation.
Building a Partner Business
Sperry framed Sage’s approach around a simple idea: if partners grow, Sage grows alongside them.
“How do we remove the barriers to growth for the partner? That’s an incredible kind of focus.”
Rather than viewing partnerships strictly through pipeline contribution or resale metrics, Sage appears to be thinking more holistically about partner economics and operational scalability.
Sperry described investments in tooling, acquisitions, AI capabilities, and co-sell motions as intentionally designed to help partners execute faster.
“All of it is designed to be executed through the lens of partner.”
That philosophy extends into how Sage structures its go-to-market organization. According to Sperry, Sage’s North American partner organization works closely alongside partner sales teams in the field, helping partners add sales capacity, industry expertise, and execution support.
Co-Sell as Staff Augmentation
One of the more interesting operational models discussed was Sage’s approach to co-selling.
Sperry explained that Sage account executives can effectively operate as an extension of partner sales teams.
“What that does is it actually gives partners some additional sales capacity.”
For smaller or growing partners, this becomes a meaningful scaling mechanism. Instead of waiting until they can independently fund new headcount, partners can leverage Sage resources to accelerate pipeline development and industry expansion.
Sperry described this as a practical way to help partners grow faster while reducing operational friction.
“If they want to go into a particular industry, we can add a little bit of industry knowledge.”
That support can include:
Additional sales coverage
Industry specialization
Mentorship for new partner reps
Joint customer engagement
Pipeline acceleration
Importantly, she framed this as a shared investment model.
“We’re investing together.”
That alignment matters because many partners are balancing hiring decisions, utilization targets, and services capacity while simultaneously trying to grow recurring revenue practices.
The Power of Micro-Vertical Expertise
Another major theme was Sage’s focus on industry depth.
Sperry explained that while Sage serves many broad industries, partners often go even deeper into highly specialized micro-verticals.
“We have over 50 micro verticals that we can kind of talk about.”
This is where the ecosystem becomes a force multiplier.
Partners combine:
Sage technology
Industry expertise
Specialized services
ISV integrations
Workflow customization
The result is highly tailored customer experiences that are difficult for generalized providers to replicate.
Sperry also highlighted how partners frequently overlap across multiple ecosystem motions simultaneously. A reseller may also build proprietary technology. An outsourcing partner may also operate as an ISV.
That flexibility creates broader customer coverage and more specialized outcomes.
“One partner may not solve that challenge exactly the same way.”
For partner leaders, that observation matters. Ecosystems increasingly win through combinations of expertise rather than through single-vendor standardization.
Gretchen O’Hara: The New Partner Playbook for AI, Ecosystems, and SMB Growth
At Sage FUTURES in San Francisco, Gretchen O’Hara delivered a clear message to partners: the market is shifting fast - and the opportunity is massive. But despite the noise around AI, one thing hasn’t changed.
Trusted AI Requires Trusted Partners
AI was a central topic throughout Sage FUTURE, particularly around trusted AI for finance and accounting workflows.
Sperry emphasized that Sage’s long history in accounting gives the company a strong foundation for responsible AI adoption.
“We get to build on the foundation of not just strong strength in accounting, but also bringing forward that trusted AI.”
She also made an important point about the role partners play in AI adoption.
For many customers, the partner is the first trusted advisor they turn to when evaluating how AI should be applied to their business.
That’s why Sage is involving partners directly in AI development initiatives, including its agentic AI developer program.
“They’re building AI with us.”
Sperry referenced partners already building agents and AI-driven solutions on top of Sage capabilities.
This reflects a broader ecosystem trend: hyperscalers and platform companies increasingly need partners not just to sell AI, but to operationalize it within specific workflows and industries.
