As partners make the shift to solution selling, vendors must evolve their partner programs accordingly. Fortinet is arming its partners with conversations about pain points, rather than products, Kelley said.

For Intel, it's about giving partners access to more education and enablement tools, Ogner said.

"Ultimately, making the change to solution selling is the right thing for the customer," she said. "We understand that if we make these changes, we all grow together."

Evolving a channel program requires buy-in from an enthusiastic internal staff that understands the value of the channel, said Jana Valenti, director of field and channel marketing for Symantec.

"That piece is really undervalued. People like to work with people that they know and trust … your internal people are your secret sauce," she said.

Having a staff that understands and is prepared to support channel partners isn't only a benefit to the channel. Vendors also win because more often, customers are leaning on solution providers as their trusted partners. If vendors can better support partners, and partners have more to offer their end customers, all parties will benefit, added Wendy Hoey, director of distribution and vendor alliances for Denver-based solution provider Optiv, who led the panel.

There's still room for improvement in the relationship between vendors and partners, as long as vendors continue to evolve their offerings and their channel strategies.

The technology won't always get a vendor in the door. The relationship can be made or broken based on the interaction between the partner rep and vendor sales rep, Ogner said.

"I think [vendors] overcomplicate things. And if it's complicated for us to understand, imagine what it's like for a [partner]," she said. "I think we need to get down to a place of what's best for the customer, and then how everyone can make money."

Solutions providers can help vendors simply and get back down to basics, Kelley said.

"Tell us why you win, and why you lose," she said. "When you're in the trenches, what's pushing you over to that win, or what's missing … We probably don't ask that enough."