Do you remember when you would do a group project in school, and there was always that one kid that wouldn’t pull his weight but still take credit for the “A” at the end of the project?

Then again, maybe you were that kid. If you were, shame on you. 

The point being, if you weren’t paying attention and keeping track of each group member's input, you might think others were helping when they, in fact, were not. 

Strategic partnerships in a sales context are the same, and if you are not measuring the right KPIs, you will never know if your partnership program is working or if that underperforming kid is just taking credit for your “A.”

So, whether you are new to partnerships or have been using them for a while, here are the four partnership KPIs you should be prioritizing and measuring to drive success. 

Let’s get into it.

#1: Partner-Sourced Revenue 

This is the big one. The Michael Jordan of partnership KPIs, if you will (we don’t care if you think LeBron is better).

So what is it exactly? 

Partner-sourced revenue is the direct revenue from any deal attributed to one or more partners that brought the account into your sales pipeline.

In other words, this deal wouldn’t exist, and you’d have a little less money in the bank without their help.

However, tracking this KPI can be tricky, as Scott Edison, vice president of business development at Bench points out, and can often lead to double counting. 

Ah, there’s the catch… 

Fear not! This can be prevented when using a platform like Partnered that’s dedicated to keeping track of partner-sourced revenue in real-time. 

#2: Partner-Influenced Revenue 

Think of this as revenue that comes from your partner helping you make a deal or increase the size of a deal. 

Let’s say Johnny Sales from The Awesome Company calls you up and says, “Hey, I have a great tip on a prospect for you.” You use that tip to close a deal, and BOOM, you’ve got partner-influenced revenue.

Simply put, partner-influenced revenue happens when revenue was initiated or accelerated by partnership efforts.

So what does this look like?

Let’s say your partner endorses your solution with their account, setting you up for the perfect shot. 

Or a product manager/sales lead highlights an integration with your product in a customer roadmap meeting. 

Your partner helps you navigate a tricky account to close the deal. 

All partner-influenced revenue.

Jay McBain, Principal Analyst at Forrester points out the painfully manual way this is usually tracked. (Manually updating spreadsheets? No thank you.) 

Tracking this all-important KPI is important to see the value a partner is providing your organization. Using a platform like Partnered can make this a breeze so you can give props where props are due.

#3: Number of New Partnerships 

This metric is pretty straightforward. 

If you aren’t building your partnership program with the right partners, the program will never be successful. So let's keep those new partners coming! 

As Profit.co says, If companies like Google and Apple are using strategic partnerships to grow their business, there’s no excuse not to search for strategic partnerships.

The real problem many organizations face with this KPI is how to bring people into a program and then track your efforts.  

You can do it the old-fashioned way via spreadsheets, emails, Slack messages, and LinkedIn outreach, OR you can use a purpose-built partner platform like Partnered to easily bring everyone into your partnership ecosystem and instantly share data.

#4: Number of New Leads Generated

This is why you’re here. If your partner isn’t bringing warm leads to your pipeline, the partnership is not working.

But good partners are invaluable. Maybe they share a demo signup call to action in their company content or mention your product as a useful integration with their own. We love these kinds of partners.

Referred customers’ lifetime value is 16% higher than that of non-referred customers. 

Therefore, for any partnership to be fruitful, you want to generate leads for each other on a regular basis. If that isn’t happening, then what’s the point? 

Conclusion: 

Tracking these major KPIs is crucial if you want to have a successful partnership program.

The unfortunate reality is that this is easier said than done, and for many organizations, attribution is a major pitfall of their partnership programs.

This is where having the right technology comes into place.

Leveraging a partner relationship platform helps remove any guesswork and keeps all of your data in one place.

No more jumping in spreadsheets, digging through Slack messages or going over emails with a fine-toothed comb.

With Partnered, accurate attribution is at your fingertips, and all the manual processes that are holding your program back are streamlined.

So, are you ready to give Partnered a try? 

Get started with Partnered today!

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Using a network like Partnered is the simplest and most effective way to allow your sales team to reap the rewards of a strategic alliance partnership. Partnered is a fully automated platform that crunches partner data and pushes key insights into the laps of your sales team, allowing your team to save time prospecting and use powerful insights to close more deals.

If you’d like to check out how Partnered can help you and your team boost sales and close more deals, join today!