The Most Underestimated Role in Partnerships
I believe everyone working in revenue-generating partnerships should assume that someone senior within their organization doubts the value of partners.
This might be the CRO. Or the CFO. Or a Board member.
Whether you know it or not, they are asking questions like …
Why should we hire another partner manager rather than another seller?
Aren’t we better off closing deals directly (rather than with a partner)?
The most powerful tool to address these questions is simple: partner data.
But obtaining that data is very difficult in most organizations.
There is a solution: Partner Operations.
Partner Ops is the unglamorous plumbing the powers your partner ecosystem. It is invisible when it works, but when it breaks, the ‘mess’ ends up on the CFO’s desk.
Here is how Partner Operations helps you avoid a terrible mess …
Partner Ops Powers GTM Partnerships
Partner Ops exists to turn messy ecosystem activity into undeniable board-level data. This data can vary from organization to organization but in my experience, there are the essential metrics:
Partner value metrics
Partner attach rate: what % of deals have a partner attached?
Partner-sourced & influenced revenue: how much revenue did partners source? How much overall revenue is with customers who use a partner (or multiple partners)?
Partner segments - which partners are driving the most revenue?
Partner comparative metrics
Deal size: what is the avg deal size when a partner is attached to a deal vs. not?
Deal velocity: what is the average deal cycle when a partner is attached vs. not?
Time-to-value: how long does it take for customers to activate or unlock product value with a partner vs. without?
Higher velocity and larger deal sizes aren’t just ‘nice-to-haves’— they are the best way to silence internal critics.
Some companies may use additional metrics to measure impact and track progress.
For example, MacKenzie Connaro, who built partner ops at LiveRamp, shared this:
“We treat partner case studies as a metric because those case studies are key to our sellers and other internal stakeholders understanding each partner’s value.
Partner Ops Also Empowers Partners with a Seamless Experience
Don’t make the mistake of thinking Partner Ops is only inward-facing.
The best Partner Operations leaders build systems - essential workflows that partners rely upon. These workflows attract partners to an ecosystem and keep them engaged.
Partner Operations is also critical to delivering a smooth experience for partners, including:
Onboarding - clearly outlining how to become a partner (e.g. eligibility & authorizations)
Integrations - manages clear API documentation and routing to technical support
Co-Selling - implementing a structure for account mapping, deal registrations
Partner enablement - a learning management system or some mechanism for delivering enablement/educational content and validating partner knowledge for badging / credentials.
External partner metrics - data to inform QBRs, partner tiering and benefits
Partner Benefits - access to badges, credentials, awards, and yes, payment (for resellers)
When to Hire a Partner Ops Leader
In my experience, there are three models for how to get started with Partner Ops
Borrowed Model - this typically involves convincing the Sales Ops team to support / extend their coverage to partnerships. This can work but that person is rarely dedicated to partnerships and often gets pulled away to support sales-related work.
Hybrid model - this is when a member of the partnerships team is responsible for both partner management AND partner operations. This is not ideal but this person is at least embedded within the team and intimately familiar with how partner realities must translate into metrics.
Dedicated model - this is a dedicated, full-time Partner Operations leader whose job is focused almost entirely on assembling the internal metrics above and
Most partnerships teams must start with the borrowed or hybrid model and graduate to the dedicated model.
My recommendation is that by the time your organization clears 25% of revenue from partners, you need a dedicated Partner Operations leader.
