You’re in charge of a partnership program. How do you measure its success?

In a single measure: Registered Deals with the caveat that the definition of Registered Deal (and hence the rules governing all the behaviors around it) is that the deal was CREATED or otherwise invested in strategically by the partner. In addition to making customers successful with your product, creating business in these ways should be the only reason your partner program exists. Lots of rewards are being handed out to partners in the tech industry for fulfilling existing demand. Rewards should mirror your investment in the opportunity.

Success of a partner program should be assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively over short and long term to effectively measure the impact of your strategic alliance organization. Begin with: 1. Revenue growth: Both sourced and influenced 2. Market reach: Access to new business segments (industry, geography) 3. Innovation and New offering development: Number of new offerings launched because of new or by expansion of existing partnerships 4. Mindshare: Change in brand perception (for e.g., any movement in stock price after a joint Press Release with partner) 5. Client acquisition cost and sales cycle: Reduction in overall new business acquisition time and resources required to realize Return on Investment (RoI). Tip: Keep it simple!

Partnerships often take a while to produce results in a predictable and scalable manner. This fact taught me a key lesson about metrics: make sure you track the desired KPI and the leading indicators along the way. If your partner sourced goals are behind expectations, how many account mapping sessions, co-marketing activities and customer intros do you have? Make sure you map out key indicators well and communicate properly to your key stakeholders so they can see how things are unfolding until driving the desired impact.

You need to be strict here. An early partner program can go wrong, where they are attributing too many leads, insights and referrals to partners. In a bid to look good, show the program is working and influencing revenue or market presence positively. However, this has a negative impact further down the line when questions over revenue attribution is measured. Have clear boundaries, and lean on the side of caution if in doubt. It will make it hard to start the program, but it will build a lasting program.

I'm wary of partner programs that measure tangible KPIs as a demonstration of success. At the top end of partnerships - the strategic alliances, it's much more about collaboration and support and maximising that benefit with a truly connected GTM approach. This needs time and understanding and takes time to flourish...it's not just all about stats.

The number one metrics that you should have and focus on is: What value are we bringing to this partner and are we achieving it? Some partners want to win more deals with them: So you can track how many new logos you have done together? How many accounts are we pitching? Leads referred to them? For Marketing: How many joint events? whitepaper? blogpost? UTM link? Leads in the pipeline have happened? To keep their customers: Did their NRR go up or down? Any upsell or cross-sell thanks to you? What is their LTV? By focusing on your partners successes first and foremost, then you will also have your metrics rising very simply and quickly in parallel For internal metrics, a CRM and your finance team with Excel are enough to start with

Be clear on what are your **efficiency** VS **effectiveness** metrics. There is a difference between the two and lot of times organizations fall into the trap of not being clear between the two. To put it in simple terms: Effectiveness Metrics: Imagine you're baking a cake. Effectiveness metrics measure how well the cake turns out based on how much people enjoy eating it. So, if everyone loves your cake and asks for seconds, your cake is very effective! Efficiency Metrics: Now, think about how you made the cake. Efficiency metrics are like measuring how much time, effort, and ingredients you used to make the cake. If you can bake a delicious cake using fewer ingredients and less time, you're being efficient!

One thing that I have found helpful is the careful selection of metrics and tools tailored to our partnership goals. For measuring the effectiveness of our local service integrations, we chose customer satisfaction and retention rates as primary metrics. Utilizing tools like CRM software for retention tracking and survey platforms for gathering customer satisfaction data, we could pinpoint exactly how partner services affected our value proposition. For example, a deep dive into the data revealed that partners offering eco-friendly transportation options significantly boosted customer satisfaction scores, aligning perfectly with our commitment to sustainability.

Selecting the correct metrics will help provide meaningful insights into the performance of your partnership program, considering factors like engagement, ROI, and partner satisfaction. Utilize appropriate tools and technology to accurately track and analyze these metrics.

During my previous role, I led the development and launch of a new partnership program. Unfortunately, my position was eliminated due to budget cuts before I could assess its success. Success would have entailed establishing solid relationships, clear expectations, and transparent communication. Regular sharing of data with partners would have been vital for analysis and improvement. Constant refinement based on feedback would have allowed the program to adapt and define key performance indicators for success.

An important early stage activity is to meet and agree expectations of and for each other. This avoids a ton of unhelpful assumptions (i thought you were going to....) This way you align on the measures too, and can meet rgularly to track and report and if necessary adjust or realign

Keeping partners and stakeholders in the loop has been crucial. One time at work, we implemented a dashboard that provided real-time data on partnership outcomes, such as user engagement and revenue growth. This transparency helped in two ways: it fostered trust by showing our commitment to shared goals and enabled quick pivots in strategy when certain partnerships weren't performing as expected. For instance, tracking showed that a particular partnership wasn't yielding the anticipated increase in app usage. By communicating these findings early, we collaboratively adjusted our approach, focusing more on joint promotional campaigns, which eventually led to a significant uptick in engagement.

Consistent tracking of KPIs allows you to monitor the progress of your partnership program over time. Regularly communicate these insights with stakeholders to foster transparency and alignment toward common goals.

We have analyzed & evaluated 20 programs in the past 12 months using our EdisonAi platform. We examine 33 attributes of a partner program and relationship to drive out a per-partner score, visualise and segment an ecosystem and make program changes as needed. Optimizing a Partner Program with data is now necessary in any GTM motion involving partners. The data to make informed decisions exists in all organisations with partners; it is rarely accessed meaningfully.

Maximizing your partner program's potential requires regular evaluation and optimization. Start by identifying key performance indicators that align with your overarching goals. Periodically—whether monthly or quarterly—take a step back to assess what's working, what isn't, and explore new strategies. Embracing an open-minded approach and actively seeking feedback are essential for uncovering valuable insights for enhancement. Consistency ensures steady progress toward your objectives. Additionally, leveraging a Partner Platform can streamline the assessment and optimization process by providing comprehensive tracking and insights, thereby facilitating more effective decision-making and ultimately, driving your program's success.

Regular evaluation and optimization have been key to our partnership program at EasyWeGo. After launching a new partner integration, we conduct quarterly reviews to assess whether the partnership meets our predefined KPIs, like user growth or service utilization rates. One such evaluation highlighted that despite high user growth, there was a gap in service satisfaction. We optimized our approach by working closely with the partner to enhance their service offering, which not only improved satisfaction rates but also increased repeat usage. This cycle of evaluation and optimization ensures our partnerships remain dynamic and impactful, contributing to continuous improvement and growth.

Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of your partnership program by analyzing performance metrics and identifying areas for improvement. Use these insights to make data-driven optimizations that enhance the program's overall impact and efficiency.

There is always one non-conformist in a group, so i guess that's me today :-). I think we measure the wrong things. Almost every Program and Partner Metric is a rollup of data from a collection of sellers. Here is what we should Measure: 1) The number of Partners Sellers Prospecting. 2) The Accounts Covered and Activities. 3) Engagement Rates (Meetings) 4) Conversion Rates (Quoted opportunities from Engagements) 5) Average Deal Size. 6) Total New Funnel. 7) Active Sellers by Partner as a percentage of the total partner sales force. Each of these metrics should show trending. We produce these dashboards with our Performance IQ Software.

There are many ways to measure the success of a partnership program. Here are the metrics to get you started: Revenue & ROI: Measure revenue generated against investment. Customer Acquisition & Retention: Track new customer acquisition and retention rates. Reach & Exposure: Assess reach and brand exposure through partnerships. Lead Generation & Conversion: Monitor leads generated and conversion rates. Partner Satisfaction: Gauge partner satisfaction and engagement. Cost Efficiency: Compare partnership costs to other channels. Market Expansion: Evaluate expansion into new markets or segments. Strategic Alignment: Ensure partnerships align with long-term goals. Feedback & Improvement: Collect feedback to refine strategies over time.

One element of success of a partner program to consider is internal buy in. Are the channel team and the sales team aligned on how the partner program drives customers leads; creates value for partners that in turn expands deals with services, more products etc; and aids in the tracking of deals from generation to close and clearly indicates influence of the deal (i.e, where it came from, what team closed, the partner's action that influences, alliance partner influence, etc). Internal alignment is critical because any tension or burden created internally will undoubtedly spill out and taint the program from the inside out.

From my experience, partner program success should be measured against its contribution to the strategic and value creation objectives of the business. In this context, what one company will measure for its partner program is likely to be different than another firm. What is the partner program solving for? Growth? Market expansion? Product innovation? Cross-sell/Upsell? Lead generation? Services and solutions? The list goes on and should be unique to the company.

Successful partnerships are defined by the mutual value the organizations create TOGETHER in the marketplace. A partner has its own intrinsic value prop, and the vendor has its own as well. However, when the two organization decide to actually partner, they should focus on the unique value prop that they create as a new joint "entity". This is where real market opportunity gets created and captured through a channel play. This mindset should be at the heart of every partner discussion, business plan and sales approach.