Author: Doug Johnstone, Principal Consultant at Digital Pivot
Date: January 2025
How Do You Measure the Success of a Partner Strategy?
One of the biggest mistakes IT service providers make when investing in partnerships is failing to measure success. I’ve worked with firms that spent years developing partner relationships but had no way to track whether those efforts were generating real business impact.
The reality is that most organisations don’t just need more partnerships—they need structured engagement models that provide clear ROI. When we helped an IT firm implement a partner sales dashboard tracking influenced deals, deal conversion rates, and partner pipeline velocity, they finally saw the financial impact of their partnerships. Within six months, they were able to optimise their investments, doubling their revenue from partner-influenced deals.
In this blog, I’ll outline the key metrics IT service providers should be tracking and how they can build a data-driven approach to Partner-Led Growth. If you’re investing in partnerships but struggling to justify the ROI, this is a must-read.
Introduction
In today’s fast-changing digital landscape, IT Service Providers face increasing pressure to maintain revenue growth as traditional sales channels become less effective. Economic downturns, AI-driven automation, and evolving customer expectations make it difficult to generate consistent pipeline and revenue. Partner-Led Growth offers a powerful alternative by leveraging the network effect of global partnerships. However, many IT firms struggle to justify investment in partnerships due to challenges in measuring indirect sales impact.
Understanding how to quantify and optimise the return on investment (ROI) of a partner-led sales strategy is critical to securing long-term success and continued buy-in from leadership.
Why IT Firms Struggle to Justify Investment in Partnerships
Many IT services and consulting businesses are hesitant to fully commit to partner-led growth programs because of:
- Indirect Sales Attribution – Unlike direct sales, partner-influenced revenue can be difficult to track.
- Lack of Clear Metrics – Many firms lack a structured approach to measure success.
- Unstructured Partner Engagement – Without a defined engagement model, partners may not actively contribute to business growth.
A well-structured measurement framework is essential to proving the value of partner-led sales initiatives and ensuring ongoing investment in partnerships.
The Challenge of Measuring Indirect Sales Impact
Unlike direct sales, where revenue attribution is straightforward, partner-influenced deals often involve multiple touchpoints and stakeholders. This complexity makes it harder to measure ROI effectively. IT firms must go beyond traditional sales tracking methods and adopt a data-driven approach to measuring partner contribution to revenue.
Key Metrics for Partner Sales Success
1. Partner-Influenced Revenue vs. Direct Sales
Understanding the impact of partnerships on revenue requires tracking both direct and indirect sales contributions. Key metrics include:
- Total revenue influenced by partners
- Percentage of total revenue driven through partner engagements
- Deal size comparison: Partner-led vs. direct sales
2. Partner Pipeline Contribution and Conversion Rates
Measuring how partners contribute to the sales pipeline and how effectively they convert leads into customers is crucial. Key metrics include:
- Number of partner-generated leads
- Partner-attributed deal conversion rates
- Time-to-close for partner-led deals vs. direct deals
3. Retention and Expansion Rates in Partner-Led Deals
Partner-led deals often drive longer-term customer relationships. Evaluating retention and expansion rates helps measure the full lifecycle value of partner-driven customers.
- Customer retention rates for partner-sourced deals
- Expansion revenue from partner-led accounts
- Customer lifetime value (CLV) in partner-driven sales
Building a Partner Revenue Dashboard
To optimise your partner-led sales strategy, it’s essential to have a clear, real-time view of partner contributions. A well-designed dashboard enables IT firms to track performance, forecast growth, and make data-driven decisions.
How to Track Partner-Influenced Deals
- Implement CRM integrations to tag and track partner-sourced opportunities.
- Define partner attribution models to recognize co-sell and referral contributions.
- Establish partner-specific reporting fields in sales tracking tools.
Automating Reporting and Forecasting Partner Growth
- Use AI-driven analytics to predict partner pipeline performance.
- Set up automated dashboards for real-time partner deal tracking.
- Leverage predictive forecasting to optimise partner engagement strategies.
Have questions about measuring your partner strategy’s ROI? Have a chat with our AI Pivot Agent — your expert guide to data-driven growth.
Next Steps
Book a Free Partner Growth Assessment with Digital Pivot
Not sure how to optimise your partner sales strategy? Digital Pivot’s Partner Growth Assessment helps Professional Services, Consulting and IT Services firms evaluate their current partner ecosystem and build a data-driven approach to partner-led sales success.
For expert guidance on executing your Partner Sales Strategy, reach out to Digital Pivot today.
For more information, contact us
The 5 key steps to unlocking Partner ecosystem growth:
- Core Services Pipeline Shrinking? —How Partnerships Can Fix It
- The Hidden Revenue in Your Partner Network: How to Unlock It
- Building a Scalable Partner-Led Sales Strategy in IT Services
- Partner Enablement 101: The Missing Ingredient in Most IT Sales Strategies
- How to Measure the ROI of Your Partner-Led Growth Strategy