Most channel partner programs end up drowning in tons of data without ever finding the numbers that actually matter. When everything went online during 2020-2021, organizations had to completely rebuild how they measure performance from scratch.
Your dashboard might show you hundreds of metrics – but most channel managers still can’t tell which numbers actually help their business grow from the ones that just look great in quarterly reports. This problem costs businesses millions of dollars in wasted resources every single year. Organizations like Microsoft and Salesforce turned their partner programs around once they figured out which measurements drive real action instead of just looking good.
Here are the exact metrics that separate channel programs that actually work from the ones that just track data because they think they’re supposed to.
Pipeline Metrics That Drive Revenue Success
Deal registrations won’t tell you anything if you don’t keep track of what happens after they’re submitted. Partners usually register deals and then just let them sit there without any follow-up – most of these systems end up full of dead deals within six months. What really matters is if those deals are actually moving through each stage of your sales process. If deals just get registered but never move forward, your pipeline forecasting is going to become completely unreliable.
The leads that come from partners usually behave differently than the ones you get from your direct sales team. Partner leads convert at different rates because partners have a better understanding of their local markets. This local knowledge gives them an edge that your direct team just doesn’t have. At the same time, they might not qualify prospects the same way your direct team would. This difference in how they qualify leads can throw off your forecasting accuracy if you’re not paying attention. You can’t just assume that the same conversion rates will work for both channels. Each partner channel is going to need its own conversion benchmarks and ways to track progress.
When you have visibility into what’s happening in your pipeline, it helps you make better decisions about where to put your resources. Once you can see which partners need help and which ones are about to close big deals, you can make sure your team spends their time where it really matters. Without being able to see what’s going on, you’re just guessing about where to spend your time. Your sales team ends up spending time on the wrong opportunities while the real deals get missed. It gets almost impossible to hit your revenue targets when you can’t see where your deals really are in the process. Sales managers need to have this information at their fingertips so they can figure out where to put their people and time each week.
You need to watch out for partners who make their pipeline numbers look bigger than they really are by not qualifying deals the right way. Some partners will fill up their pipelines with deals that aren’t real – they’re just hoping something might happen. This makes you think your forecast looks solid when it really doesn’t, and then you’re in a bad spot when those deals never actually happen. Your quarterly numbers depend on being able to tell the difference between real opportunities and deals that partners are just hoping for. Your executive team will start to lose trust in the partner channel when the forecasts keep being wrong. When partners keep inflating their pipeline numbers, it makes your whole partner program look unreliable.
What Really Drives Partner Success
Most channel managers end up measuring the wrong enablement metrics. They spend time tracking portal logins as if that’s what really counts instead of looking at what actually helps predict success.
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Portal activity might look productive. But it doesn’t tell you much about revenue results. Your dashboard can show all green numbers while your partners are still having trouble closing deals. This disconnect ends up causing months of missed targets and frustrated partners who can’t understand why their hard work isn’t paying off. Partners who finish certification programs do better than those who don’t. Cisco learned this years ago when they built their certification programs into something everyone wanted to copy. Now, everyone follows their way because it actually works.
The hard part is that partners have to manage relationships with multiple vendors at the same time. Your enablement program is one of five or six others all trying to get their attention. You can’t just create a program and assume partners will use it. Partner attention spans are shorter than they’ve ever been. They’re trying to manage Microsoft, Salesforce, and three other vendor relationships while also trying to hit their own revenue goals. Your program needs to show it’s worth it within just a few weeks, or they’ll move on to something else.
Portal usage gets confusing when you start looking at it more closely. Some of your best partners rarely log in because they already know what they need to know. At the same time, your struggling partners might check the portal constantly but never actually get better results. This makes it hard to measure anything useful. High portal usage might just mean partners are desperate rather than engaged. Partners who learn your product well don’t need to keep visiting the portal.
Proof-of-concept metrics show something interesting about partner confidence. Partners who ask for fewer demos usually end up closing more deals. They understand what they’re doing and don’t need someone to walk them through everything. The ones who constantly need help might not be ready for what they’re trying to do.
Newer partnerships work differently than the ones you’ve had for years. New partners need more meetings and take up more of your resources. Your long-time partners work on their own and only call you when they run into real problems. You need to measure each group differently, or your data won’t mean anything.
The Metrics for Your Channel Success
Sales growth percentage tells you much more than raw numbers ever will. Let’s say you compare a partner who grew from $50K to $100K against one who went from $500K to $750K – the first partner actually did better even though they brought in less total revenue. This really matters when you’re looking at partners of different sizes and thinking about how long they’ve been working in different markets. The math here helps you see past what might seem obvious at first glance about which partners are bringing the most value to your business.
Average deal size reveals how skilled your partners are in ways that might catch you off guard. Newer partners tend to start with smaller deals because they don’t have the relationships and experience to land those bigger sales yet. You’ll see this same pattern across different industries where partners who’ve been around longer can charge premium prices and work with bigger accounts. It’s definitely worth watching how deal sizes tend to grow as partners get more comfortable with your program.
Customer acquisition cost through partners is all over the map, and there are solid reasons for that. Some partners run lean direct-sales models, while others put tons of money into marketing and support infrastructure. What really matters is figuring out which way brings you better customers over the long run rather than just looking at which one costs less upfront. Higher acquisition costs can actually be a positive sign – they usually mean partners are investing in the right customer onboarding and support. These partners tend to bring you customers who stick around longer and spend more over time.
Product mix analysis helps you find opportunities that most businesses completely miss. Technology distributors like Tech Data and Ingram Micro are excellent at this because they track which products their partners sell together. Once you start seeing patterns in successful cross-selling combinations, you can guide your underperforming partners to try similar strategies. Cross-selling data reveals which partners really understand your full product line versus partners who are stuck selling just one product. Partners who become skilled at combining products bring in more revenue per customer and build relationships that last longer.
It’s tempting to push for short sales cycles, but that creates some dangerous blind spots. Partners who close deals too quickly might not be qualifying customers properly or might rush through understanding what the customer actually needs. This usually leads to more customers leaving and creates unhappy customers – problems that don’t show up until months later when you look at your retention numbers. Fast sales cycles might look great in quarterly reports, but they can hide real quality problems underneath.
Tools You Need for Better Tracking
When you’re just starting out, simple measurements usually work best for your partner programs. Track how fast you’re bringing on new partners and how long it takes them to close their first deal. These numbers help you see if partners can actually sell your product and how fast they can get up and running. But as your program gets bigger, you’ll need to look more closely at partner health scores and how engaged they are with you.
Most program managers run into this problem when they get to around 20 partners. The basic measurements you’ve been tracking won’t give you the full picture of how your partners are doing. Your executive team will start asking harder questions about partner ROI and whether these relationships will last long-term. The real problem starts when your data is spread across different systems. Your CRM might show you one story, your partner portal tells you something else, and your finance team has completely different numbers. Without a full view of each partner relationship, it’s hard to know what’s actually happening.
When your data is scattered all over the place, it causes more problems for partner programs than picking the wrong partners ever could. Teams end up wasting hours trying to match up reports that don’t agree with one another while real partner problems slip through the cracks. Your best partners could be having problems with slow onboarding. But you’d never know it from looking at your weekly dashboard.
Here’s where automated systems can make a real difference. Manual reporting works okay when you have ten partners. But trying to track the big numbers for fifty partners gets too much to handle. The breaking point tends to come out of nowhere. Successful businesses are the ones that pay for systems to connect their partner data automatically.
Some of the leading businesses out there now track partner Net Promoter Score along with their usual sales numbers. They’ve figured out that a partner who enjoys working with you does much better than a partner who just puts up with the relationship. Looking at customer lifetime value through partners also gives you a better understanding than looking at basic revenue numbers. How satisfied your partners are with the relationship changes everything else. Partners who are happy with you send more customer referrals, spend more time on training, and stay with you even when the market gets tough.
The newest trend is to use predictive analytics that can tell you which partners will probably succeed or run into problems. These models look at everything from how often partners finish certifications to how often they submit support tickets. These predictive models help you catch partner problems before they turn into bigger issues. Early warning systems can spot partners who might leave based on their engagement patterns. Your team can then step in with the right kind of help instead of finding out months later that you’ve lost deals.
Track the Right Numbers for Success
The real secret to measuring channel partner success is simple – it’s about tracking fewer numbers but making sure they’re the right ones. Instead of drowning in spreadsheets filled with dozens of data points, the best businesses focus on just the numbers that actually help them make better business decisions and build stronger partner relationships. Those endless columns of data don’t usually tell you the full story anyway. What separates decent channel programs from great ones isn’t how much data you collect – it’s how well you can turn that data into information that helps you build better partnerships and get solid results.
Think back on the business decisions you made about your channel partners over the past three months. Which numbers actually helped you make those decisions, and which ones just sat there collecting dust in your monthly reports? This quick check shows the gap between what you think you need to measure and what actually matters for your particular situation. Most teams find they’ve been tracking twice as many numbers as they actually need. The best channel programs use these numbers as a starting point for coaching conversations. They help you see where your partners might need more support or resources instead of using them to punish or criticize.
When businesses get skilled at this focused way of measuring their channels, they usually see their partners become 20-30% more productive within the first year. This kind of success happens because these numbers are just tools to help you build stronger partnerships. The human relationships behind the numbers are the heart of any successful channel program. Your data should help make those connections stronger, not replace them.
The way you measure performance shapes every single conversation you have with your partners. Once your partners see how tracking the right numbers helps them grow their business, they start to become active participants in the whole process. Good measurement practices can turn your monthly check-ins into real planning sessions that benefit everyone involved.
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Get in touch with us today for a free demo and see how we help high-performing businesses get the most out of their investments and grow their sales!
Claudine is the Chief Relationship Officer at Level 6. She holds a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology. Her experience includes working as a certified conflict mediator for the United States Postal Service, a human performance analyst for Accenture, an Academic Dean, and a College Director. She is currently an adjunct Professor of Psychology at Southern New Hampshire University. With over 20 years of experience, she joined Level 6 to guide clients seeking effective ways to change behavior and, ultimately, their bottom line.
