15 KPIs for Partnerships You Should Measure to Drive Growth

Data-driven decision-making is one of the top business development trends this year. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2026, 65% of B2B sales organizations will transition from intuition-based to data-driven decision-making, using technology to unite their workflows and data. If you're measuring strategic KPIs for partnerships, you can be at the front end of this data-driven shift with Impartner.  

Impartner Analytics is now giving us visibility into ecosystem performance that we've never had before. It's helping ecosystem leaders like you visualize a partner's path to profitability, allowing them to draw on deep insights into partner enablement, engagement, revenue, and so much more. Impartner gives the power of data to partnership teams. With this data, you can secure continued investments in your program and make yourself indispensable at your company.  

How do you measure success in partnerships?  

In general, KPIs for partnerships are any metrics that are used to evaluate the effectiveness and success of your partnerships. These key performance indicators can include metrics on financial performance, such as revenue generated from partners, market expansion metrics like new markets entered, or qualitative measures like partner satisfaction and engagement levels. They help organizations track progress, optimize performance, and make informed decisions about their partnerships, ensuring that these relationships are productive and aligned with their overall strategic objectives. 

Identifying and tracking the right KPIs for partnerships is important because it creates a clear, quantitative record of how effective your programs are. Are you leading your industry in partner engagement, or are you falling behind (and losing partners)? Do your partners know how they're performing, and where they could improve? Are you achieving ROI for your different partner programs and, if so, by how much?  

Answering questions about your partner analytics becomes even more crucial in a data-driven business landscape, because executive teams are looking for concrete results before they invest in future programs or teams. With Impartner, you can start to build a ROI-validated partner program that answers these questions and more.  

Strategic KPIs for partnerships you should measure  

If you're mapping out the strategic partnership KPIs to track, get started in these broad categories. Remember: this is just a starting point, and the KPIs you track will differ based on your program goals. With Impartner Analytics, you can track these different metrics and more, report on them to key stakeholders, turn data into future sales actions, and watch progress over time.  

Revenue-related partner KPIs 

These KPIs measure the direct financial benefits gained from your partner ecosystem and are the most common starting point to report on to your executive team and company stakeholders.  

1. Partner program revenue: Tracks the total income generated from partnerships over a specific period. This can include direct sales, royalties, and other revenue streams derived from partners. 
2. Per-partner revenue: Tracks the total income generated from each partner over a specific period. This can include direct sales, royalties, and other revenue streams. Dig deeper by tracking partner-generated revenue, as well as partner-influenced revenue. 
3. Revenue growth: Measures the percentage increase in revenue from partnerships over time. This KPI helps assess the financial impact of your partnership strategy and whether it contributes to overall business growth. 
4. Partner program ROI: Calculates the overall return on investment for your partner program initiatives, including internal budgets, incentives, and more.  
5. Percentage of indirect revenue: Compare the revenue your partnerships are bringing in, as a percentage of your company's total revenue. This number, along with program ROI, can be some of the most powerful KPIs to report to stakeholders.  

Senior Director of Channel Experience at AvePoint, Sam Valme, notes how this focus on KPIs drove program growth: "When we first started with Impartner, we were at 20% channel revenue. After two years, we're at 50% of our revenue touching the channel." Now, their goal is to hit 70% revenue from the channel, which they're doing by recruiting an additional 700 partners.  

Partner engagement and enablement KPIs 

To stand out in a crowded marketplace, you must prioritize engagement and enablement. By doing so, you support and motivate your partners to maximize the partnership's potential. Start by tracking partner KPIs like these with Impartner:  

1. Partner satisfaction scores: Measure partner satisfaction through in-portal surveys and feedback mechanisms. This index helps gauge the health of partner relationships and can predict long-term partnership viability. 
2. Training and certification completion rates: Track the percentage of partners who complete required training and certification programs. High completion rates can indicate effective partner enablement and readiness. 
3. Partner portal usage rates: Monitor how frequently partners access and utilize your partner portal for resources and support. Active use can indicate high engagement and the use of the enablement materials you've provided.  
4. Lead response time: Measure the speed at which partners respond to leads or inquiries generated through your co-selling efforts. Quicker response times typically indicate a higher level of commitment and readiness from partners and can help increase conversion rates. 

With over 20,000 global partners, Palo Alto Networks utilizes Impartner to track and enhance their partner engagement efforts. By developing a KPI around engagement, they're able to prove the success of their efforts.  

Stephanie Zembal, Senior Manager of Channel Marketing at Palo Alto Networks, notes about Impartner: "It's really been pivotal in changing the way that our partners are able to co-market with us. We're seeing about a 40% quarter over quarter growth when I'm measuring partner engagement, which is fantastic." 

Market expansion and customer KPIs  

Other KPIs for partnerships can help you track progress in other aspects of your program. From the ability of your ecosystem to expand into new markets, or how partnering is impacting your product development and innovation, measure the metrics that matter for your program.  

1. New markets entered through partnerships: Count the number of new geographical or demographic markets accessed via partnerships.  
2. Market share gained via partners: Assess the portion of a market captured because of collaborative efforts with partners.  
3. Number of co-developed products and services: Track the quantity of new offerings created through partnerships, highlighting the collaborative success in innovation. 
4. Customer satisfaction and retention scores: Track customer satisfaction, retention, and/or renewal rates for those customers served by partners, compared to customer groups served by internal teams.  
5. Marketing engagement: Monitor the level of interaction (e.g., clicks, shares, likes), along with total leads, driven by co-marketing initiatives with your partners. 
6. ROI on co-marketing investments: Calculate the return on investment from co-marketing activities with partners. 

By regularly monitoring these metrics, you can better understand the value generated from your partnerships, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to improve your programs in the future.  

Harness the power of data with Impartner Analytics  

As data-driven decision-making is rapidly becoming the norm, partner leaders need tools that can provide deep insights into the effectiveness of their partnerships.   

Impartner Analytics transforms how companies track and utilize partnership KPIs, enabling leaders to visualize a partner's path to profitability. This powerful tool turns raw data into actionable insights, empowering partnership teams to drive significant business outcomes and demonstrate the tangible ROI of their efforts. 

With Impartner, you can track a wide range of strategic KPIs critical for assessing the success of your partnership programs. Whether it's monitoring direct financial contributions through partner program revenue and per-partner revenue, evaluating engagement through partner portal usage rates and training completion, or exploring market expansion through new markets entered and market share gained, Impartner Analytics delivers the metrics you need to turn data into action.  

With Impartner Analytics, you equip your organization with the tools to build a ROI-validated partner program that not only meets but exceeds the demands of a data-driven business landscape.  

It's time to harness the power of data. Learn more about Impartner Analytics, or take an interactive product tour to see it live.