Channel Partners Dashboard

What does this template measure?

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Channel partners come in all shapes and sizes: value added sellers (co-sellers), distributors, resellers, affiliates, referral partners, and more. But since resellers, referral partners, and affiliates rank top three in B2B marketing, this template focuses on them.

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What we’ll cover:

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• Channel revenue by type
• Total channel leads this month
• Channel pipeline and revenue targets
• Goal pacing toward channel partner targets
• Funnel conversion rate trends
• Partner vs. non-partner comparison

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What insights can I surface with this dashboard?

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Channel partner managers and marketing leaders use this dashboard to:

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• Which channel partners (reseller, affiliate, partner) make the most?
• Where do we have leaks in the partner sales funnel?
• Trends that may indicate future poor performance before they arrive
• Channel partner’s influence on sales velocity
• Marketing’s influence on channel partner deals

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Let’s jump in!

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Channel sales at a glance

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“At a glance” reports help you temperature check KPIs in real-time.

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That’s why they sit at the top of the dashboard- where you can easily find them.

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For channel partners, “at a glance” KPIs include the following:

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• Revenue by channel partner type (reseller vs. referral vs. affiliate)
• Total revenue from channel partners with goal pacing (this month)
• Total pipeline created by channel partners with goal pacing (this month)
• Total lead volume from channel partners with goal pacing (this month)

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See which channel partners deliver the most revenue and track how well you’re pacing toward your lead, pipeline, and revenue targets for the month (goal pacing indicated by the half circles with percentages).

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Channel partner funnel health

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Next up: funnel health. Where are the leaks in your channel partner sales funnel that you need to patch?

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This report shows total volume of marketing qualified leads (MQL), sales qualified leads (SQL), sales qualified opportunities (SQO), and closed/won deals from affiliate partners and referral partners, along with conversion rate trends between stages over a trailing six month period.

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Unlike static numbers, line charts help you visualize and anticipate trends. For example, in the report below, conversion rates from SQO to closed/won have declined dramatically over the last six months, from nearly 60% to under 10%. That’s not a one time thing; win rates have progressively worsened, month over month, and that “leak” requires immediate attention.

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Are channel partners sending bad ICP fits? Has something changed in the market that requires a new pitch? Is a new competitor gobbling up market share? Now you know where to direct your attention.

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How does HockeyStack know which visitors come from partners and which don’t? It depends on the type of channel partner:

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• Affiliates: Most affiliate programs use affiliate links to track referrals. HockeyStack’s website script tracks affiliate link UTM parameters along with the visitor it arrived with so you can track affiliate sales and the customer journey’s that produced them.

• Referral partners: In this example, referral partners are tagged manually in the CRM using a custom property, either when a referral partner submits leads directly or when an account executive creates an opportunity. HockeyStack then segments past referral-sourced deals and their customer journeys once tagged.

• Resellers: Resellers sell products directly to buyers with their own sales team or website. Since we can’t track these buyers’ progression through someone else’s CRM sales funnel (reseller buyers are not included in this funnel health report), we use reverse IP lookup to identify which reseller customers engaged with your marketing and website before buying.

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Either way, with website tracking and reverse IP lookup, we’re able to track the journeys of a high percentage of channel partner sales, even if they don’t submit through your website.

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Marketing’s influence on channel partner deals

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One of the most common questions we get from customers regarding channel sales: how can we measure marketing’s influence on partner deals? Like we mentioned above, using UTM parameters, website tracking, and reverse IP lookup, HockeyStack is able to track any partner-sourced deal and their accompanying journey, even if that deal came from a reseller.

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As for marketing influence, you have full control over how you want to define and measure it in HockeyStack. Just keep in mind: not every marketing touch has influence, even if a prospect engaged with it. Which is why we leverage incremental lift analysis in HockeyStack to define true influence.

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Lift refers to the increase in conversion rates that happened above what would have happened anyways. For example, if we compare annual contract value of partners vs. non-partners, we can estimate the lift (positive or negative) our channel partners had on deal value.

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We can do the same with sales cycle duration, qualification rates, and win rates.

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In the report below, you can see that channel partners qualify more often, close faster, and spend more money than non-partners (everyone else). You can also see that win rates for channel partners have dropped significantly in the last 13 months, which warrants immediate attention.

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Had this data shown the opposite (that channel partner deals close slower, less often, and with small contract values), you’d have a data-backed case for discontinuing partnerships or revisiting partner quality.

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Bottom line: this report establishes clear evidence that channel partners produce quality leads that move through your pipeline efficiently (sales velocity).

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And last, a touchpoint influence report. We know partner deals perform better than non-partner deals. But how much does our marketing activity contribute to that performance?

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Quite a lot, it turns out:

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• Channel partner sales w/ marketing touchpoints: what percent of channel partner deals engaged with your marketing? In this example, 64% of all channel partner deals also engaged with your marketing. Bonus: you can hover over “see journeys” and see the account-level customer journeys of all channel partner deals with touchpoints.

• Average touchpoints of partner deals: On average, how many marketing touchpoints do channel partner closed/won deals encounter?

• Win rates: what is your win rate when channel partner deals engage with your marketing vs. when they don’t? In this case, 61% to 34%, suggesting that even though channel partners produce leads, marketing still influences conversion.

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Learn more about how HockeyStack helps marketing, revenue, and sales teams surface and action insights like the ones in this template by exploring the interactive demo or booking a virtual demo.

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