What metrics are top of mind for executives and leadership teams when deciding to increase spend on partner budget?

Direct revenue attribution is king; as a partner leader I always want to own a P&L and contribute to revenue directly. That can take the form of resell, referral or distribution partnerships. The more direct the line to revenue is, the easier it is to make the case for additional spend. Of course, there are many partner programs you will need to build that don't directly source revenue - but those need to be supporting the overall revenue motion. For example, building a program that sub-contracts consulting partners into your sales engagements doesn't bring significant revenue on its own; however it feeds business to the partners which in turn makes it much easier to ask for referrals and intros from them.

Metrics will differ based on your partnership team’s goals (see notes above on metrics like total user engagement, influenced revenue, etc.). Demonstrating quantifiable impact that aligns with stated company goals is most important here, coupled with clear customer stories and examples that back up the value of your partner program. A good exercise here is to take materials that outline your company’s goals and overlay your partner program’s contribution(s) to each relevant area. You also want to be clear on the expected outcome from an increased investment in partner budget; if partner budget is increased, what can leaders expect and why does that matter to them? Be clear and realistic on the upside, downside, and risks associated with increasing partner spend.

At SmartSuite, it's pretty straight forward: MRR/ARR impact. Number of trails and conversions. We try to attribute partnerships to rev as closely as possible.

To expand a little bit on my earlier question - they’re going to care most about demonstrable impact your team is having, that’s clearly aligned with wider business priorities. So be prepared to dig in and show up as a strong driver of new business growth and/or existing business expansion and retention. But, in addition to that, being able to show comparative impact versus other channels on things like win rate and deal size, as well as team metrics like productivity, is really crucial.