What metrics matter the most for PLG SaaS companies that are working with partners and trying to show the impact of their ecosystem of service partners?

The metrics I used to show our sr. leadership the importance and impact of partners were: - Partner sourced revenue as a percentage of sales revenue - Partner involved (besides sourced also influenced, e.g. when you introduce a partner) revenue as a percentage of sales revenue - Partner attach rate (how many opps with partners vs. without) - Average deal size with partners vs. without - Average sales cycle with partner vs. without - Conversion rates of opps with partners vs. without The last three metrics are typically better with partners than without. The average deal size is bigger as the partner consults from a more strategic viewpoint which might also include future considerations, other departments, markets, use cases and therefore, more of your product or more products could be positioned earlier. The average sales cycle is typically shorter as the partner is doing a lot of the pre-sales work (pitching, showcasing the value proposition, comparing to other solutions) and might only come to you when you are already the chosen solution. The partner might also have pre-established trust with the customer which would shorten the trust-building part. Because there is trust and partners are an extended team and independent third-party to pitch in your favor, the conversion rates with partners are typically higher. I was also able to show an increase in partner sourced and involved revenue starting at 15-20% and increasing to a peak of 74% (sourced) over 8 years. Our goal is to reach 80% in the next 2-3 years. As the above mentioned metrics are usually better with partners, a higher partner attach rate (sourced or introduced) is a good leading indicator for increased conversion rates and deal sizes as a lagging outcome. All these metrics helped me to promote a partner-first mindset as well as to shift some marketing budgets from demand gen to partnerships. The case I made was to accelerate what is working and that increased marketing budget invested in our partnerships will have a higher incremental return than increased demand gen budget.

Here are some metrics you can rely on: 1. CSAT - basic but effective and easy to measure 2. Account health - harder to measure, but if you manage to prove that accounts that work with service partners are healthier and driving expansions or retention, everyone will be bough in 3. Influence in revenue - attribute a portion of the revenue when a service partner was involved in closing a lead

I love this question mainly because this is an underserved area. Partnerships at a PLG company are challenging, because customers can self-sign up without any touch point from Sales or partners, and there isn’t true visibility into the impact partners have on the revenue of the business. Ideally a PLG company should be able to show which partners have impact on which customer referrals and which partners are currently working with which customers. You need to be able to prove the impact Partnerships has on net new business as well as on retained revenue.