Leveraging Partner Data & Tracking Partner Influence on Sales
Leveraging Partner Data and Sales Enablement
In this discussion, Liz Garcia, Community Manager of the SaaS Ecosystem Alliance, speaks with Kalen Kimm, Strategic Partnerships Director at Jebbit, about how sales teams can leverage partner data to drive revenue. Kalen shares practical advice on enabling sales teams with partner intelligence, tracking partner influence and attribution, and building a culture of ecosystem collaboration.
Why Sales Teams Should Leverage Partner Data
With third-party data becoming less reliable due to privacy regulations, second-party and partner data has emerged as a valuable resource. Kalen emphasizes that tools like Reveal and Crossbeam provide access to partner overlap data that can transform how sales teams prioritize prospects.
Reveal's 360° mapping feature allows partnership teams to search across databases and discover prospects using multiple partner solutions. This capability enables force-ranking prospects based on their existing MarTech stack—companies with ten or more partner tools demonstrate budget availability, purchasing sophistication, and propensity for using similar solutions. This data-driven approach helps sales teams focus on high-probability opportunities rather than pursuing cold leads.
Enabling Sales Teams with Partner Intelligence
The process of enabling sales with partner data evolves over time. Initially, partnership leaders often conduct research themselves and share insights with individual account executives through field mapping calls around two or three accounts. However, scaling this approach requires moving beyond the partnerships team as a bottleneck.
Building an ecosystem culture is essential. Kalen shares an example where a brief five-minute conversation with a BDR turned into a 30-minute power session after showing them where Crossbeam data lives within Salesforce. The BDR realized they could incorporate "Better-Together" value propositions directly into their outreach messaging. This kind of revelation changes the dynamic entirely.
Partnership professionals must embrace their role as teachers, not just salespeople and matchmakers. Taking time to educate sales team members on how to articulate partnership value and access partner data pays dividends across the organization.
Tracking Partner Influence and Attribution
Attribution remains one of the most challenging aspects of partnerships work. The first hurdle is philosophical—getting leadership to recognize the value of partner influence beyond net-new sourced deals. Partner intelligence can reveal critical information, such as identifying the right decision-maker with budget authority, yet quantifying this contribution proves difficult.
Practical tracking methods include:
Salesforce Fields — Implement a simple "partner influence" checkbox with yes/no options, then educate the organization on using it without fear of compensation plan impacts. Progress to allowing multiple attributions on single opportunities.
Call Recording Analysis — Using tools like Chorus or Salesloft, partnership teams can perform keyword searches on partner terms and listen to sales calls. This uncovers attribution opportunities and provides coaching moments for sales reps.
Shared Slack Channels — Setting up dedicated Slack channels with partners improves visibility and collaboration across teams, reducing siloed conversations.
PRM Implementation — Partner relationship management platforms help address visibility challenges by making partner interactions more transparent and accessible to stakeholders.
Uncovering Hidden Opportunities
Kalen shares a compelling example of partner data revealing overlooked prospects. While running a company-wide 360° mapping report, Bridgestone surfaced as having multiple partner overlaps—surprising given the assumption they were already a customer. The account had been assigned to a departed sales rep and sat dormant for a year. This type of discovery demonstrates the power of partner data to surface high-value accounts that might otherwise be forgotten.
Best Practices for Emerging Partner Programs
For programs just starting to demonstrate partner influence value, Kalen recommends a progression:
Get foundational tools in place — Implement your CRM and partner intelligence platforms like Reveal and Crossbeam before attempting to track influence.
Find and share success stories — Rather than just running reports, identify wins that resulted from partner collaboration and evangelize these internally.
Build champions at every level — From junior BDRs to top executives, partnership teams must educate stakeholders on the power of partner data and influence. Senior leaders focused on quarterly targets often need reminders about partnership value.
Don't let attribution disputes derail momentum — Conversations about egos and compensation plans can consume excessive time. Getting partner conversations started and driving results often resolves attribution concerns naturally. As Kalen notes, "Revenue solves all problems."
Key Metrics to Track
While comprehensive measurement includes deal count from partners, tagged influence, and time-to-close, the ultimate metric for partnership teams reporting to CROs comes down to dollars. Tracking how many dollars can be attributed to partner influence and net-new source provides the clearest picture of partnership value.
- https://www.saasecosystemalliance.com/between-product-and-partnerships-podcast
- https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/collection_1c9a31f4-9bff-49d0-9d32-9d82d9b63641/4e97b163-0583-4e91-a212-85668b17566a/Podcast-Summary_-How-to-Build-SaaS-Integrations-That-Scale.docx
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