Common Challenges in Partner Management

A common partnership snafu is that companies want partnership success, but don’t provide the resources to get there. I heard of a case where a whole marketing team quit, the partnerships team was given no marketing support, and they didn't yet have an integration with product -- and yet, the CEO expected the partnership strategy to deliver instant revenue. Wild. But not uncommon. Partnerships can't thrive in a vacuum. They need cross-functional support—marketing, product integration, sales enablement—all aligned to succeed. Before you set revenue targets for your partnerships, ask yourself: Do we have the resources to support them? If the answer is no, you have to help your leadership teams to reconsider their expectations. To help create the cross-functional support needed for partnerships to thrive, here are four strategies: 1. Involve Cross-Functional Leaders from the Very Beginning Bring key leaders from marketing, sales, and product into the partnership planning phase. Early involvement gives them a sense of ownership and ensures they understand how partnerships align with their own goals. Strategy: Schedule a kick-off meeting with stakeholders from each relevant department. Create a shared roadmap that outlines how partnerships will impact each team and their specific contributions. 2. Tie Partnership Success to Department KPIs To gain buy-in, tie partnership goals directly to the KPIs of each department. Aligning partnership outcomes with what each team is measured on ensures they have skin in the game. Strategy: During planning sessions, ask each department head how partnerships can contribute to their targets. Build specific KPIs for each function into the overall partnership strategy. 3. Create a Resource Exchange Agreement Formalize the support needed from each department with a resource exchange agreement. This sets clear expectations on what each function will contribute—whether it's a dedicated product team member for integrations or marketing resources for co-branded campaigns. It turns vague promises into commitments. Strategy: Draft a simple document that outlines the roles, responsibilities, and deliverables each team will provide, then get sign-off from department heads and the executive team. 4. Demonstrate Early Wins for Buy-In Quick wins go a long way toward securing ongoing resources. Identify a small pilot project with an internal team that shows immediate impact. Whether it's a small co-marketing campaign or a limited integration, these early successes build momentum and demonstrate the value of supporting partnerships. Strategy: Select one or two partners to run a pilot with, focused on delivering measurable outcomes like leads generated or product adoption. Use this success story to demonstrate value to other departments and secure further commitment. Partnership success requires cross-functional alignment. Because partnerships don’t happen in a silo.

I've seen dozens of partnership professionals frustrated about the same thing. "Why isn't our ecosystem driving more pipeline?" When you dig into it, the problem is never the partnerships themselves. It's that Partnerships owns all the metrics but controls almost none of the inputs. ➡️ You're responsible for partner activation rates → But Marketing controls whether partner pages rank in search ➡️ You're measured on ecosystem adoption → But Product decides technical quality and documentation ➡️ You're accountable for ecosystem-influenced pipeline → But Sales decides whether to mention partnerships in demos 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧? 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲. This is the setup that burns people out. Not because partnerships teams are ineffective. Because they're expected to deliver cross-functional outcomes with single-function resources. Think about what happens after you launch a new partnership. You've done your part. Partner is enabled, relationship is strong, co-marketing plan exists. Then three quarters later, someone asks why that partnership isn't performing. Guess whose problem that becomes? 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐬. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 owns partner marketplace SEO, directory architecture, cross-channel distribution. They track organic traffic and conversion rates. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 owns partnership quality, technical documentation, API infrastructure. They measure usage and launch velocity. 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 owns ecosystem messaging, partner referrals, competitive positioning. They track influenced deals and partner pipeline. 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 owns relationship management, roadmap prioritization, partner enablement. You measure satisfaction and retention. Four distinct functions. Most companies make one team do all of it. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝: → Marketing can't deprioritize partner pages when that's their success metric → Product can't let documentation drift when it's their deliverable → Sales can't skip ecosystem training when it's on their scorecard → Partnerships stops being accountable for things outside your control This isn't about more meetings. It's about making visibility infrastructure instead of individual heroics. Most programs fall into two categories. Category one → Partnerships does everything and burns out trying Category two → Four teams have clear ownership, shared metrics, defined dependencies The difference isn't talent. It's whether you've documented who owns what. Which category does your program fall into? PS: The Marketing infrastructure piece - partner marketplace, SEO, distribution - is exactly what Bonobee builds. If you're tired of owning outcomes you can't control, let's talk.

At SaaStr last week, I asked a Series D SaaS CEO about the biggest mistakes companies make with partnerships. 💪 He took a hard stance: 1️⃣ Not committing properly: Assigning an AE as Head of Partnerships and hoping they figure it out rarely works. He said you need someone with experience—then give them what they need to succeed. 2️⃣ Lack of focus: Random partnerships with no real joint value rarely succeed. Identify major joint value, focus on a few key partnerships, and make them work first. He said too much time is wasted on the wrong stuff. 3️⃣ Lack of process: He was frustrated with the “this is an art” mindset. He doesn’t buy it. Without a process, you can't scale. And if it’s not scalable, he’s not interested. 4️⃣ Lack of revenue focus: While he acknowledges partners do a lot, if they’re not driving revenue (and if this can’t be clearly attributed), he’s not interested. 5️⃣ Weak reporting: The C-suite wants reliable numbers—every month, ideally every week. He wants to see what partners are driving and where things are headed. No fluff, no excuses. Is he wrong?

Your partners aren’t driving revenue because they don’t know how. It’s not a motivation problem. It’s an enablement problem. Most partner programs skip the hard part: teaching partners how to sell effectively. The assumption is that once the agreement is signed, partners will know what to do. But they are not inside your business. They don’t know your positioning. They don’t know the sales motion. They don’t know how to communicate your value to the customer. And without that, they are not going to prioritise you. At Hockey Stick Advisory, we work with companies to build structured partner enablement programs that remove the guesswork and equip partners to perform from day one. That includes: Training and certification to embed product knowledge Sales playbooks that clearly articulate value and positioning Performance tracking to measure what is working and what is not The outcome? ✅ More revenue per partner ✅ Stronger engagement and retention ✅ A repeatable system for partner success If you want partners to move the needle, give them a clear path to follow. Partnerships do not scale on goodwill. They scale on enablement. How are you enabling your partners to sell you?

Why do so many partnerships underperform in generating revenue? For several years now, I've obsessed on this question, and discussed it with CROs, sales leaders, and partner managers across the industry. Your partnering team developed unique solutions with your partners, did joint marketing with them to surface demand, put together incentive agreements to incentivize sales, and yet revenue did not grow for that partner. Why? We now know that the reason is the Sales Complexity Tax on sellers that the partnership imposes. The Sales Complexity Tax is the invisible burden that every seller in your sales organization has to pay as they carry your partner's solutions in their sales bag. Sales reps engage with buyers and have to decide which solution matches the needs of their customer, which partner can help them meet the needs of their customer the best? Which partner should I engage, and what are their current capabilities? Do I fully understand what this partner brings to the table to be able to position them confidently with the customer? Will this partner actually help in the opportunity or add complexity? How much time will I spend managing the partner vs. selling without the partner? Will I need to sacrifice margin or control of the customer relationship to the partner? These questions are overwhelming and their answers are not readily available. All too often, sellers take the path of least resistance—go it alone. The cost of this Sales Complexity Task? Missed opportunities to leverage the partner and win. Stalled deals because the seller decided to sell solo. Forfeit the advantage partner could have added - specialized expertise, differentiated solution, expanded reach, budgets available to the partner but not you, and more. The real problem isn’t seller reluctance — it’s that we’ve built partner ecosystems without keeping the seller at the center of focus. We need to make it easy for the seller -- the seller engagement with the partnership -- to minimize or eliminate this complexity tax. Finding, deciding, and engaging the right partner should be as frictionless for the sellers as looking up information for their customers in your CRM.

Ask any partner what their biggest operational challenge is, and most will say: talent. Finding the right people. Retaining the right people. Training them well enough that they can work independently. But the deeper issue beneath that surface issue is enforcement. Even when workflows exist, partners often override them to protect their own clients. Staff get pulled into competing priorities, queues fall apart, and no one feels accountable to the larger firm. It’s not bad intent, but rather, the natural outcome of siloed practices. That’s why firms need more than systems. They need strong authority structures. Someone - whether it’s a COO, an administrative director, or a partner - has to be the “bad guy.” The person who ensures work is assigned fairly, who enforces workflow discipline, and who can withstand the inevitable pushback when partners try to make exceptions. Firms have to create an environment where people aren’t constantly overwhelmed, stressed, or caught in the crossfire of competing demands. Because talent scarcity is not going away - at least, not any time soon. The only way to make the most of the people you have is to create guardrails - and then enforce them. 

**Stop treating your partners like strangers.** Here’s the painful cycle: – Teams aren’t aligned. – Partners don’t commit. – Revenue stalls. – Trust erodes. And the worst part? You’re losing time you’ll never get back. Sounds dramatic? Well, it is. Because partnerships aren’t just a checkbox—they’re ecosystems. Living, breathing ecosystems that *need* shared oxygen to survive. But here’s where it all falls apart: Most companies treat partnerships as siloed revenue levers. Sales owns a piece. Marketing grabs a chunk. Customer success gets scraps. No one’s on the same page. Guess what? Ownership is the wrong mindset. Partnerships don’t belong to sales. They don’t belong to marketing. They don’t belong to customer success. **They belong to progress.** Progress only happens when you: – Tear down silos. – Write ONE playbook. – Align your INTERNAL teams and partners from day one. Here’s where things get real. Think about your onboarding process: – You onboard your teams one way. – You treat partners completely differently. – None of it lines up. The result? Friction. Missed goals. A partnership that feels like a bad first date. Now, imagine this: – Unified training. – Shared goals. – A common language. Your partner stops feeling like an outsider. They know your engine, and more importantly, how to fuel it. Alignment isn’t fluff. It’s the line between growth and chaos. Misalignment? It’ll bankrupt trust, strategy... millions of dollars. Alignment? It builds empires. So, before you chase that “next big deal,” ask yourself: **Are your partners an afterthought—or an extension of your business?** Your answer is your bottom line.

Here are the top 5 biggest challenges Partner Managers from companies like Shopify, Klaviyo, HubSpot + others have told me they are facing 👇 1️⃣ Proving Revenue Impact – it's shocking how few programs have legitimate CRM & BI tool reporting that pin points the impact of partnerships. Candidly there is no excuse, anyone can build easy2use Google Sheets (esp. w/ help from ChatGPT) 2️⃣ Getting Sales to Work with Them – it's wild how difficult it is for most to get their AEs - the ones whose pipeline partner managers are stuffing, to get them to work productively with them (major frustration for PMs) 3️⃣ Prioritizing the Right Partners – most PMs know which partners are MOST important actually, they just get sucked into the blackhole that is "needy" partners demanding their attention, and they lack the "backbone" and ruthless prioritization skills needed to say "no, sorry I can't work with you right now" 4️⃣ Building Repeatable Systems – Most PMs are operating reactively instead of with structured playbooks that scale—leading to constant firefighting and an inability to "show their work" to management, leading to inefficient collaborations 5️⃣ Navigating Internal Buy-In & Influence – quite frankly most partner managers really struggle to "sell" and be "persuasive" internally to get buy in. They ask, get rejected and then run back to home base saying "ugh, this is NOT a partner friendly org!" when in reality they simply have not mastered internal buy in... yet These are real pain points, echoed by many top performing partner managers at companies at every size (Series A to Fortune 500) and every vertical (ecomm to HR tech). The takeaway = partner managers need to self-audit their skill gaps and SEEK mentorship/training, and managers/companies need to proactively start supporting their teams Enough is enough #partnerships #ecosystems