Original research

    The Partnerships Benchmark 2026

    What 100+ partnership professionals actually do: how they are measured, how much of their pay is at risk, which partnership types they rate most valuable, and which tactics they say work.

    Respondents
    102
    Fieldwork
    Sep to Dec 2025
    Questions
    47
    Cover of the Partnership Professionals Survey Results report

    Five gaps worth closing

    Each of these describes a gap between what partnership teams are shown to deliver and how their organisations resource, measure or reward them.

    2:1
    Twice as many companies credit partnerships with a large share of revenue as fund them with a large share of budget: 73% report that partnerships influence or source 26% or more of revenue, while only 34% allocate 26% or more of their marketing budget to partner activity.
    85% vs 6%
    85% of partnership professionals count revenue targets among the two main measures of their own performance, and 6% relationship health, although 95% name relationship building among the three most critical skills for partnership success.
    13%
    Only 13% name customer retention among their top two measures of partnership success, and 11% market expansion, even though 62% name integration partnerships among their three highest-value partnership types.
    89%
    89% rate in-person relationship building as critical or very important to their partnerships. Only 3% rate it not very important.
    92%
    92% of partnership professionals spend 60% or less of their time on relationship management, with the rest going to operational tasks. Only 8% reach an 80/20 split in favour of relationships, and 30% spend more time on operations than on relationships.

    How the survey was run

    102 partnership professionals answered 47 questions between September to December 2025. Responses were collected anonymously and no individual contributor is identifiable from the published data. Demographic information is aggregated for the same reason.

    Response rate was 96% or more for questions 1 to 45, and 87% for questions 46 and 47.

    Each percentage is the share of the people who answered that question, rounded half up to a whole per cent. Where a figure combines answers, such as 26% or more, it is computed from the combined count, so it can sit a point away from the sum of its rounded parts. Where a question asked for a top two or top three, the figure is the share who put that option in their selection.

    The sample spans companies of every size the survey offered, from 50 or fewer employees to more than 10,000, and partnership models from referral through integration to strategic alliance. The survey did not ask where respondents are based; 92% say they manage partnerships across more than one region. That breadth is the point of a benchmark, and also its main limitation: tactics that work for a high-velocity channel programme often do not transfer to a long-cycle strategic alliance, and approaches built for North American markets usually need adapting for EMEA or APAC. Read these figures as directional evidence, not as prescription.

    This is the 2026 edition, the first of the series. Fieldwork closed at the end of 2025, which is why the figures describe 2025 practice under a 2026 edition name. The next edition will add vertical-specific cuts and, once two editions exist, movement over time.

    Revenue and strategy

    Partnerships are a material revenue channel for most organisations, but measurement stays fixed on the two things easiest to count.

    73%
    73% of companies report that 26% or more of their revenue is influenced or sourced by partnerships.
    11%
    11% report that partnerships influence or source 76% or more of revenue.
    2%
    Only 2% report that partnerships influence or source 10% or less of revenue.
    86%
    86% name revenue generated among their top two measures of partnership success and 65% leads sourced, against 13% customer retention, 11% market expansion and 8% brand exposure.

    Respondents selected their top two.

    Which partnership types drive the most value
    • Referral82%
    • Integration62%
    • Strategic alliances47%
    • Reseller / channel30%

    Respondents selected their top three, so the bars total over 100%.

    Source: Q2.

    Activation and the partner's attention

    The hardest part of partner management is not signing partners. It is getting a signed partner to prioritise you over everything else on their desk.

    25%
    Partner activation is the single biggest partner-management challenge at 25%, ahead of internal alignment at 22%, resource constraints at 20%, attribution at 17% and lead quality at 15%.
    42%
    42% name competing priorities as the biggest barrier to a new partner generating their first lead, well ahead of lack of product knowledge at 23% and no clear process at 12%.
    97%
    97% prioritise partner time rather than splitting it evenly: tier-based at 40%, opportunity-driven at 33%, focused on top performers at 23%, and 1% giving more time to underperformers. Only 3% give every partner equal time.
    41%
    41% name marketing co-op funds as the most effective incentive for driving consistent referrals, ahead of higher commission rates at 18%, executive recognition at 17% and event sponsorship at 16%.

    The internal blocker

    Inside the company, the blocker is usually another team. Far more partner managers name other departments, engineering capacity or sales follow-up than name budget or executive support.

    56%
    56% name a cross-functional blocker as their biggest internal challenge: support from other departments at 29% and technical resource constraints at 28%. Sales not following up on partner leads accounts for 14%.
    12%
    12% name lack of executive support as their biggest internal challenge, and 10% the lack of a dedicated budget.
    48%
    48% are pulled into deals to help close them weekly or daily, with 11% involved daily. For nearly half, closing deals is part of the weekly job.

    Running the programme

    25% run partnerships on a PRM platform. 72% still use spreadsheets, and 51% settle multi-partner attribution by giving the credit to whoever touched the deal first.

    Operations, tooling and attribution

    Partner operations still run on the CRM and the spreadsheet. Account mapping tools are common, a PRM is not, and attribution defaults to the simplest possible model.

    25%
    25% use a PRM platform, while 86% run partnerships through the CRM and 72% still use spreadsheets. 57% use an account mapping platform such as Crossbeam or Reveal, and 15% a custom-built solution.

    Respondents could select more than one tool.

    84%
    84% track partner-sourced deals in a structured way in the CRM: dedicated fields at 64%, tags or labels at 15% and a separate pipeline at 6%. 9% track manually and 7% say they do not track effectively.
    51%
    51% resolve multi-partner attribution with first-touch credit, and 21% decide case by case, so a partner who influences a deal later in the cycle often gets no credit for it.
    76%
    76% complete partner onboarding within two months: 19% in one to two weeks, 31% in three to four weeks and 25% in one to two months. 24% take three months or longer.
    35%
    Communication cadence is the biggest operational challenge at 35%, ahead of performance tracking at 25%, lead handoff at 16% and deal registration at 14%.
    59%
    59% report that 41% or more of their partner-referred leads are qualified or sales-ready, and 40% see partner-sourced leads convert to opportunities at a rate of 41% to 60%.

    Team structure and skills

    The most common partner function is one to three people, and for 92% of partnership professionals operational work takes at least 40% of their time.

    43%
    43% run partnerships with a team of one to three people, including 13% operating solo. 25% have 15 or more.
    24%
    24% have a dedicated Partner Operations Manager, and 26% have a partner engineer or solutions role. Both concentrate in larger teams: about four in five of the functions that have one employ eight or more people.
    95%
    95% name relationship building among the three most critical skills for partnership success, ahead of cross-cultural communication at 51%, project management at 47% and technical knowledge at 40%.

    Respondents selected their top three.

    24%
    Only 24% name data analysis among the three most critical partnership skills, in a discipline where 85% count revenue targets among the two main measures of their performance.
    Time split between relationship work and operational tasks
    • 80/20 relationships8%
    • 60/40 relationships45%
    • 50/50 even17%
    • 40/60 operations18%
    • 20/80 operations13%

    Share of respondents at each split, relationship work first. Every respondent answered; the bars are rounded, so they sum to 101%.

    Source: Q21.

    Go-to-market and partner marketing

    High-touch, data-led tactics beat digital-at-scale ones, and the budget does not follow the revenue.

    61%
    61% name account mapping with partners among their three most effective partner lead generation tactics, ahead of partner sales enablement at 43%, referral programmes at 41% and partner-hosted customer events at 38%.

    Respondents selected their top three.

    88%
    88% name events and conferences among the three go-to-market activities that drive the best results, followed by account mapping at 77%, joint webinars at 44% and co-branded content at 43%. Email campaigns reach 6% and social media 3%.

    Respondents selected their top three.

    77%
    77% run joint marketing campaigns with partners monthly or quarterly: 33% monthly and 44% quarterly.
    34%
    Only 34% allocate 26% or more of their marketing budget to partner activity, against the 73% who report partnerships influencing or sourcing 26% or more of revenue.
    43%
    Resource coordination is the biggest partner marketing challenge at 43%, well ahead of partner engagement at 21% and budget allocation at 20%.

    Where it gets specialised

    92% manage partnerships across more than one region, and 58% report that technical integrations run through 41% or more of their portfolio.

    Cultural and global reach

    Almost every partner programme now spans regions, and the friction is cultural and procedural more than a matter of communication style.

    92%
    92% manage partnerships across multiple geographic regions, and 53% operate globally.
    81%
    Cultural expectations at 28%, decision-making processes at 27% and time zones at 26% together account for 81% of the biggest cross-cultural challenges named. Communication styles account for 14% and legal or compliance differences for 5%.
    71%
    71% adapt their communication style moderately or significantly for different cultures. 3% do not adapt at all.
    89%
    89% rate in-person relationship building as critical, at 49%, or very important, at 41%. Only 3% rate it not very important.

    Technical partnerships and integrations

    Most partner portfolios are substantially technical, and the constraint is resourcing rather than technical difficulty.

    58%
    58% report that 41% or more of their partnerships involve technical integrations.
    51%
    51% say technical partnership discussions are owned jointly by the partnerships team and the technical department, rather than by either one alone.
    52%
    52% name resource allocation as the biggest technical partnership challenge, against 10% naming technical complexity. Resourcing is the blocker, not difficulty.
    78%
    78% consider API quality critical or very important to partnership success.

    Reward, and what comes next

    85% count revenue targets among the two main measures of their performance, and 6% relationship health. 45% name AI and automation as the trend that will most affect partnerships in the next three years.

    Compensation and performance

    The survey covers how pay is structured, not what it pays. What it shows is a function measured on revenue and reviewed on short cycles.

    85%
    85% count revenue targets among the two main measures of their performance, 57% lead generation, 16% market expansion, 6% partner recruitment and 6% relationship health.

    Respondents selected their top two.

    71%
    71% have between 11% and 40% of total compensation at risk, with 29% in the 11 to 25% band and 41% in the 26 to 40% band.
    57%
    57% carry objectives beyond revenue, while 27% are measured on revenue alone.
    38%
    Only 38% hold business reviews with key partners every quarter. 25% run them ad hoc, 23% twice a year, 9% once a year, and 6% never hold a formal QBR.

    What partnership leaders expect next

    AI and automation top the list of forces expected to reshape partnerships, and ecosystem-led growth tops the list of predictions.

    45%
    45% name AI and automation as the trend that will most affect partnerships over the next three years, ahead of ecosystem consolidation at 31%.
    41%
    41% name ecosystem-led growth as their biggest prediction for the partnerships industry, the single most common answer.
    25%
    25% say the biggest change to their partnership strategy since COVID is being more selective about which partnerships they take on. 16% point to increased digital tools and 11% to broader geographic reach, while 15% report no significant change.
    33%
    33% name more virtual partner engagement as the biggest change to their partnership strategy since COVID, the most common single answer.
    85%
    85% name conferences and events among their three most valuable resources for professional development, ahead of personal LinkedIn feeds at 53% and partner communities such as Partner Leaders and Smarterships at 45%.

    Respondents selected their top three.

    Your own numbers

    See your answers beside this benchmark

    The Partnership Assessment reads your public partnership footprint, scores seven dimensions of readiness, and sets your answers beside the same questions in this survey. It names the gaps holding your programme back, partner targets where the evidence supports naming them, and sizes the opportunity from your own answers where they allow, with every finding resting on an answer you gave or a page we read.

    Built for SaaS platforms and agencies. Free to start.

    Get your assessment
    Sample paid report: readiness by dimension, seven dimensions scored from 44 to 95

    Questions this data answers

    What percentage of revenue comes from partnerships?

    73% of companies surveyed report that partnerships influence or source 26% or more of their revenue, and 11% report partnerships influencing or sourcing 76% or more. Only 2% report partner influence of 10% or less. Based on 102 partnership professionals surveyed between September to December 2025.

    How many people work in a typical partnerships team?

    43% of partner functions are run by one to three people, including 13% operating solo. 31% have four to fifteen people and 25% have fifteen or more.

    What is the biggest challenge in partner management?

    Partner activation, at 25%: getting a signed partner to actually produce. Internal alignment follows at 22%, resource constraints at 20%, attribution at 17% and lead quality at 15%. The most common reason a new partner fails to generate a first lead is competing priorities, named by 42%.

    How many companies use a PRM?

    25% use a partner relationship management (PRM) platform. The CRM is the most widely used tool at 86%, 72% still use spreadsheets, and 57% use an account mapping platform such as Crossbeam or Reveal.

    How do partnership teams measure success?

    86% name revenue generated among their top two measures of partnership success and 65% name leads sourced. Customer retention is a top-two measure for 13%, market expansion for 11% and brand exposure for 8%, even though 62% name integration partnerships among their three highest-value partnership types.

    How is AI changing partnerships?

    45% name AI and automation as the trend that will most affect partnerships over the next three years, more than any other option, ahead of ecosystem consolidation at 31%, economic uncertainty at 12% and platform dominance at 10%.

    How much of a partnership manager's compensation is variable?

    71% have between 11% and 40% of total compensation at risk, with 41% sitting in the 26 to 40% band. 85% count revenue targets among the two main measures of their performance, and only 6% relationship health.

    How good are partner-sourced leads?

    59% of respondents report that 41% or more of their partner-referred leads are qualified or sales-ready, and 40% see partner-sourced leads convert to opportunities at a rate between 41% and 60%.

    Who ran this survey and can I cite it?

    The Global Partnerships Survey was run by Convert Commerce with 102 partnership professionals between September to December 2025. Responses were anonymous. Every figure on this page is free to cite with attribution to Convert Commerce and a link to this page. For commercial reuse, publication or AI training, contact info@convertcommerce.com first.

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    How to cite this data

    Every figure on this page is free to quote in articles, decks, newsletters and internal business cases, with attribution to Convert Commerce and a link back to this page. Each figure carries its own anchor and a ready-made citation line, so you can point at the specific number rather than the report as a whole.

    Convert Commerce, Global Partnerships Survey 2026, Q1 (n=102). https://convertcommerce.com/research/partnerships-benchmark-2026#revenue-share

    For commercial reuse, use at trade shows, inclusion in a paid publication, or use as AI training data, please contact info@convertcommerce.com first so we can agree the terms.