B2B SaaS today feels like a modern-day space race, with startups sprouting daily and racing to become the next tech industry giant.
In this competitive landscape, there’s one strategy that has helped companies go-to-market, edge out their competition and scale recurring revenue: partnerships.
But what sets the top-performing partner programs apart?
We sat down with Nick Latus, VP of Network Success at PartnerStack, to spotlight three of the best performing partner programs on PartnerStack to learn how they’re leveraging the platform and its Network to achieve remarkable growth.
See more: How PartnerStack’s Network drives customer revenue.
Monday.com: A data-driven, relationship-focused approach
Monday.com, a centralized work management platform, has maintained its position as a leader in the project management software market since it was founded in 2012. A key driver of their success is their long-standing partner program powered by PartnerStack, helping them scale their partner driven sales by 200% YoY.
Partner performance and metrics that matter
The foundation of monday.com’s B2B partner program is built on partner performance. PartnerStack makes it possible for such a large program to track multiple metrics each month for thousands of partners.
“They leverage our platform to look at metrics on our dashboard and their own internal reporting…They're looking at click traffic, they're looking at conversions [and] they're looking at total revenue as well.”
By meticulously tracking metrics, they can identify their top-performing partners and nurture those relationships early. “They have a process where when somebody comes into the monday.com program, it's sort of a development maturation process where they're working closely with them to see if there's an opportunity to scale them, grow them and turn them into a bigger partner,” Latus explains.
This data-driven approach extends to commission structures, ensuring partners are fairly compensated while optimizing commission rates and return on investment. "They are so in tune with what type of volume their partners are driving, they’re able to negotiate rates," Latus further explains, "they know right away what the CPL should be and what that's going to result in better ROI."
The power of one-to-one partner relationships
What sets monday.com apart from other large partner programs isn’t just their metrics, it’s their ability to build and maintain close relationships with their partners. For large programs nearing a plateau, “having those one-on-one relationships is where you come up with new ways to reach audiences,” Latus notes.
For monday.com, close relationships are built through multiple touchpoints, ensuring “they're staying engaged with their partners of all performance levels, even though it’s such a large program,” Latus says. “They have multiple touch points throughout the course of the month with their partners, whether that's email updates or newsletters that they're sending through PartnerStack.”
Takeaway: By combining a data-driven approach and building close partner relationships, monday.com has expertly shown how to sustain growth even at scale.
Jungle Scout: Where influencers and affiliates unite
Jungle Scout is an industry-leading Amazon seller software that helps anyone looking to scale a business on Amazon. Founded in 2015, Jungle Scout has become a permanent fixture in the Amazon community, in part due to its incredibly successful and unique partnership program on PartnerStack that combines influencers and traditional affiliates.
A diversified approach with the PartnerStack Network
Initially, Jungle Scout’s partner program was made up of influencers, particularly YouTubers. As Jungle Scout’s program grew they realized you can't rely on just one business model. “You have to layer in other business models,” Latus shares.
In limiting the program to a specific type of partner, they limited their potential reach and growth opportunities. Diversifying, Latus says, is “ how you reach new audiences. That's how you grow revenue.”
With the PartnerStack Network, a marketplace that connects over 80,000 active partners and over 300 SaaS businesses, they were able to introduce different types of partners, including affiliates. By diversifying their partner program to include traditional affiliates alongside influencers, Jungle Scout created a resilient and adaptable program that has continued to see consistent growth.
How PartnerStack enables diversification
If you want to diversify your partner program, the name of the game is channel testing. “I think having three to five channels is realistic, regardless of the size of your team. It's just a matter of working efficiently, working smarter.” Latus says.
Thankfully, PartnerStack makes it easy to test new channels with the PartnerStack Network and manage those channels in the platform itself. "Within PartnerStack, you can set up all the different groups where you can manage your traditional affiliates, publishers, media sites, you can manage your influencers and you can manage your referral partners," Latus explains.
From connecting you to a vast network of vetted partners to built-in granular insights into performance, PartnerStack was built to help partner programs diversify and grow.
Descript: A self-serve success story
Descript, an all-in-one podcasting and video editing tool, has built a blueprint for launching a self-serve partner program on PartnerStack. "They came in right out of the gate, knew who their partner mix was and just started scaling immediately," shares Latus.
Despite not having a dedicated CSM (customer success manager) when they joined PartnerStack, Descript rapidly scaled its partner program by leveraging PartnerStack to recruit partners and manage them independently.
Self-starters, meet PartnerStack
Descript’s success can be broken down into several factors. First, they’re self-starters who have done their homework prior to launching their partner program. “There are some [PartnerStack vendors] that come in and need support. But then there are some who say ‘We know who our partners are, we know who we should be targeting, just give us the platform, the tool and allow us to scale on our own’,” Latus says.
The second factor is having a thorough understanding of their IPP (ideal partner profile). By understanding what types of partners are going to be most effective, they can spend more time nurturing those partnerships instead of finding them.
Finally, “They're comfortable with metrics and they're comfortable with pulling their own reports,” Latus explains. By having a thorough understanding of what metrics matter and the ability to pull reporting in the PRM, Descript’s team is able to capitalize on opportunities quickly.
Oftentimes it can take new programs a few months to gain traction and start growing. But with Descript, that wasn’t the case. “It's proof that self-recruiting, reaching out to partners, bringing them into Partner Stack and using our discovery tool to find partners that are in the network helps you grow the program and scale it relatively quickly,” Latus shares.
PartnerStack fuels partnership growth
These success stories highlight the undeniable power of strategic partnerships run on PartnerStack. Whether you're leveraging data-driven insights for optimal commission structures or embracing self-service platforms for rapid scaling, the common thread is clear: strategic partnerships powered by PartnerStack are the rocket fuel for growth engines.
