Find partnership terms by letter

Terms starting with

P

Noun

A paid channel is any marketing channel where you "pay to play" to interact with that channel. This can include display advertising, content syndication, search advertising, and more.

Example:

In order to expand to new B2B audiences, distribution through paid channels can be an effective method of expanding reach.

Noun

A metric used by software vendors with a "freemium model" to track how many users have converted from free trials to paid subscriptions.

Example:

Converting their trial customers to paid sign-ups is a major measure of success for Raul's partner program.

Noun

It’s helpful to understand partners as a part of how a company can choose to scale. The standard way a company does this is to hire talent internally, growing its go to market teams. Alternatively, a company can look to partners, third party entities, to grow its reach, similar to your sales and marketing team without increasing headcount. These partners can be individuals, consultants, or companies. There are many different kinds of partners each of whom provide different types of values, including affiliate partners, referral partners, and reseller partners.

Also see: Affiliate partner, Referral partner, Reseller partner, Technology partnerships, Strategic partnerships

Example:

(Undefined)

Noun

Partner KPIs are the quantifiable metric used to assess the success of a B2B SaaS company's partnership programs. These metrics track various aspects of the partnership journey, providing insights into partner acquisition, engagement, performance, and satisfaction.

It's important to establish and continually track partner performance through partner KPIs to enable partners within a program with the appropriate support needed. For example, if time to first or second sale is too high, then investing in onboarding and enablement materials may be a goal for the quarter.

Related: Partner program KPI metrics you should measure and optimize.

Example:

In order to set accurate and realistic benchmarks and track the right KPIs, a SaaS business will need access to the right data — which a PRM can help with.

Noun

A partner relationship management (PRM) software is a tool designed to facilitate the partnership experience from end-to-end. It is primarily used by partners to drive traffic, leads and deals to a vendor, and by a partner manager and their team to manage their partner relationships as well as support their partners.

Most PRMs should be enable resources sharing between the two parties. It should also provide communication tools, relevant analytic dashboards, as well as link tracking and lead/deal submission tools.

Example:

PartnerStack's PRM is built specifically for B2B, making it appropriate to tackle the unique challenges of vendors in the industry.

Noun

A common job title for those responsible for building partner relationships in service of hitting company sales targets. They may or may not manage a team.

Example:

Partner sales manager often use automation tools to maximize their time and the success of their partnership programs.

Noun

Partner acquisition refers to growing your partner program by enrolling new partners into your partner program. This involves your partner recruitment strategy and the process it takes to apply to your partner program.

Example:

Partner acquisition is a central component of a healthy partnership program.

Noun / Verb

Partner activation is the act of Mobilizing the partners you've recruited and motivating them to complete tasks that are beneficial to your business. By engaging and enabling a partner, they are able to effectively promote and sell your software or services to their own customer network. The partner activation process typically involves providing training, resources, marketing materials, and support to help partners drive adoption and generate revenue.

Example:

The strategy for our referral partner program includes comprehensive partner activation, to ensure that our collaborators have the necessary tools and knowledge to successfully pitch and implement our software within their client organizations.

Noun

A partner advisory board (PAB) is an official forum in which a vendor and their partners can gather to discuss strategic initiatives related to their partnerships ecosystem. The partner advisory board provides thought leadership, decision making, and go-to-market strategies for the partners, who are typically represented by those in leadership positions of the vendor's top level partners. Most partner advisory boards meet a few times a year or up to once per quarter to discuss high-level strategic growth initiatives.

Example:

In order to obtain partner buy-in of their new GTM strategy, Joelle met with his SaaS company's partner advisory board to gain their alignment.

Noun

Partner analytics is the collection and interpretation of sets of business data specific to partnerships. Through an understanding partnerships analytics, partnership professionals can analyze the performance of a B2B SaaS company's partnership programs by breaking down the performance — and therefore, value —of partners in the ecosystem.

Some key metrics in partner analytics are:Partner activation rateTime to first (or second) salePartner engagementMonthly new partnersPartner-sourced revenueThrough detailed tracking, synthesis and communication of partner program data and analytics, parternship managers can better analyze and boost performance of their programs.

Example:

Businesses leverage partner analytics to gain actionable insights into the performance of their collaborative ventures, enabling data-driven decisions and fostering stronger, more strategic partnerships.

Noun

An official badge that partners can display on their website and in their marketing to officially associate themselves with your program and brand. This allows they to communicate their professional relationship with you and build trust with their audience.

Example:

After completing the certified partner program, Brenda was awarded a partner badge as a top affiliate partner.

Noun

Partner collaboration is the process of two or more entities working together to achieve a shared business goal. It involves bringing together resources, sharing knowledge and creating a win-win situation for all involved.

Effective partner collaboration takes strategy and hard work on each partner's side. Through partner collaboration, channel partners can work towards many goals beyond just revenue growth. Partner collaboration can centre around increasing brand awareness, improving customer satisfaction and retention, and more.

Example:

As an effective partner collaboration strategy, a partnership leader may send leads they have not yet actioned on to their channel partners to pursue. Through this, they're able to build trust and inspire future collaboration efforts.

Noun

A partner ecosystem is a network of businesses who serve similar audiences but are not competitors and may thus benefit from collaborative marketing and sales strategies. In an ecosystem, the involved companies orchestrate all indirect distribution channels to scale and grow. For example, a marketing automation platform (MAP), a video marketing platform, and a content management system (CMS) are three businesses who target similar customers and would benefit from joining or creating a network together. 

By co-marketing and even co-selling in strategic partnerships, companies can sell more products and support happier customers who have a suite of complementary tools at their disposal. Partner ecosystems help businesses serve their customers’ needs in ways that they can’t necessarily do themselves through their own technology. Through recommending trusted products that fill functionality gaps, companies can set their customers up for greater success, and of course, greater retention and customer lifetime value (CLTV).

Example:

The Quickbooks partner ecosystem contains hundreds of companies — mostly technology vendors — who serve small businesses.

Noun

A partner ecosystem platform is a centralized digital framework that facilitates collaboration and engagement between a company and its ecosystem partners. This platform streamlines communication, resource sharing, and joint initiatives, enhancing overall operational efficiency and fostering innovation within the network.

Example:

Our B2B SaaS company successfully expanded its global reach by leveraging a cutting-edge partner ecosystem platform, enabling seamless interaction with affiliate, reseller and referral partners.

Noun

Partner enablement is the actions taken to provide training and education to your partners in order to support their co-selling efforts. This might include educational resources that familiarize the partner with your product and how to speak to it, promotional resources that kick-start their on promotional strategy, or systems and processes they are able to utilize as they navigate their partner journey.

Prioritizing partner enablement can be an effective way to increase growth in sales. A common reason why partnerships programs fail is a lack of educational resources to support the program.

Also see: Partner journey

Example:

To further partner education and support sales, partner enablement tools, such as an LMS course that can automate partner education based on groups, can be utilized.

Noun

Partner engagement is the process of keeping partners active participants in your program, whether that means driving traffic or submitting leads and deals. The goal of partner engagement is to encourage partners to continually drive value through your program.

Some important partner program KPIs to focus on when improving partner engagement are monthly sales volume and signups, leads and deals.

Example:

When developing your partner program, it's important to set meaningful partner engagement goals in order to measure and encourage activated partners who continually bring in recurring revenue.

Noun

A partner incentive is a payment that motivates  partners within a partnerships ecosystem to sell that SaaS product. Partner incentives can be commissions, revenue share or flat payments. A good partner incentive program will motivate the partner to the desired action.

Partner incentives can also be used at other stages in the journey, to motivate certain milestones, from completing training programs to sending a qualified lead. Incentives or rewards for these actions can be certifications, marketing resources, additional support and training, and more.

Example:

As part of their partnership agreement, Mariana's B2B SaaS entered into several licensing partner agreements that allowed the partners to use their brand logo in order to market the partner's own software integration.

Noun

A partner join source indicates the channel from which a partner applies to your program, whether from your owned channels (e.g. your website, email, paid ads, internal team outreach), referrals from existing partners, or through a partner network.

Example:

Based on their partner join source, Randall knew how to appropriate allocate the right partner onboarding resources to his new partner, Josh.

Noun

The partner journey describes each step a partner goes through when learning about, joining, and earning value through a partner program. It can be likened to the buyer journey. The steps of the partner journey can be defined differently depending on the business, as can the order of certain steps. However, most partner journeys generally follow this structure:

Interest > Recruitment > Activation > Investment > Devotion

The interest stage is where a vendor gains the interest of potential partners. Recruitment involves informing potential partners of your product and offering a partnership. Activation represents the first value earned by the partner. Investment is when the partner recognizes vendor value and invests further time and capital in the relationship. Devotion occurs when partners are ready to scale with you.

Example:

Jenn found that only a small percentage of partner were making it to the investment phase of her partner journey, so she decided to spend more time and energy ensuring partners hit their activation targets within their first two months of joining the program.

Noun

A partner network is a SaaS vendor's group of affiliates, referral partners, and/or reseller partners. These partners help to market and sell the vendor's product, receiving different commissions or cuts based on their partner type and agreement.

Some vendors will have only one kind of partner in their network (for example, if they only have an affiliate program), and some will run more than one kind of partnership within their network (for example, having both affiliate and referral partners). Vendors are responsible for providing their partner network with the required training, resources, certifications, and incentives required for the partners to market and sell their products.

Example:

Lookwin runs an affiliate partner program and a referral partner program. Their partner network consists of every company involved in either program, whom they support with required education to sell their product and reward with commission payouts for sales and leads.

Noun

A partner newsletter is an email newsletter regularly sent to your partners. Content may vary, but partner newsletters usually include some combination of relevant updates, product news, content, info about partner-focused events, and any other partner-centric information a vendor wants to convey to their ecosystem.

Partner newsletters are often sent bi-weekly or monthly, but cadence may vary. We recommend creating a partner newsletter as a way to keep partners engaged and in the loop of what's happening with the program.

Example:

Chase wanted to shout out a webinar her partners would be interested in, so she included it in her monthly partner newsletter.

Verb

Partner onboarding is the process of educating and training a new partner in your partnership program to be able to perform the duties required of their participation. Partner onboarding occurs after the partner has formally agreed to join the program and the terms of the partnership have been defined and agreed upon. It can be run differently from program to program, but generally incudes education on the vendor's product and the partnership platform and technology.

The goal of onboarding is to prepare a partner for activation. Onboarding should provide a partner with all required knowledge to fulfill their end of the agreement, which may include (but isn't limited to) marketing the vendor's product, referring leads, selling the vendor's product, or advertising affiliate links. Onboarding may include certification courses so the partner can prove their knowledge of the product and platform is sufficient before proceeding with marketing or sales activities.

Example:

ItelCo agreed to a referral partnership with Panner. The first step after signing the referral agreement was to be onboarded. ItelCo took courses and completed certifications, learning about Panner and their referral process as they went. By the time they finished, they were ready to start sending leads!

Noun

Partner personas are research-based profiles that describe each different group of partners you work with. By outlining each type of partner’s wants and needs, you are able to understand what they require to be successful in your program. Partner personas act as a cheat code to help you recruit new partners effectively and give each group the support they need to become active participants in your program.

Example:

Key to any good partnership program is an understanding of your partnership goals and ideal partner persona.

Noun

A partner program (also called a partnership program) is a business initiative that connects companies to multiple types of partners who provide marketing support, leads, and ultimately, revenue. Partners can consist of marketing partners, referral partners, or reseller partners, affiliate partners and more (learn the right type of partner program for you).

Partner programs are established to leverage the strengths and resources of each participant, enabling them to work together towards common goals. Ultimately, monetary rewards are the key to almost every successful partner program as partners are rewarded through incentives (either monetary or through perks and rewards).

Example:

All different types of partner programs (referral, affiliate, reseller, agency) are designed to drive revenue, but they often have many different methods of execution, and work will in tandem with each other.

Noun

Partner retention is a key metric that looks at how many partners stay in a program over time.

Example:

While automation is an important aspect to an efficient partner program, providing a personalized touch can also greatly impact partner retention.

Noun

A metric that looks at how much revenue can be directly attributed to the partner channel.

Example:

PartnerStack's customers drive over $1B in partner-sourced revenue through its ecosystem.

Noun

A marketplace where partners can search for and discover new companies to partner with.

Example:

The PartnerStack Marketplace is home to more than 300 partner programs and 80,000+ active partners, making it the world’s largest B2B SaaS network of partners.

Noun

A partnership agreement is the legally-binding business contract that defines the responsibilities and expectations between a vendor and their partner. It's important for clearly defining the roles of the partner, how the partnership will work, and how profits are split and paid out.

Example:

After determining they were an ideal fit for the B2B SaaS product and signing on to their partner program, the affiliate marketer signs a formal partnership agreement that outlines their role as a partner.

Noun

Passive income is revenue that an individual or a company generates without actively working for it on a regular basis. Make no mistake, it can sometimes take a great deal of upfront effort to generate passive income. But once the initial lift is completed, little to no active effort is required for that revenue to keep coming in on an ongoing basis. This makes it a really attractive method of earning revenue, especially over time.

Partnerships provide companies with an opportunity to generate this kind of passive income. For example, an agency may generate revenue (very actively) by working on client projects. But if they also sell software subscriptions on behalf of vendors, and that vendor offers them 15% of the monthly recurring revenue (MRR) of customers they sold to, then the agency will receive a nice chunk of passive income each month.

Example:

With passive income from partnerships rolling in every month, marketing agency CEO Lissandra can feel confident that she could still pay all employees, even in dry months without a lot of new clients.

Adjective

Pay per action advertising is a kind of advertising in which you only pay when a user carries out a specified action. Actions can include subscribing to a newsletter, visiting a webpage, purchasing a product, or other notable events in a purchasing journey.

Pay per action advertising is similar to pay per click advertising, in which the marketer would pay for each click an ad gets. While a click can be considered an action, the difference between the two is the pay per action advertising can focus on conversion events.

Example:

Liam ran a pay per action ad campaign for his online sock store in which he paid each time a user purchased a pair of socks.

Noun

Also known as a reward. A payout is the compensation a partner receives for generating leads and revenues. It's almost always monetary, but can occasionally take the form of leads, giveaways, or marketing funds.

Example:

Partner payouts are typically either a fixed dollar amount for each sale or a percentage of the total value of the sale.

Noun

Product certification programs are the set of processes and standards that a B2B SaaS company establishes to ensure that third-party products or integrations meet certain criteria and standards.

These programs are designed to validate and certify the compatibility, functionality, security, and performance of external products or services that integrate with the SaaS platform in order to maintain the integrity and quality of their product.

These programs are a best practice for technology partnerships and integrations as they maintain quality control in order to best serve the end customer.

Example:

Product certification programs in B2B SaaS partnerships aim to create a reliable and secure ecosystem where customers can confidently use integrated solutions, knowing that they meet the necessary standards and have been officially approved by the SaaS provider.

Noun

Professional services refers to specialized and customized offerings provided by a software company to assist their clients in implementing, optimizing, and integrating the software into their business operations. These services often include consulting, training, customization, and technical support to ensure the software meets the specific needs of the client's organization.

Example:

As part of their B2B SaaS partnership, the software company not only provided their cutting-edge project management tool but also offered professional services to help the client tailor the tool's features to their unique workflow, ensuring a seamless integration.

Noun

A program announcement is a message to partners within a B2B SaaS organization's ecosystem to update them on new program features, resources, incentives or other items related to their partnership program.

Program announcements can be communicated directly through a PRM, via email communications or through other channels, like social media, to reach a larger audience beyond current partners. These program announcements can be used to recruit new partners, or to activate current partners further. For example, an organization may release a program announcement to inform their partners about a new partner challenge.

Example:

The PartnerStack portal is a one-stop shop for partners to get access to important partner program information, including resources, reports and program announcements.

Noun

Program scalability, in the context of partnerships, refers to a partnership program's ability to efficiently grow and handle an increasing number of partners without sacrificing effectiveness. Scalability indicates the effectiveness in handling growth without impacting the experience as more partners join a vendor's various partnership programs.

For SMB and enterprise-level businesses, this is key. Organizations need to position themselves for sustained growth to ensure trust in their SaaS product is maintained.

Example:

Mosaic's revamped partner program prioritizes program scalability, allowing us to seamlessly onboard and support a larger network of partners as the business grows.

Noun

A publisher refers to a company or entity that creates and distributes software applications, platforms, or content to be utilized by other businesses. Publishers in the B2B SaaS realm often collaborate with other companies to offer their software solutions as part of a larger ecosystem.

Example:

The partnership involved a software publisher providing a comprehensive analytics solution that empowered businesses to make data-driven decisions effectively.