Partner-sourced pipeline relates to potential sales (or sales pipeline) that have been initiated by a partner. The partner identifies the potential business opportunity, qualifies it and hands it over to the company. These are deals in progress that haven't yet turned into revenue.
How to Calculate Partner-Sourced Pipeline
Partner-sourced pipeline has two forms, both in plain text:
Partner-sourced pipeline (value) = the sum of open opportunity value across all deals a partner originated
Partner-sourced pipeline share = partner-sourced pipeline value / total open pipeline value x 100
"Originated" is the load-bearing word. It means the partner identified the opportunity, qualified it, and handed it over before your own team was involved. Count open deals only. When a sourced deal closes won, it leaves this metric and becomes partner-sourced revenue. Set the sourced tag once at deal registration and keep it for the life of the deal, so the number cannot be quietly reclassified later.
An Illustrative Calculation
This is an illustrative calculation with round numbers, not a real company.
Suppose a company has $2,000,000 in total open pipeline. The deals that partners registered before any direct company contact add up to $400,000. Partner-sourced pipeline is $400,000, and the partner-sourced pipeline share is $400,000 / $2,000,000 = 20%.
If one of those sourced deals, worth $100,000, then closes won, it leaves this metric entirely and moves into partner-sourced revenue. The pipeline number always reflects open deals, never closed ones.
There is no reliable public benchmark for what share of pipeline should be partner-sourced, so read the number against your own trend rather than an industry figure.
Partner-Sourced vs Partner-Influenced Pipeline
These two get conflated, and the fix is a strict tagging rule.
| Partner-sourced | Partner-influenced | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | The partner originated the deal; it would not exist without them | Your team originated the deal; a partner helped along the way |
| Partner's role | Identified and qualified the opportunity | Referral, joint selling, or technical validation on an existing deal |
One deal carries one origin tag. Sourced and influenced never count the same opportunity twice. A separate trap: some vendors use "partner pipeline" for the partner-recruitment funnel (prospect, signed, onboarding, activated), which is a completely different thing from partner-sourced deal pipeline.
Why track either? Crossbeam's 2023 State of the Partner Ecosystem Report found that deals are 53% more likely to close, and close 46% faster, when a partner is involved, whether sourced or influenced. The full picture lives in partner-influenced revenue and quantifying total partnership impact.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are partner-sourced deals?
Partner-sourced deals are opportunities a partner identified, qualified, and handed over before your own team was involved. While they are open, they count as partner-sourced pipeline. Once they close won, they count as partner-sourced revenue. The partner originated the deal, so it would not exist without them.
What is the difference between partner sourced and partner influenced pipeline?
Sourced means the partner originated the deal. Influenced means the partner helped move a deal your own team originated. Keep the two tags separate and never count one deal as both, or the program's contribution gets overstated.
Related
Related KPIs:
Related Terms: