Partner-sourced revenue is defined as the income a company earns directly from sales opportunities or deals that are initiated, negotiated, and closed by its partners, such as resellers, affiliates, referral partners, distributors, or technology consultants. This revenue is attributed to the partner who brings in the lead or referral, manages the sales process, closes the deal and secures the transaction, rather than the primary company's internal sales team.
How to calculate partner-sourced revenue
Partner-sourced revenue is the total closed-won revenue from deals a partner originated. Add up the closed value of every deal where a partner found the prospect and registered it before your direct team got involved.
Partner-sourced revenue = sum of closed-won revenue from deals the partner originated
Three inputs decide the number:
- Numerator. Only deals the partner sourced. A deal counts when the partner identified the prospect and registered it as new, not when the partner joined a deal your team already had. Unifyr's Channel Atlas defines it the same way, as "total closed-won revenue from deals that were originated by channel partners."
- Attribution window. The deal is tagged "partner-sourced" at registration, and the tag follows it until it closes. Pick whether you count revenue in the period the deal closed or the period it was sourced, and apply one rule to every deal.
- Period and denominator. Report the figure as a dollar amount and as a share of total company revenue for the same period, so the two always cover the same window.
See partner sourced pipeline for the open-deal version of this metric before any deal closes.
A worked example
Suppose a company closed 4 million dollars in total revenue last quarter. Of that, partners originated and registered three deals that closed: one for 300,000 dollars, one for 250,000 dollars, and one for 150,000 dollars. Partner-sourced revenue is 300,000 plus 250,000 plus 150,000, which is 700,000 dollars. As a share of total revenue, that is 700,000 divided by 4,000,000, or 17.5 percent. A deal where a partner only made an introduction to an account the direct team was already working would not count here. That belongs in partner influenced revenue.
What a healthy number looks like
There is no single right share, because it tracks how much a company sells through partners. Unifyr's Channel Atlas gives directional ranges by go-to-market model: a channel-first company that sells almost entirely through partners runs at 50 percent or higher, a hybrid company at 20 to 40 percent, and a direct-led company where partners supplement the sales team at 5 to 20 percent. Unifyr stresses that the trend line matters more than the absolute share, since a number growing quarter over quarter is healthy even when it is still small.
The metric is also widely owned. Crossbeam's 2021 State of the Partner Ecosystem Report found partner-sourced revenue is the top KPI for partnership professionals at companies with 50 to 249 employees, named by 61 percent, and by 72 percent at companies with 1,000 or more employees.
Partner-sourced vs partner-influenced revenue
The most common mix-up is sourced versus influenced. The split is simple. Sourced means the partner started the deal. Influenced means the partner helped a deal but did not start it.
| Partner-sourced revenue | Partner-influenced revenue | |
|---|---|---|
| Who started the deal | The partner found and registered the prospect | Your team or another path started it |
| Partner's role | Originated the opportunity | Helped one or more steps, for example a referral, joint selling, or technical validation |
| What it measures | Pipeline the partner created | Deals the partner helped move or close |
| Double-counting risk | A deal counts once, to the partner who sourced it | One deal can be influenced by several partners |
Crossbeam describes sourced revenue as direct revenue from a partner and influenced revenue as indirect revenue from one or more partners. Unifyr notes that sourced revenue measures a partner's pipeline-generation ability while influenced measures sales-acceleration ability. Keep the two counts separate so neither number is overstated. See partner influenced revenue for the other side, and partner revenue for the combined view.
Common questions
What are partner-sourced deals?
Partner-sourced deals are sales opportunities a partner started, by finding the prospect and registering it before your direct team got involved. If the deal closes, the partner is credited with sourcing it. A deal the partner only joined later is influenced, not sourced.
What is the difference between partner sourced and partner influenced?
Sourced means the partner originated the deal. Influenced means the partner contributed to a deal, through a referral, joint selling, or technical validation, but did not start it. Crossbeam frames sourced as direct revenue from a partner and influenced as indirect revenue from one or more partners.
Related
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