The LeanScale Podcast · Episode 21

Uncover Partnership Metrics

Bernardo Alves on the three numbers every partnerships team has to measure — production, cost-to-carry, and cannibalization

Bernardo Alves · Engagement Manager, LeanScale · LeanScale Hosted by Anthony Enrico
Published Updated 00:06:45 6 min read 1,181 words
Revenue Operations GTM Strategy Sales Leadership Forecasting
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Executive Summary

The one-paragraph brief, extended

Why this conversation matters — and who should spend the hour.

Partnerships is, in Anthony Enrico's words, one of the most overlooked departments when it comes to metrics — teams invest in channel and referral relationships for years without ever agreeing on how to measure them. This short, practical episode fixes that. Anthony and LeanScale's data-and-analytics voice Bernardo Alves walk through the three numbers every partnerships team has to track: production to goal, cost-to-carry ratio, and cannibalization rate. It's a compact operator's checklist for turning a fuzzy 'partnerships is going well' into a governable line item in the plan.

The first metric is production — how much pipeline a partner sources and how much you actually win from that partner and from partnerships as a whole. The nuance is that production goals have to be segmented by partner and by partner type. A channel reseller carries a closed-won production number; a referral partner (or one that risks cannibalizing direct deals) is better measured on sales-qualified leads handed to the sales team to move and close. If you run both reseller and referral relationships, you measure them independently, because they have different objectives, goals, and considerations.

The second metric is cost-to-carry ratio — what it actually costs to run the partnerships motion, split into operational overhead you can't easily influence and the variable cost per partner (events, sales, marketing, and partner-manager resources) that you can. This is the metric Anthony opens the episode on, and it carries the show's central warning: partnerships never scale infinitely. You don't build one relationship and expect it to take off on its own; you have to keep nurturing and investing in it. When you sit down to build your growth model and capacity plan, partnerships will be a meaningful portion of it — so bake the cost-to-carry in, and judge partners on cost-adjusted return, not raw production. A high-producing partner that quietly consumes disproportionate resources may be worth less than an underdeveloped one with room to grow.

The third metric is cannibalization rate — the deals that would likely have closed direct but moved to a partner channel, and the discount or referral fee you paid to get there. Bernardo is emphatic that this is not a stick to chastise the team; it's a lens for strategic, data-backed conversations. You track how many opportunities already registered in the direct channel ended up moving to a partner, what that cost, and whether the doors it opened justify the concession. Concessions are unavoidable when you build strategic relationships, but there's a limit, and the whole point of a partnership is for both parties to leave successful — anything that comes at the expense of one side's business won't be fruitful long-term.

Who should listen: RevOps leaders and partnerships leaders who need to instrument a channel, and revenue executives and founders folding partnerships into a growth model and capacity plan. The takeaway is a three-metric operating frame — production to goal, cost-to-carry, cannibalization — that makes partnerships accountable, plannable, and honest with the partners on the other side of the table.

Key Takeaways

8 things worth stealing

The load-bearing ideas, each with the business implication and who should care.

01

Partnerships is the most overlooked department for metrics — instrument it

Teams pour years of effort into channel and referral relationships without ever agreeing on how to measure them, so partnerships stays a black box in the plan. The fix is a small, deliberate set of numbers: production, cost-to-carry, and cannibalization.

Why it matters: Treat partnerships like any other revenue function with hard targets and a scorecard, rather than a relationship-driven effort you assess by vibe.

Partnerships LeadersRevOps LeadersRevenue Executives
02

Metric 1: measure production — pipeline sourced and revenue won, by partner

Production is how much pipeline is being sourced from partners and how much you actually win from them and from partnerships as a whole. It should be tracked both in aggregate and broken out by individual partner so you can see who's really contributing.

Why it matters: Set production goals overall and segmented by partner; without a per-partner view you can't tell a workhorse from a logo on a slide.

Partnerships LeadersRevOps LeadersSales Leaders
03

Reseller and referral partners need different production goals

A channel reseller is measured on closed-won production; a referral partner — or one that risks cannibalizing your direct motion — is better measured on sales-qualified leads handed to the sales team to move and close. Different partner types carry different numbers.

Why it matters: If you run both reseller and referral relationships, measure them independently — they have different objectives, goals, and considerations, and one goal type won't fit both.

Partnerships LeadersRevOps LeadersSales Leaders
04

Metric 2: track cost-to-carry — split fixed overhead from variable cost per partner

Cost-to-carry is what it costs to run the partnerships team, broken into operational overhead you can't easily influence and the variable cost per partner — events, sales, marketing, and partner-manager resources — that you can. That split tells you where you can actually move the needle.

Why it matters: Build the cost-to-carry ratio so every partner has a known cost of support, not just a production number, and you can manage the inputs you control.

Partnerships LeadersRevOps LeadersRevenue Executives
05

Partnerships never scale infinitely — bake it into the growth model and capacity plan

You don't build one relationship and expect it to completely take off; partnerships require continuous nurturing and investment. When you build your growth model and capacity plan, partnerships will be a strong portion of it, so the resources it consumes have to be planned for explicitly.

Why it matters: Model partnerships like a capacity-constrained function — plan the sales, marketing, and partner-manager resources each relationship needs — instead of assuming channel revenue compounds for free.

FoundersRevenue ExecutivesRevOps Leaders
06

Judge partners on cost-adjusted return, not raw production

A partner can look like a top performer on production while quietly sinking a disproportionate amount of your resources, while an underdeveloped partner may be an opportunity to invest more and extract more value. Production alone hides which relationships are actually efficient.

Why it matters: Rank partners by what they return against what they cost to carry — reallocating investment from expensive over-performers to high-potential, under-resourced relationships.

Partnerships LeadersRevOps LeadersRevenue Executives
07

Metric 3: track cannibalization rate — as a strategy lens, not a stick

Cannibalization rate captures how many opportunities already registered in the direct channel ended up moving to a partner channel, and what discount or referral fee you paid for that. Bernardo is explicit it isn't meant to chastise the team; it's meant to surface where partner and direct motions compete.

Why it matters: Instrument the direct-to-partner deal movement and its cost so you can have strategic, data-backed conversations — with your team and with the partner — instead of guessing at overlap.

Partnerships LeadersRevOps LeadersSales Leaders
08

Concessions are necessary but bounded — both parties must leave successful

You will have to make concessions to build strategic relationships, but there's a limit; giving away too much of a direct deal only makes sense if it opens doors you wouldn't otherwise reach. The overall point of a partnership is for both sides to leave successful.

Why it matters: Use the cannibalization number to set the limit on concessions — if the relationship comes at the expense of your business or theirs, it won't be fruitful long-term.

Partnerships LeadersRevenue ExecutivesSales Leaders
Frameworks Discussed

4 named models

Every framework Jimmy names, defined and time-stamped.

The Three Partnership Metrics

00:37

A minimal scorecard for any partnerships team: (1) production to goal — pipeline sourced and revenue won, segmented by partner; (2) cost-to-carry ratio — fixed overhead plus variable cost per partner; and (3) cannibalization rate — direct deals that moved to a partner channel and what that cost.

Partnerships is the department most often left uninstrumented. These three numbers turn it into a governable, plannable function — one that shows what a partner produces, what it costs to support, and what it takes from the direct motion.

Partner Production Goals (Reseller vs. Referral)

01:10

Set production goals both overall and segmented by partner, and match the goal type to the partner type: a channel reseller carries a closed-won production number, while a referral partner (or one that risks cannibalization) carries a sales-qualified-lead goal for leads handed to the sales team.

Reseller and referral relationships have different objectives, goals, and considerations, so they must be measured independently. Forcing one production definition onto both hides who is actually driving revenue versus feeding the funnel.

Cost-to-Carry Ratio

02:13

The cost of running the partnerships motion, broken into operational overhead you can't easily influence and the variable cost per partner — events, sales, marketing, and partner-manager resources — that you can, expressed against the production that spend generates.

Because partnerships never scale infinitely, cost-to-carry is what you bake into the growth model and capacity plan. It also lets you rank partners on cost-adjusted return, exposing expensive over-performers and under-resourced opportunities.

Cannibalization Rate

03:45

The share of deals that would likely have closed direct but moved to a partner channel — tracked by counting opportunities already registered in the direct channel that shifted to a partner, and the discount or referral fee paid to do so.

Meant as a strategic lens rather than a way to chastise the team, it quantifies where partner and direct motions compete so you can decide whether the doors a concession opens justify its cost — and where to draw the limit on concessions.

Best Quotes

10 lines worth clipping

Pulled verbatim. Copy or share any of them.

“You absolutely have to be tracking your cost-to-carry ratios for a partner, because I guarantee when you sit down to do your growth model and capacity plan, partnerships is going to have a really strong portion of that plan, and you can't expect it to just scale infinitely.”
Anthony Enrico 00:00
“The first one — and we're going to start real easy with this one because, as you mentioned, it is often overlooked — is just understanding overall and by partner production. When we're talking about production, what we mean is how much pipeline is being sourced from these partners and how much are you winning from these partners and partnership as a whole.”
Bernardo Alves 00:37
“If you have a partner that may create some cannibalization opportunities, or they're really more of a referral partner, then usually you're going to want to have a production goal of sales qualified leads that will be provided to the sales team to move and close.”
Anthony Enrico 01:10
“If you have multiple partner channels, if you have reseller and referral relationships, measure them independently. They're going to have different objectives, different goals, and different considerations.”
Anthony Enrico 01:41
“You should absolutely keep an eye on cost-to-carry ratio — understanding how much it costs to run your partnerships team, and breaking that down into how much is operational overhead that you're not going to have an impact on, and then the variable cost per partner: what events are we hosting, how can we influence the cost, and what impact does it have on production?”
Bernardo Alves 02:13
“You don't build one relationship and expect it to completely take off. You always need to be nurturing those partnerships and investing in them to make sure they're successful.”
Anthony Enrico 02:43
“You might have a partner that is performing really well, but then when you look at the cost, you're actually sinking a lot of your resources into it — whereas another one might be underdeveloped, and there's an opportunity to get more money into building that relationship and extracting more value out of it.”
Anthony Enrico 03:17
“A really important one to keep track of is cannibalization rate. And this isn't something that you should keep track of in order to chastise the team or anything like that.”
Bernardo Alves 03:45
“You definitely will have to make concessions in order to build strategic relationships, but there's a limit to it, and understanding where that limit is is going to be really helpful to make sure you have a good relationship with the partner and it's not cannibalizing too much of your direct business.”
Anthony Enrico 04:48
“The overall point of a partnership is for both parties to leave successful. If it's coming at the expense of your business or their business, it's not going to lead to something that you're going to have a fruitful relationship in the long run.”
Bernardo Alves 05:04
Practical Advice

What should you actually do?

The playbook, split by the seat you sit in.

Partnerships Leaders

  • Stand up the three-metric scorecard — production to goal, cost-to-carry ratio, and cannibalization rate — so the channel is measured, not just felt.
  • Segment production goals by partner and by type: closed-won for resellers, SQLs handed to sales for referral partners, measured independently.
  • Break cost-to-carry into fixed overhead versus variable cost per partner (events, sales, marketing, partner-manager time) so you manage the inputs you can actually influence.

RevOps Leaders

  • Instrument direct-to-partner deal movement: count opportunities already registered in the direct channel that shifted to a partner, and capture the discount or referral fee paid.
  • Rank partners on cost-adjusted return, not raw production, so an expensive over-performer and an under-resourced opportunity are visible for what they are.
  • Frame cannibalization data as a strategy input for data-backed partner conversations, never as a way to chastise the team.

Revenue Executives

  • Set the concession limit off the cannibalization number — accept giving up a slice of a direct deal only when it opens doors you couldn't otherwise reach.
  • Hold both sides to the standard that a partnership only works if both parties leave successful; a relationship that comes at the expense of either business won't last.

Founders

  • Bake partnerships into the growth model and capacity plan as a capacity-constrained function — it never scales infinitely and needs continuous nurturing and investment.
  • Plan the sales, marketing, and partner-manager resources each relationship requires before you commit to a partner-sourced number.
Operations Takeaways

By function

The same conversation, filtered for RevOps, pipeline/marketing ops, and customer ops.

Revenue Operations

  • Three-metric scorecard. Production to goal, cost-to-carry ratio, and cannibalization rate turn partnerships from a black box into a governable function.
  • Segment production. Track production overall and by partner, and split reseller (closed-won) from referral (SQL) goals — measure them independently.
  • Cost-to-carry. Separate fixed overhead from variable cost per partner so you can manage the spend you actually control and judge partners on cost-adjusted return.
  • Plan for capacity. Partnerships never scale infinitely; bake its resource cost into the growth model and capacity plan.
  • Cannibalization as strategy. Quantify direct deals moving to partner channels and the fees paid — use it to set concession limits, not to blame the team.

Pipeline & Marketing Ops

  • Partner-sourced pipeline is a real number. Production means pipeline sourced and revenue won from partners — measured in aggregate and per partner, not lumped into direct.
  • Referral vs. reseller handoff. Referral partners feed SQLs to the sales team to move and close; resellers carry closed-won — instrument the handoff differently for each.
  • Watch direct-to-partner leakage. Opportunities already registered direct that move to a partner channel carry a discount or fee that has to be tracked against the pipeline they represent.
Metrics Mentioned

The numbers, with context

~5% of deal value
Cannibalization cost example

The kind of cut or referral fee you give a partner on a deal you might have won direct — worth it only if it opens other doors you wouldn't otherwise reach.

Entities

Companies, people & tools mentioned

Auto-extracted and linked into the knowledge graph.

Companies

People

Bernardo Alvesguest

Engagement manager at LeanScale; came up through customer success into operations and business intelligence, focused on attribution and usage-based tracking.

Engagement Manager, LeanScaleProfile →
Anthony Enricohost

Co-founder of LeanScale and host of The LeanScale Podcast.

Co-FounderProfile →

Tools & software

Related LeanScale Services

Where this shows up in the work

Fractional RevOps

Embedded, field-facing RevOps leadership and execution — the operator model Jimmy describes, delivered as a service.

Instrumenting a partnerships motion — production goals, cost-to-carry, and cannibalization tracking — is exactly the field RevOps measurement LeanScale owns.

Forecasting & ARR Definition

Define a raise-worthy ARR and build a reliable consumption forecast across finance, data science, and go-to-market.

The episode ties cost-to-carry directly to the growth model and capacity plan, the core of a defensible plan and forecast.

Frequently Asked Questions

Straight answers

Generated from the conversation, marked up for search and AI extraction.

What metrics should a partnerships team track?

Three numbers. First, production to goal — how much pipeline a partner sources and how much you win from partners overall and per partner. Second, cost-to-carry ratio — what it costs to run the partnerships motion, split into fixed operational overhead and variable cost per partner. Third, cannibalization rate — the direct deals that moved to a partner channel and the discount or referral fee you paid for them. Together they make partnerships, often the most overlooked department for metrics, into a governable function.

How do you set production goals for partners?

Track production both overall and segmented by partner, and match the goal type to the partner type. A channel reseller carries a closed-won production number. A referral partner — or one that risks cannibalizing your direct deals — is better measured on sales-qualified leads handed to the sales team to move and close. If you run both reseller and referral relationships, measure them independently, because they have different objectives, goals, and considerations.

What is a partner cost-to-carry ratio?

Cost-to-carry is what it actually costs to run your partnerships motion, expressed against the production it generates. Break it into operational overhead you can't easily influence and the variable cost per partner — events, sales, marketing, and partner-manager resources — that you can. Tracking it lets you plan partnerships into your growth model and capacity plan and rank partners on cost-adjusted return rather than raw production.

Why doesn't a partnership scale infinitely?

Because you don't build one relationship and expect it to take off on its own. Partnerships require continuous nurturing and investment — sales, marketing, and partner-manager resources for each relationship. When you build your growth model and capacity plan, partnerships will be a meaningful portion of it, so the resources it consumes have to be planned for explicitly instead of assumed to compound for free.

What is cannibalization rate in partnerships and how do you track it?

Cannibalization rate measures the deals that would likely have closed direct but moved to a partner channel. You track it by counting opportunities already registered in the direct channel that ended up moving to a partner, and by capturing the discount or referral fee you paid to get there. It's a strategic lens — not a way to chastise the team — for deciding whether the doors a concession opens justify its cost.

How much should you concede to a partner on a deal?

Concessions are unavoidable when you build strategic relationships, but there's a limit. Giving away a slice of a deal you might have won direct only makes sense if the partner opens doors you wouldn't otherwise reach. Use your cannibalization data to set that limit: the overall point of a partnership is for both parties to leave successful, so a relationship that comes at the expense of your business or theirs won't be fruitful long-term.

Timeline

Jump through the conversation

Click any chapter to open it in the transcript.

00:00Cold open: track your cost-to-carry 00:25Partnerships: the most overlooked department for metrics 00:37Metric 1: partner production 01:10Reseller vs. referral production goals 02:13Metric 2: cost-to-carry ratio 02:43Bake partnerships into the growth model 03:45Metric 3: cannibalization rate 04:24Tracking cannibalization and its cost 05:04Both parties must leave successful 05:37Recap: the three metrics
Full Transcript

The whole conversation

Broken into chapters, searchable, verbatim from the audio. Speakers inferred (not diarized).

Transcript as markdown ↓ Whole episode as markdown ↓
00:00Cold open: track your cost-to-carry

0:00 You absolutely have to be tracking your cost-to-carry ratios for a partner, because I guarantee when you sit down to do your growth model and capacity plan, partnerships is going to have a really strong portion of that plan, and you can't expect it to just scale infinitely.

00:25Partnerships: the most overlooked department for metrics

0:25 Welcome to The LeanScale Podcast where we talk about everything RevOps. Thank you for listening.

00:37Metric 1: partner production

0:37 We're going through one of the most overlooked departments when it comes to metrics. We're talking about partnerships today. Bernardo, for partnerships, what's the first metric we need to be looking at? I think the first one, and we're going to start real easy with this one because, as you mentioned, it is often overlooked, is just understanding overall and by partner production. Typically, when we're talking about production, what we mean here is how much pipeline is being sourced from these partners and how much are you winning from these partners and partnership as a whole.

01:10Reseller vs. referral production goals

1:10 Yeah, there's usually two layers of partnership. You might have one that is a channel reseller, and for a partner like that, you're really going to want to look at production, and you should have production goals segmented by partner. If you have a partner that may create some cannibalization opportunities or they're really more of a referral partner, then usually you're going to want to have a production goal of sales qualified leads that will be provided to the sales team to move and close.

1:41 But regardless of your partnership ecosystem and what it looks like, you have to have goals to some form of production, whatever makes sense for your company. Absolutely. And if you have multiple partner channels, if you have reseller and referral relationships, measure them independently. They're going to have different objectives, different goals, and different considerations that you're going to want to keep track of. What's the second metric partnership teams? We'll get that. What's the second metric partnerships teams need to be measuring?

02:13Metric 2: cost-to-carry ratio

2:13 Yeah, you should absolutely keep an eye on cost to carry ratio. So understanding how much it costs to run your partnerships teams and breaking that further down into how much of it is operational in terms of overhead and things that you're not going to have an impact on. And then breaking it down by what's the variable cost per partner? What events are we hosting? How can we influence the cost and what impact does it have on production of partnerships? Keeping an eye out on that is really important.

02:43Bake partnerships into the growth model

2:43 You absolutely have to be tracking your cost to carry ratios for a partner, because I guarantee when you sit down to do your growth model and capacity plan, partnerships is going to have a really strong portion of that plan. And you can't expect it to just scale infinitely. You don't build one relationship and expect it to completely take off. You always need to be nurturing those partnerships and investing in them to make sure they're successful. So bake that into your plan. Understand what sales, marketing, partner manager resources you need in order to make them and yourself successful.

3:17 Yeah, it's really important to keep an eye out on how much you spend in order to get from that partner, right? You might have a partner that is performing really well, but then when you look at the cost, you're actually sinking a lot of your resources into it, whereas another one might be underdeveloped and there's an opportunity to get more money into building that relationship and extracting more value out of that. What else do partnership teams need to be measuring, Bernardo?

03:45Metric 3: cannibalization rate

3:45 I think a really important one to keep track of is cannibalization rate. And this isn't something that you should keep track of in order to chastise the team or anything like that. But we know that a lot of times the relationship that you're going to have with a partner might be competing with the relationship that you have with a customer on a direct basis.

4:04 So understanding what your exposure is in terms of what deals did I gain access to that I wouldn't otherwise have if we didn't lose 5% of value by working with this partner and giving them a cut of a deal that you might have been able to win direct, but it might not have opened other doors up for you.

04:24Tracking cannibalization and its cost

4:24 You definitely have to be looking at strategic moves you can play with a partner and when it's just not healthy for the business. So if you track it, a good way to track this is how many opportunities were already registered in a direct channel that ended up moving to a partner channel and what discount or referral fees did you have to pay for that and what's the cost of that cannibalization?

4:48 It's really important to understand that you definitely will have to make concessions in order to build strategic relationships, but there's a limit to it and understanding where that limit is is going to be really helpful to make sure you have a good relationship with the partner and it's not cannibalizing too much of your direct business.

05:04Both parties must leave successful

5:04 And I think you hit the nail on the head there, right? This is a metric that allows you to have strategic and meaningful conversations with your partner. The overall point of a partnership is for both parties to leave successful. If it's coming at the expense of your business or their business, it's not going to lead to something that you're going to have a fruitful relationship in the long run. So being able to balance that and have those conversations backed by data in order to set everybody up for a successful venture together, you're going to have a good relationship with your partner.

05:37Recap: the three metrics

5:37 I couldn't agree more. So if you're running a partnerships team or you're working in a partnerships team, the three metrics you have to be measuring, you have to be looking at your production rates to goal. Typically, that's going to be closed one deals to goal or SQLs or opportunities to goal. Next, you're going to want to be looking at your cost to carry a partner ratio. How much resource do you have to invest in order to make sure that that partner is well invested in and taken care of and being productive for the company?

6:06 And the last one, track your cannibalization rate. Make sure you're looking at what direct deals were already registered within your CRM ended up moving to partners. And are you okay with that cost? There will be a cost, but is it at the level that you believe creates a healthy relationship with the partner and is beneficial to the business? Bernardo, thanks for going through these with me today. My pleasure, Anthony. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like the discussion, please like share and subscribe to wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a new episode.