Partnerships are not just a trend. They are a strategic necessity backed by compelling data demonstrating faster conversion rates, lower customer acquisition costs (CAC), and significant revenue growth across industries and company sizes.
In this comprehensive guide, we've gathered the most compelling 41 facts about partnerships that can help founders, growth leaders, and partnership professionals make informed decisions and drive their businesses to new heights. These facts span performance metrics, revenue impact, market reach, innovation benefits, and the challenges to avoid.
Whether you're considering launching your first partner program or optimizing an existing one, these data points provide the evidence base for partnership investment decisions.
Faster Conversion Rates: How Partners Accelerate Sales
Partnerships demonstrably accelerate sales processes, shorten cycles, and improve conversion rates across multiple dimensions.
Fact #1: Higher Average Order Value
Deals with partners have a 40% higher average order value than those without. This means that partnering can significantly boost the value of each transaction.
Strategic implication: Partners often bundle solutions, identify broader customer needs, and sell more comprehensive deployments than direct sales approaches. This 40% increase in deal size directly impacts revenue per transaction and sales team productivity.
Fact #2: Faster Close Rates
Research shows that deals are 53% more likely to close and 46% faster when a partner is involved, speeding up your sales cycle.
Strategic implication: In markets where sales cycles have lengthened by 16% year-over-year (EBSTA 2024), the 46% acceleration from partner involvement creates dramatic competitive advantages. Faster closes improve cash flow, reduce sales costs, and enable higher sales capacity utilization.
Fact #3: Operational Efficiency Through Co-Selling
Forrester's research found that 63% of co-seller companies aim to free up employee time, while 59% want to leverage skilled sales/marketing support, making the sales process more efficient.
Strategic implication: Co-selling doesn't just accelerate individual deals. It creates operational leverage by enabling internal teams to focus on highest-value activities while partners handle lower-complexity aspects of sales processes.
Lower Customer Acquisition Costs: Partnership Economics
Customer acquisition efficiency is critical for sustainable growth. Partnership channels consistently deliver superior CAC economics compared to direct approaches.
Fact #4: Confirmed CAC Advantages
72% of companies stated that CAC from partners was lower compared to direct acquisition methods, making partnerships a cost-effective strategy.
Strategic implication: The fact that nearly three-quarters of companies confirm lower CAC through partnerships indicates this is not an isolated benefit but a consistent pattern across industries, company sizes, and partnership models.
Fact #5: High-Growth Correlation
High-growth brands are three times more likely to use marketing partnerships than no-growth firms, highlighting the efficiency of partnership-driven marketing.
Strategic implication: This correlation between growth rates and marketing partnership usage suggests that partnerships are not just efficient but essential for achieving above-market growth rates.
Fact #6: Global Trade Through Partnerships
75% of world trade flows indirectly through partnerships and alliances, reducing the costs associated with direct market entry.
Strategic implication: The dominance of indirect trade demonstrates that partnerships are the primary mechanism for global commerce, not an alternative approach. Companies attempting to bypass partnerships face structural disadvantages.
Fact #7: Partnership-Only Revenue Models
100% of revenue comes from partnerships for 7% of the surveyed companies in 2023, demonstrating the potential of a well-developed partner network.
Strategic implication: While extreme, partnership-only models prove that some companies successfully operate entirely through indirect channels, validating the viability of pure partner GTM strategies.
Fact #8: Co-Selling Efficiency
89% of companies say co-selling requires less time and money than traditional reseller models.
Strategic implication: Co-selling models provide efficiency advantages over traditional channel structures by enabling more direct collaboration and shared accountability while maintaining partner leverage.
Revenue Metrics: Quantifying Partnership Impact
Revenue contribution from partnerships varies significantly, but data shows consistent patterns among high-performing companies.
Fact #9: Revenue Forecast Growth
30% of companies forecast that partnerships will make up to 25-50% of their revenue in 2024, indicating substantial growth opportunities.
Strategic implication: This forecast indicates that partnerships are moving from supplementary to primary revenue sources for nearly a third of companies, representing a fundamental GTM shift.
Fact #10: Top Performer Revenue Mix
58% of revenue for top-performing companies comes from partners, showcasing the financial impact of strategic alliances.
Strategic implication: Top performers derive majority revenue from partners, demonstrating that partnership-led growth is not just efficient but essential for achieving top-tier performance levels.
Fact #11: Widespread Revenue Attribution
49% of organizations attribute 26% or more of their revenue to partners, underscoring the importance of partnerships in revenue generation.
Strategic implication: Nearly half of all organizations already generate at least a quarter of revenue through partners, indicating that partnership revenue is mainstream, not niche.
Brand Awareness and Market Reach: Beyond Direct Revenue
Partnerships deliver strategic value beyond immediate revenue through brand building, market access, and competitive positioning.
Fact #12: Brand Awareness Increase
45% of companies with established partner programs reported an increase in brand awareness, making partnerships a key factor in brand strategy.
Strategic implication: In crowded markets where differentiation is challenging, partner-amplified brand awareness creates sustainable competitive advantages that compound over time.
Fact #13: Market Entry Acceleration
50% of executives say partnerships help them enter new markets, expanding their business reach.
Strategic implication: For companies pursuing geographic or vertical expansion, partnerships provide faster, lower-risk market entry compared to building direct local presence.
Fact #14: Competitive Advantage
80% of companies believe that partnerships improve their competitive advantage, solidifying their market position.
Strategic implication: The widespread belief in partnership-driven competitive advantage indicates that ecosystem strength has become a key competitive battleground beyond product features alone.
Customer Satisfaction and Innovation: Strategic Benefits
Partnerships impact more than sales and marketing efficiency. They influence customer outcomes and innovation capabilities.
Fact #15: Customer Satisfaction Impact
55% of companies with partnerships report increased customer satisfaction, enhancing customer loyalty and retention.
Strategic implication: Partners often improve implementation success, provide local support, and offer complementary services that enhance overall customer experience and satisfaction.
Fact #16: Innovation Enhancement
65% of organizations believe that partnerships enhance innovation, driving new product development and service offerings.
Strategic implication: Partner collaboration provides access to diverse perspectives, technologies, and market insights that accelerate innovation beyond what isolated companies can achieve.
Fact #17: Innovation Partnership Necessity
94% of tech executives see innovation partnerships as necessary, emphasizing the role of collaborations in technological advancements.
Strategic implication: Near-universal recognition of innovation partnership necessity indicates that partnership-driven innovation has become table stakes, not a differentiator.
Strategic Importance of Partnerships: Executive Perspectives
Executive perspectives on partnerships reveal strategic consensus around their importance for growth and competitiveness.
Fact #18: Critical for Growth
70% of executives believe partnerships are critical for growth, underlining the strategic value of alliances.
Strategic implication: When 70% of executives view partnerships as critical, partnership strategy moves from tactical channel management to board-level strategic priority.
Fact #19: Primary Growth Strategy
45% of companies report that partnerships are their primary growth strategy, highlighting their pivotal role in business expansion.
Strategic implication: For nearly half of companies, partnerships are not supplementary channels but the main engine of growth, indicating fundamental GTM transformation.
Fact #20: Future Growth Importance
65% of organizations believe partnerships are very important to their future growth, rating their significance at an average of 8.8 out of 10.
Strategic implication: The high importance rating (8.8 out of 10) indicates strong conviction, not tepid agreement, about partnership centrality to future success.
Ecosystem and Network Effects: Scale and Value Creation
Ecosystem approaches create network effects and value pools that transcend individual partnerships.
Fact #21: Ecosystem Integration
60-70% of today's most valuable businesses have made ecosystems an integral part of their core business model, showcasing the importance of integrated networks.
Strategic implication: The world's most valuable companies prioritize ecosystem business models, suggesting that ecosystem thinking is essential for achieving and maintaining market leadership.
Fact #22: Network Economy Value
An integrated network economy could represent a $100 trillion value pool by 2030, about a third of the world's total sales output.
Strategic implication: McKinsey's projection indicates that ecosystem value represents one of the largest economic opportunities of the coming decade, justifying significant strategic investment.
Fact #23: Atlassian Partner Network
Atlassian's ecosystem includes over 700 channel partners that account for one-third of its business, demonstrating the power of a strong partner network.
Strategic implication: Atlassian demonstrates that even product-led growth companies benefit from substantial partner ecosystems contributing meaningful revenue percentages.
Fact #24: Shopify Partner Revenue
Shopify's partner ecosystem generated over $6.9 billion in 2019, highlighting the revenue potential of partner networks.
Strategic implication: Shopify's partner-generated revenue exceeds the total revenue of most software companies, illustrating the scale that mature partner ecosystems can achieve.
Fact #25: Zoom Geographic Expansion
Channel partners in Japan contributed approximately 40% of Zoom's Japan business in 2020, illustrating the geographic expansion through partnerships.
Strategic implication: Zoom's rapid international expansion was significantly enabled by partner networks providing local presence and market knowledge.
Fact #26: Microsoft Partner Dependency
Microsoft generates 95% of its revenue through its partners, illustrating the power of a robust partner network.
Strategic implication: Microsoft's extreme partner dependency (95% of revenue) proves that even the largest technology companies can operate primarily through partner channels.
Industry-Specific Insights: Sector Perspectives
Partnership importance varies by industry, with certain sectors showing particularly strong partnership orientation.
Fact #27: Telecom CEO Perspective
83% of telecom CEOs view partnerships as critical, emphasizing the sector-specific importance of collaborations.
Strategic implication: Telecom's high partnership orientation reflects industry dynamics where infrastructure sharing, roaming agreements, and content partnerships are essential business models.
Fact #28: Media CEO Perspective
81% of media CEOs consider partnerships essential, underscoring their role in the media industry's success.
Strategic implication: Media partnerships around content licensing, distribution, and technology platforms make partnerships central to media business models.
Fact #29: Cross-Functional Enthusiasm
More than 98% of sales leaders and 95.9% of marketing professionals are eager to invest in partnerships, reflecting the cross-functional benefits of alliances.
Strategic implication: Near-universal enthusiasm from both sales and marketing leadership indicates broad organizational alignment around partnership value, reducing internal friction for partnership initiatives.
Fact #30: Resilience Through Ecosystems
Close to 50% of resilience leaders are pursuing ecosystem strategies, highlighting the role of partnerships in building business resilience.
Strategic implication: Companies focused on resilience recognize that ecosystem diversification reduces risk compared to dependence on single channels or markets.
Fact #31: Program Optimism
79% of business leaders are optimistic about partner programs in 2023, indicating a positive outlook for the future.
Strategic implication: High optimism levels suggest that partnership programs are meeting or exceeding expectations, encouraging continued investment.
Fact #32: Mature Program Performance
Several studies show that mature partnership programs generate 28% of revenue on average, compared to 18% for typical businesses, highlighting the growth potential.
Strategic implication: The 10-percentage-point difference between mature and typical programs demonstrates clear ROI for investing in partnership program maturity.
Partnership Challenges: Understanding Failure Factors
While partnerships offer significant benefits, many fail due to avoidable factors. Understanding failure patterns enables better program design.
Fact #33: Communication and Trust Failures
38% of managers point to a lack of internal communication and trust as a reason for partnership failure, stressing the need for transparent communication.
Strategic implication: Internal alignment failures cause partnership breakdown more often than partner-vendor relationship issues, indicating that internal enablement is critical.
Fact #34: Partnership Failure Rate
Over 60% of strategic partnerships fail, often due to misaligned goals, poor communication, and a lack of trust among the parties involved.
Strategic implication: The high failure rate (60%+) underscores the importance of careful partner selection, clear agreements, and ongoing relationship management to avoid becoming a failure statistic.
Fact #35: Trust Foundation
90% of successful partnerships are based on mutual trust, emphasizing the importance of strong relationships.
Strategic implication: Trust is not a soft factor but the foundational requirement for partnership success, requiring intentional trust-building activities and transparency.
Fact #36: Ecosystem Disruption
76% of business leaders see ecosystems as the primary disruptor of today's business models.
Strategic implication: Ecosystem disruption means that companies without partnership strategies face existential threats from ecosystem-enabled competitors with superior customer value propositions.
Fact #37: Objective Alignment
47% of managers identify alignment on objectives as a key factor contributing to the success of partnerships. This alignment ensures that all parties involved share a common vision and goals.
Strategic implication: Objective alignment requires explicit discussion and documentation, not assumptions, making clear partnership agreements and regular business reviews essential.
Fact #38: Ecosystem Revenue Generation Challenge
Out of 100 incumbent companies' ecosystem initiatives, 55% gained traction with customers, and only about 10 to 15% were able to generate more than 5% of total revenue from ecosystem value proposition, indicating room for improvement.
Strategic implication: While ecosystem initiatives often gain customer traction, translating that traction into significant revenue requires sophisticated execution, indicating that ecosystem ROI is not automatic.
Future Trends: Partnership Growth Trajectory
Forward-looking data indicates continued partnership growth and evolution.
Fact #39: Revenue Forecast
45% of companies forecast that partnerships will make up to 25-50% of their revenue in 2024, predicting significant future growth.
Strategic implication: Companies are betting on partnerships to grow from current baseline to majority revenue contributors, indicating confidence in partnership scalability.
Fact #40: Alliance Formation Growth
2,000 strategic alliances are formed each year, growing by 15% annually, indicating a rising trend in partnerships.
Strategic implication: The 15% annual growth rate in alliance formation suggests accelerating partnership adoption rather than stabilization, indicating partnerships are still in growth phase.
Fact #41: Customer Ecosystem Openness
60% of customers in Europe are open to purchasing adjacent—that is, ecosystem—services from retailers and telecommunications operators, showcasing customer openness to ecosystem offerings.
Strategic implication: Customer willingness to buy ecosystem services validates that ecosystem business models align with buyer preferences, not just vendor strategies.
Strategic Implications: Using Partnership Data for Decision-Making
These 41 facts collectively paint a clear picture of partnership importance, benefits, challenges, and future trajectory.
Key Decision Frameworks
When to invest in partnerships:
Your sales cycles are lengthening and win rates declining (Facts #1, #2)
CAC from direct channels exceeds partnership benchmarks (Fact #4)
You're planning geographic or vertical expansion (Fact #13)
Competitors are building visible partner ecosystems (Fact #14)
Innovation velocity is critical to competitive positioning (Facts #16, #17)
How to structure partnership programs:
Prioritize trust-building and transparent communication (Facts #33, #35)
Ensure clear objective alignment through documentation (Fact #37)
Invest in program maturity to achieve 28% revenue contribution (Fact #32)
Build cross-functional support from sales and marketing (Fact #29)
Prepare for challenges: 60% of partnerships fail without proper structure (Fact #34)
What results to expect:
40% higher deal values, 53% higher close rates, 46% faster cycles (Facts #1, #2)
25-50% revenue contribution at maturity (Facts #9, #32)
Lower CAC than direct channels (Fact #4)
Increased brand awareness and competitive advantage (Facts #12, #14)
Improved customer satisfaction and retention (Fact #15)
Making Partnerships Discoverable and Measurable
To capture the benefits demonstrated in these 41 facts, companies need infrastructure that makes partnership programs visible and measurable.
Partner Program Visibility
Discovery platforms: Partner2B makes partner programs discoverable when companies actively search for partnership opportunities, driving inbound partner recruitment and reducing partner acquisition costs.
Ecosystem showcase: For companies with mature partner ecosystems (50+ partners), solutions like Bonobee provide marketplace infrastructure showcasing partner depth to customers while giving partners visibility that drives their performance.
Partnership Measurement
Track metrics aligned with the facts in this article:
Deal size comparison (partner vs. direct)
Win rate and sales cycle metrics (partner vs. direct)
CAC by channel
Revenue attribution to partners
Brand awareness metrics
Customer satisfaction scores (partner-sourced vs. direct)
Partner program ROI and contribution
Strategic Takeaway: Data-Driven Partnership Investment
Partnerships are not just beneficial. They are essential for modern B2B businesses. From faster conversions (46% faster close, 53% higher win rate) and lower CAC (72% of companies confirm advantage) to significant revenue growth (58% of revenue for top performers) and enhanced brand awareness (45% report increases), the benefits are undeniable and data-backed.
The competitive imperative: With 76% of business leaders seeing ecosystems as the primary business model disruptor and 70% of executives viewing partnerships as critical for growth, partnership investment has moved from optional to essential.
The scale opportunity: McKinsey's projection of a $100 trillion ecosystem economy by 2030 (representing a third of global sales) indicates that partnership strategies will define competitive positioning for the coming decade.
The execution challenge: While 60% of partnerships fail due to misaligned goals and poor communication, the 40% that succeed generate dramatic results. Success requires intentional program design, clear objective alignment, transparent communication, and ongoing relationship management.
By incorporating these 41 facts into your strategic planning, you can make evidence-based decisions about partnership investment, program structure, and expected outcomes. The data is clear: partnerships work when properly executed, and they're becoming essential for competitive success.
Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Start exploring partnership opportunities today and watch your company thrive.
Continue Learning About Partnership Strategy
Sources: Forrester, Deloitte, McKinsey, Accenture, HubSpot, Crossbeam
Ready to make your partnership program discoverable and start capturing these benefits? Partner2B helps companies attract qualified partners actively searching for partnership opportunities.
