How Data is Transforming Partnerships
The world of partnerships is evolving—and for the better! Data has become the cornerstone of modern partnership management, transforming how partner managers make decisions, build relationships, and drive growth. Today’s partner managers don’t just maintain connections—they leverage data to uncover insights, optimise processes, and unlock new opportunities. When I started, I was navigating spreadsheets and tracking relationships through CRMs like Pipedrive and HubSpot. Today, the focus is on integrating those systems into a single source of truth, creating transparent, frictionless experiences for partners that foster long-term success.
This shift is a game-changer for managing and scaling partnerships. I’m Eva Fayemi, Co-Founder & CEO of Bond Agency, and I’m excited to share how data is reshaping partnership management.
1. Companies start with CRM Data
For most companies, CRM systems are the starting point for managing partnerships. These systems provide key data on sales interactions and performance, but integrating partner-sourced data can be a challenge. While it's better than nothing, simply tracking data isn't enough—it's crucial to define a partnership strategy first.
At Bond Agency, we help clients identify their partnership goals and align them with broader business objectives before optimising their CRM or introducing tools like Introw. A common challenge we see is companies not tracking which partnerships contribute most to the bottom line. We guide them in mapping partner journeys, attributing engagement, and tracking conversions in the CRM. This clarity leads to improved decision-making, better tracking, and growth.
Protip: Ensure your sales team is aligned on reporting partner-sourced leads. Create internal documentation and calls to keep everyone on the same page for seamless reporting across teams.
2. Increasing Revenue and Engagement
Growing revenue and boosting partner engagement are top priorities, but these goals can be time-consuming and difficult to track. Modern partner managers balance engagement and tracking more efficiently through technology, automating key processes and logging communication touchpoints with partners.
For example, one of our clients used to spend hours tracking partner engagement manually. After integrating their CRM with automation tools, they gained a dynamic, real-time view of partner contributions. Automated alerts and insights allowed their team to respond quickly, increasing partner engagement and revenue from key accounts.
Protip: Track whether partners open onboarding materials like sales brochures or marketing resources. This helps identify where additional support is needed for smoother, more effective onboarding.
3. More Transparency Through Data Means Better Collaboration
A common issue partners face is a lack of transparency. Without it, trust erodes, and partnerships can’t thrive. Tools like Introw are changing this dynamic by providing greater transparency. It connects CRM data with partnership management, offering a platform that tracks key metrics, aligns partners on pipeline progress, provides content, and monitors engagement.
This transparency empowers partner managers to track the entire partnership ecosystem while giving partners visibility into their performance. When everyone is aligned with clear data, collaboration becomes more efficient and impactful.
The future of partnership management is data-driven. With tools like Introw, partner managers can unlock new insights, improve collaboration, and drive faster, more efficient growth. Companies that embrace this will lead the next era of partnership management.
About Bond Agency: Since 2020, Bond Agency has been helping B2B tech and SaaS startups accelerate growth through strategic partnerships. We specialise in strategy development, execution, and providing fractional partner teams, focusing on scaling businesses in the EMEA and USA. With a diverse network of affiliates, tech integrations, and B2B influencers, we’ve delivered impactful results across industries including hospitality tech (e.g., Unicorn Mews), MarTech (e.g., Hotjar), and SaaS (e.g., Revenue Hero).
Join the conversation in our Slack community, The Nearbound Club, where tech founders and partnership leaders drive innovation in the partnerships space.
Visit: www.bond-agency.io
Related blog articles
The 3 ways to manage your partners in HubSpot and attribute revenue
We’ve seen that there are 3 potential ways to manage your partners within HubSpot: custom properties, company association & custom object association. Before implementing a partner portal like Introw we advise to map your partners in your HubSpot.
In this blogpost we’re going to focus on revenue attribution so we’re looking at the object “Deal” in HubSpot. If you also want to attribute contacts, leads, companies,… to partners, you can use the same approach.
Custom properties
How does it work?
- Create a custom deal property
- Step 1: Go to settings —> data management —> properties
- Step 2: Create property:
- Object type: Deal
- Group: Deal information
- Label: This is up to you to decide, we've gone for "Partner". Click "Next"
- Field type: If you’re sometimes working with multiple partners on a deal, we advise going for “Multiple checkboxes.” If there is always a maximum of one partner per deal, go for “Dropdown select.”
- Add your custom property to your view or your teams view (this will allow you to easily select the right partners from the left side panel)
- Attribute the right partner(s) to the right deals
What are the pros?
✅ Easy and fast set-up
✅ Possible with all HubSpot plans
✅ Easy to create revenue reports
What are the cons?
❌ Every sales person should have this custom property in their view
❌ Not possible to navigate directly to the partner company
Company association (with association label)
How does it work?
- Create a custom association label between deal and company
- Step 1: Go to settings —> data management —> objects —> deals —> associations
- Step 2: Create association label:
- Objects you’re associating: Deals-to-companies
- How many labels do you need? A single label
- Create one called: partner sourced (for deals that partners have sourced)
- 💡 Optional: You can create another label called: partner influenced (for deals that partners have influenced)
- Associate the partner company to a deal and select the label “partner sourced” (or partner influenced)
- You can do this by associating an (additional) company to the deal; add company
What are the pros?
✅ Easy and fast set-up
✅ Scalable
What are the cons?
❌ Not possible with all HubSpot plans
❌ Not easy to report on in HubSpot
Custom object association
How does it work?
- Create a custom object
- Step 1: Go to settings —> data management —> objects —> custom objects
- Step 2: Create custom object:
- Object name - singular: “Partner”
- Object name - plural: “Partner”
- Primary display property: “Partner Name”
- Property type: Single-line text
- Associate the right company object to the partner object in order to have all the right data connected
- Associate the partner object to a deal
💡 Optional: Create association labels on this custom object to differentiate between for example partner influenced and partner sourced
What are the pros?
✅ Good for organisations with larger amounts of partners
✅ Scalable
What are the cons?
❌ Not possible with all HubSpot plans
❌ Not so easy
Conclusion
To wrap up, there are 3 ways to manage your partners in HubSpot: via custom properties, via company association and via a custom object.
Introw supports all methods :).
What is Introw?
Working with resellers, referral partners, distributors,...? Keep on reading! Introw is a partner relationship management (PRM) platform allowing you to collaborate with your B2B partners in shared spaces integrated with HubSpot.
One space to be aligned on pipeline, enable partners with content and track engagement.
✅ Partners don't need to login to a portal
✅ Simplifying B2B partnership collaborations
Partnership data lives in the CRM, so we’re leveraging that to the fullest with our native and 1-click HubSpot and Salesforce integration.
With that, we’re not only elevating your B2B partnership experience, we’re elevating the experience of your entire partnership team.
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