Channel POV
Are partner summits driving pipeline or producing highlight reels?
Partner summits are among the largest line items in a channel budget. The question is what they are measured on.
The short answer
- Summits consume budget, senior time, and partner goodwill: three scarce things at once.
- A highlight reel is not evidence that anything changed.
- Summits that produce revenue are designed around commitments and follow-through, not around the agenda.
- Decide before the event what a partner should have committed to by the time they leave.
Partner summits consume three scarce things simultaneously: budget, senior vendor time, and partner goodwill. That makes the measurement question unavoidable.
What a highlight reel proves
Photos and a recap video prove the event happened and that people enjoyed it. Neither is evidence that anything changed in the business afterwards.
Designing for commitments
The summits that produce revenue are built backwards from what a partner should have committed to by the time they leave, with a mechanism to follow up. The agenda serves that outcome rather than being the outcome.
Frequently asked
Questions this raises.
- How should a partner summit be measured?
- By what partners committed to and what happened afterwards, not by attendance, satisfaction scores, or the quality of the recap video. The useful question is how much pipeline traces back to commitments made at the event.
- What makes a partner summit produce pipeline?
- Designing it around commitments and follow-through rather than around the agenda. That means deciding in advance what each partner should leave having committed to, and having a mechanism to follow up on it.