If you’re in charge of tracking partner sourced deals, you know it can get messy, fast. Between scattered emails, loose spreadsheets, and “I thought you owned that” moments, pipeline visibility can feel like wishful thinking. This guide is for sales, partnerships, and ops folks who want a clear, honest system for tracking partner sourced pipeline in Alignedup—one that people will actually use.
Let’s skip the theory and get straight to what works, what doesn’t, and how to avoid common headaches.
1. Get Clear on What “Partner Sourced” Means (and Write It Down)
Before you touch a tool, make sure your team agrees on what counts as “partner sourced.” This sounds basic, but it’s the #1 reason tracking breaks down.
Do this: - Define “partner sourced” in plain language. Example: “A deal is partner sourced if a partner introduced us to the prospect and had a meaningful influence before opportunity creation.” - List out common scenarios. Who gets credit if a partner just forwarded a newsletter? What about joint webinars? Spell it out. - Put this definition somewhere everyone can see—ideally inside Alignedup or your team wiki.
What to ignore:
Don’t overcomplicate with edge cases. You can’t anticipate every scenario. Get 90% of the way there and be ready to tweak as you go.
2. Build a Single Source of Truth in Alignedup
Trying to track partner pipeline across multiple tools is a recipe for confusion. Commit to logging all partner sourced opportunities in Alignedup, even if people use other systems for personal notes.
How to set it up: - Use Alignedup’s partner attribution fields. Make these required for new opportunities. - Create a dropdown or lookup field for “Source Partner.” Don’t let people free-type partner names—standardize to avoid duplicates and typos. - Add a “Partner Influence” field if you need more detail (e.g. “Sourced,” “Influenced,” “Co-Sell”). - Set up basic reporting dashboards to visualize partner sourced pipeline by stage, value, and partner.
Pro tip:
Automate as much as you can. If you get partner leads via form, webhook, or integration, pipe them directly into Alignedup with the partner info pre-filled.
What to ignore:
Avoid custom fields you don’t absolutely need. Over-engineering here means more things will break (and more fields people will ignore).
3. Make Attribution Part of Your Deal Creation Process
The biggest reason partner deals slip through the cracks? People forget to flag them. Make attribution unavoidable.
Best practices: - Add a required “Partner Sourced?” toggle to every new opportunity. - If “Yes,” make them pick a partner from the dropdown. - Train your reps and partner managers to fill this out. Not once—remind them regularly. - Audit new deals weekly for missing attribution. This takes 5 minutes and catches most errors. - Celebrate correct usage. Seriously—call out people who do it right in your team meetings.
What doesn’t work:
Relying on people’s memory or goodwill. If attribution isn’t baked into your process, your data will be garbage within a month.
4. Keep Your Partner List Clean and Current
Nothing kills trust in your reports faster than seeing “Partner: ABC Inc.,” “Partner: ABC Incorporated,” and “Partner: A.B.C. Inc.” all over your data.
How to keep things tidy: - Assign someone (usually your partner manager) to own the partner list in Alignedup. - Review it monthly for duplicates, stale partners, or weird typos. - Merge or delete as needed—don’t let the list grow wild. - For new partners, set a naming convention up front (e.g., no abbreviations, always “Inc.” not “Incorporated”). - If you work with resellers, VARs, or agents, tag them accordingly so you can filter by partner type.
Tip:
Don’t let every user add new partners on the fly. Centralize this, or you’ll spend hours cleaning up later.
5. Set Up Simple, Useful Reporting (and Actually Use It)
The whole point of tracking partner sourced pipeline is to get insights you can act on. Most teams set up fancy dashboards and never look at them again. Keep it simple.
What works: - Weekly pipeline report: Show active partner sourced deals, by stage and value. - Win/loss analysis: How do partner deals perform vs. direct deals? - Partner leaderboard: Who’s actually driving revenue? Call out the top contributors. - Aging: Are partner sourced deals getting stuck in certain stages?
How to do it in Alignedup: - Use built-in dashboards, but don’t be afraid to export to CSV for deeper analysis. - Share key reports with both sales and partner teams. If no one’s looking at your report, ask why. - Review pipeline in your recurring partner syncs—not just at quarter’s end.
What to ignore:
Don’t waste time on metrics you’ll never use (like time-in-stage by partner vertical in Q2 2019). Stick to numbers that drive action.
6. Get Feedback and Fix What’s Broken
No tracking system is perfect out of the gate. Assume you’ll need to adjust—what matters is that you actually do it.
How to stay on target: - Ask your reps and partner managers: “Is anything about this annoying or unclear?” - Watch for “miscellaneous” or “unknown” partners popping up. That’s a sign your process needs tightening. - If people keep skipping attribution, figure out why—too many fields? Not obvious where to click? Fix it. - Tweak your definitions and dashboards as your partner program grows.
Honest take:
Don’t expect everyone to love the system. Your goal is “good enough to trust, easy enough to use.” Perfection is a myth.
Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
Here’s where most teams stumble:
- Too many fields: If tracking takes more than 30 seconds, people will skip it.
- No ownership: If no one owns maintaining the partner list or auditing data, it gets messy.
- Ambiguous definitions: If people don’t know what “partner sourced” means, you’ll get junk data.
- One-and-done training: People forget. Remind them, and make it part of onboarding for new hires.
- Letting exceptions pile up: If you make an exception “just this once,” it quickly becomes the norm.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Fix as You Go
Tracking partner sourced pipeline in Alignedup isn’t rocket science, but it does take discipline. Set a clear definition, build the process into deal creation, and keep your partner list clean. Don’t obsess over edge cases or fancy dashboards—focus on what you’ll actually use. When things break (and they will), fix them quickly and move on.
The simplest system that works is always better than a perfect one that nobody follows. Get started, see what breaks, and make it better. That’s how you’ll actually get visibility—and results—from your partner pipeline.