Channel Call

For Microsoft Partners, the Focus Is Performance

It's one thing to be productive, but if your productivity comes at a high cost, you lose. Therefore, it's important to be efficient, too.

Last month I started discussing metrics and the importance of measuring your channel. Specifically, I narrowed the focus to a few sales and marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) outside of the norm. This month, I'll look at a few more specialized KPIs.

Expanded Categories
While the bulk of the KPIs my team has developed fall into the sales and marketing bucket, our team expanded into other categories for measurement. For instance, we took a look at KPIs within the productivity, efficiency and enablement categories as they relate to the channel.

These areas may sound familiar to you, because earlier this year I wrote a series of columns on the optimal "gears" within a channel. Well, this is a way to measure those gears.

Productivity
Some productivity KPIs already exist within the sales category, but you need to get very granular and break some KPIs out into different categories. For instance, one of the KPIs within productivity is Average Revenue Per Reseller. Wait, isn't that a sales indicator?

It is and it isn't. This really is an indicator of productivity. If your average revenue steadily grows month over month, then you know that there exists systems and processes in place to produce consistent and predictable revenue.

The same goes for Average Growth Per Reseller. If growth rates maintain a positive trend, then you know production is OK. The reverse holds true, too. If growth rates plateau or decline, something in the production chain must be fixed.

With Average Sales Per Reseller Per Month, we naturally think "sales indicator." Look at this from a trending perspective, however, and you start to shift your thoughts to productivity.

Efficiency
It's one thing to be productive, but if your productivity comes at a high cost, you lose -- therefore it's important to also be efficient.

For instance, take a look at your Revenue to Expense Ratio on Channel Deals. That is, create a KPI specific to this and start tracking it. What will happen is that you'll start to really pay attention to the expenses on each deal, making your team become as efficient as possible in the process.

Enablement
Number of Resellers Enabled on Non-Performing Products vs. Total Number of Resellers Enabled. It's a long KPI name for a really interesting metric.

This ties directly into sales and will help the vendor determine good cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. If a product is not selling as much as it should and the number of resellers enabled on that product is low, it's a fairly simple correlation.

However, you'd be amazed at how many vendors simply don't track this information.

Number of Deals by Solution Selling Reps vs. Non-Solution Selling Reps. This KPI goes right to the core of training and will help you draw a correlation to the training needs of your sales team. Also, it lets you easily justify investing in training if the numbers warrant the investment.

Performance
The entire reason for developing KPIs exists with the middle word of that phrase: performance. The three categories listed here -- productivity, efficiency and enablement -- are critical gears in increasing the performance of your company.

Track these areas well, derive meaningful insight and watch your company thrive.

Next Time: The Last Mile for Metrics

About the Author

Keith Lubner is Chief Business Strategist at Sales Gravy, the sales acceleration company, and managing partner of C3 Channel, a global consulting organization focused on channel strategy, design, enablement, outsourcing and training for growing companies. For more information about Keith, visit www.c3channel.com, www.channeleq.co or www.salesgravy.com.

Featured

  • Microsoft Offers Support Extensions for Exchange 2016 and 2019

    Microsoft has introduced a paid Extended Security Update (ESU) program for on-premises Exchange Server 2016 and 2019, offering a crucial safety cushion as both versions near their Oct. 14, 2025 end-of-support date.

  • An image of planes flying around a globe

    2025 Microsoft Conference Calendar: For Partners, IT Pros and Developers

    Here's your guide to all the IT training sessions, partner meet-ups and annual Microsoft conferences you won't want to miss.

  • Notebook

    Microsoft Centers AI, Security and Partner Dogfooding at MCAPS

    Microsoft's second annual MCAPS for Partners event took place Tuesday, delivering a volley of updates and directives for its partners for fiscal 2026.

  • Microsoft Layoffs: AI Is the Obvious Elephant in the Room

    As Microsoft doubles down on an $80 billion bet on AI this fiscal year, its workforce reductions are drawing scrutiny over whether AI's ascent is quietly reshaping its human capital strategy, even as official messaging avoids drawing a direct line.