Partnerships in GTM 2026 (PartnerStack)

Summary:

The State of Partnerships in GTM 2026 from PartnerStack, which sells partner-ecosystem software, made with Wynter, a B2B message-testing and research platform. The report looks at how B2B SaaS companies use partners across sales, marketing and retention, how they measure partner impact, and where they plan to invest next.

The sample: 100 senior leaders from B2B SaaS companies ($50M+), surveyed through Wynter’s platform in summer 2025. They were marketing and revenue leaders, partnerships professionals and executives (C-level, EVP, VP, directors and managers). Most came from mid-market companies: 201–500 employees (47%), 501–1,000 (23%) and 1,001–5,000 (14%). The answers are self-reported, with some quoted open-text replies.

Key findings:
• 8 in 10 companies say they run a formal partner program. Respondents most often credit partners with keeping customers satisfied (74%) and speeding up deal closures (63%).
• 51% say partners take part in every sales and marketing decision, and 25% say partner insights fully guide their GTM priorities. Only 1% keep partners out of GTM entirely.
• 48% say strong alignment between partnerships and other GTM teams shortens sales cycles. Fewer report other gains: wider market reach 31%, bigger deals 23%, pipeline growth 12% and lower churn 10%.
• Partners show up across the funnel. 80% use them in strategic alliances and channel programs, and 54% in outbound prospecting and ABM.
• Attribution is still uneven. 42% use multi-touch, 31% first-touch and 19% last-touch, and the remaining 8% use other methods or don’t track at all.
• The biggest blocker to more partner revenue is misalignment between teams (37%). Next come no clear partner program or process (20%) and poor visibility into partner impact (14%).
• Asked how they would spend $100K, respondents named headcount (35%), tooling and PRMs (30%), events (21%), co-marketing and MDFs (18%) and influencers (6%).
• 69% plan to increase their investment in partnerships.
• For AI, respondents most want help with partner and account targeting (49%) and with analytics and decision support (30%). Few mention content and campaign creation (6%).

Margin notes:
This is a vendor report: PartnerStack sells partner-program technology, so it benefits when partnerships and partner tech look essential. All the data comes from 100 people describing their own experience, with no measured performance data. The report doesn’t explain how respondents were recruited, whether results were weighted, or the exact fieldwork dates. Most of the sample works at companies with 201–1,000 employees, so the findings say less about very small or very large firms.