Partnerships Glossary
Your guide to partner program terminology and concepts. Clear definitions and explanations for all the key terms you need to know.
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What is Accelerator Program? Think of an accelerator program as a boot camp for your best partners. It's a short, intensive program designed to help them grow their business quickly. Partners get access to valuable mentorship, training, and networking opportunities that they might not find otherwis
What is Affiliate? An affiliate is someone who earns money by promoting another company's product or service. They could be a blogger, a social media influencer, or even a larger company. They use their own platform to talk about a product and share a special link. If someone clicks that link and m
What is an Affiliate Link? An affiliate link is a unique URL that tracks who sent a new customer to a website. Every affiliate gets their own special link that has their ID embedded in it. When someone clicks it, a small file called a cookie is stored on their browser. If they end up buying somethi
Affiliate marketing is a simple but powerful idea: you pay people to help you sell your stuff. A business partners with affiliates (promoters) who spread the word about their products. In return, the business pays them a commission for every sale, lead, or click they generate. It's a very popular st
What is an alliance? An alliance is often called a strategic alliance, is a formal relationship where two or more companies unite to pursue a common goal, yet each remains an independent entity. It is not a merger or acquisition, but a collaborative partnership designed to leverage the combined str
What is Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)? ARR is a key metric for any subscription-based company, like a SaaS business. It represents the total amount of predictable, recurring revenue a company expects to make in a year. It’s calculated by taking the Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and multiplying i
What is an Application Programming Interface (API)? An API is like a translator that allows different software programs to talk to each other. Instead of having to build a connection from scratch, developers can use an API to easily integrate two systems. For example, an API can connect your PRM sy
What is an Attribution? Attribution is all about giving credit where credit is due. In sales and marketing, it’s the process of figuring out which marketing effort or partner led to a sale. Did the customer buy because of the first blog post they read, or the final ad they clicked? Attribution mode
What is an Authorised Partner? An authorised partner is a person or company that has earned an official stamp of approval from a vendor. To get this status, they usually have to complete specific training, meet sales goals, or prove their technical skills. Being "authorised" means the vendor trusts
What is B2B (Business-to-Business)? B2B is a straightforward concept: it’s when businesses sell products or services to other businesses. Think of a software company selling a CRM to another company, or an office supply store selling desks to a new startup. B2B sales are often more complex than sel
What is Benchmarking? Benchmarking is simply the process of learning from the best. It involves looking at what top-performing companies in your industry are doing and comparing your own results to theirs. The goal is to identify what they're doing well and find areas where you can improve. In a p
What is Brand Advocate? A brand advocate is a true fan. They are a customer, partner, or employee who loves a brand so much that they promote it for free. They write glowing reviews, tell their friends about their great experiences, and share positive comments on social media—all because they genui
What is Brand Ambassador? A brand ambassador is different from a brand advocate because they are paid to represent a brand. They are the official face of the company, chosen to connect with a specific audience. This could be a celebrity, an industry expert, or a social media influencer. They have
What is Business Development? Business development is all about creating long-term growth for a company. It goes beyond day-to-day sales and focuses on the bigger picture. People in business development are always looking for new opportunities, whether that’s finding new markets to enter, exploring
What is Business Development Representative (BDR)? A Business Development Representative, or BDR, is the icebreaker of the sales team. Their main job is to find and qualify potential new customers. They do the initial outreach, like cold calling and emailing, to start conversations and see if there
What is Channel? A channel is simply a path to your customers. It’s the route your products or services take to get from you to the end user. A company can have multiple channels. A "direct channel" means you sell straight to your customers, like through your website. An "indirect channel" means y
What is Channel Conflict? Channel conflict is what happens when your partners end up competing against each other, or even against your own direct sales team. For example, if a partner and your internal salesperson are both trying to sell to the same customer, that’s conflict. This can create tensi
What is Channel Partner? A channel partner is a company you team up with to sell your products or services. Instead of hiring a massive sales team to cover the globe, you can work with channel partners who already have a presence in different markets or industries. These partners can be resellers,
What is Channel Sales? Channel sales is the strategy of selling your products through third-party partners instead of selling directly to customers. It’s a powerful way to expand your market reach without dramatically increasing your internal headcount. Your partners handle the selling, and you sup
What is Co-branding? Co-branding is a strategic marketing alliance in which two or more established brands collaborate on a jointly developed product, service, or promotional campaign. The primary objective of this practice is to leverage the market strength, brand equity, and customer base of all
What is Co-marketing? Co-marketing is a partnership where two companies join forces to promote each other's products or services. They might create a joint webinar, write an ebook together, or co-host an event. Unlike co-branding, they aren't creating a new product; they're just sharing marketing e
What is Co-selling? Co-selling is a true team effort. It’s when sales teams from two different partner companies work together to close a deal with a specific customer. Each team brings their own expertise and customer relationships to the table. For example, a software company might co-sell with a
What is Commission? A commission is the payment a partner receives for helping to make a sale. It's the financial incentive at the heart of most performance-based partnerships, like affiliate or reseller programs. The commission is usually a percentage of the sale amount, but it can also be a flat
What is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)? Customer Acquisition Cost, or CAC, is the total amount of money a business spends to get a new customer. To calculate it, you add up all your sales and marketing costs over a certain period and divide that by the number of new customers you gained in that sa
