Are They Selling, or Just Snacking on Your Brand?

Why Your Channel Is Full of Logo Collectors (And What to Do About It)

You’ve got 70 partners in your channel ecosystem. Impressive on paper. But dig into the numbers, and only a handful have actually registered a deal this quarter. Maybe fewer than five have closed anything in the last six months. Sound familiar?

This is the quiet frustration of many Chief Revenue Officers. You invest in partner kick-offs, give out MDF, run enablement sessions, and for what? For a bunch of companies that love your logo but never bring in revenue.

Channel breadth does not equal channel strength. And if you want to turn your channel into a real growth engine, you need to start calling out the difference between partners who sell, and those who just show up.

The Illusion of Scale

There’s a widely held belief that “more partners = more growth.” It’s easy to fall into. But in reality, signing more partners without clear performance criteria usually creates chaos, not scale.

According to Forrester, as much as 80% of partner revenue typically comes from just 20% of the partner base.

That means you could be pouring resources into partners who were never going to deliver in the first place.

Worse, these dormant partners drain time and focus from your internal teams. Your sales enablement leader spends hours customizing onboarding for a partner who disappears after the first lunch-and-learn. Your field team fields questions and builds joint plans for partners who never even introduce you to a customer. It’s operational drag disguised as “ecosystem.”

Logo Collectors Are Killing Your Channel Strategy

Let’s talk about the worst offenders - logo collectors. These are the partners who are quick to sign up, ask for brand guidelines, plaster your logo on their website, maybe even request co-branded content or an MDF cheque. But when it comes to building pipeline or co-selling? Silence.

They love the affiliation. They don’t love the grind of selling your product. And they’re not malicious, just misaligned. They're in it for visibility, not value creation. The red flags are usually clear: they never register deals, don’t initiate co-sell conversations, and their “dedicated” rep doesn’t show up to pipeline reviews.

Gartner research highlights that top-performing partners demonstrate 2–3x more outbound selling activity than their peers.

Activity isn’t everything, but it’s a reliable early signal of intent.

Stop Enabling Everyone Equally

One of the biggest traps CROs fall into is treating partner enablement like a marketing campaign. Broad reach. Consistent messaging. Equal support. But here’s the truth: not all partners deserve the same investment. Would you give the same coaching, content, and funding to a direct sales rep who hasn’t created pipeline in a quarter? Of course not. So why do it with partners?

Some B2B tech firms like Palo Alto have moved to a performance-based enablement model, only unlocking resources once partners meet key milestones. The impact is increases in partner-led pipeline and it works because it rewards intent, not just presence.

MDF Doesn’t Mean Commitment

Marketing Development Funds (MDF) are supposed to incentivise partner activity. But often, they fund glossy breakfast events and sponsored blog posts that never translate to leads, let alone deals. The ask here isn’t to kill MDF, but to reframe it. Treat it like an investment. Require a business case. Tie it to pipeline goals. Get agreement on how impact will be measured.

Datadog’s model is a good example. They don’t just hand out MDF. They require partners to pitch proposals tied to deal outcomes. It’s not about how slick the event looks, it’s about what enters the funnel.

What to Actually Track (Hint: It’s Not Portal Logins)

A lot of CROs fall into the trap of measuring the wrong things. Yes, training completions and portal logins can show a baseline level of engagement. But they’re not predictors of performance. Real signals include net-new deal registrations, how quickly a partner ramps from onboarding to pipeline contribution, and what percentage of deals involve actual co-sell collaboration.

This is where a Partner Performance Scorecard comes in. It’s not complicated. Just a focused way to rank partners on what matters—pipeline, velocity, engagement. Use it to guide investment decisions, not just end-of-year reviews.

It’s OK to Fire Partners

Some partners will need to go. It doesn’t mean they’re bad companies. It just means they’re not aligned with your growth strategy. Maybe they don’t sell to your ICP. Maybe they’re too distracted. Maybe they just signed up because your brand makes them look good.

Whatever the reason, it’s your job to protect focus. High-performing partner programs include offboarding as part of the rhythm. Set expectations. Share benchmarks. Give a 90-day performance window. If there’s no shift, reallocate the resources. Your top-tier partners will appreciate that you’re not wasting budget on ghost partners.

What the Best CROs Do Differently

Great CROs don’t obsess over how many partners they’ve signed. They obsess over yield. They think like portfolio managers, not recruiters. They run joint QBRs with direct and indirect teams in the same room. They create overlay roles to drive accountability. And they aren’t afraid to make hard calls to protect channel focus.

Focus Is the New Scale

If your partner slide on your company slide deck looks beautiful but your pipeline report looks bleak, it’s time for a reset. You don’t need more partners. You need better ones, and a framework to tell the difference.

Prioritise those who prioritise you. Reward action, not affiliation. And most of all, run your channel like a high-performance sales motion. Because that’s exactly what it should be.