&
Field report · 2026
Two problems, not one
What 2,191 partner leaders told us across 21 webinars — and why the number we published last year was wrong.
- There is no single biggest problem — there are two — across 21 webinars, 2,191 partner leaders put generating partner pipeline (39.7%) and recruiting the right partners (38.9%) within 17 responses of each other.
- A fifth of the room isn’t investing — 21.8% of 1,617 attendees said a partner program is not a priority. The most commercially useful number in the set, and the one nobody publishes.
- We show you the figure we got wrong — where our earlier single-figure claim that recruiting was the biggest challenge came from, why it was false, and what we changed so it can’t happen again.
Free PDF · 19 pages · co-published by Cinna Mon Consulting and CinnaLab.io · one email with the link, no sequence. The reply comes from Noa, our AI-assisted business development desk.
Get the paper
We email you the download link right away.
Check your inbox
We’ve sent the download link to your work email. Can’t wait?
Want to discuss what the findings mean for your program? Book a free 15-minute call with Cedric.
What's inside
A field report, not a vendor brochure. Built from a poll of partner leaders plus the patterns we see across the programs we design, run and host on CinnaLab.io.
— 01 —
Two problems, not one
Generating partner pipeline (39.7%) and recruiting the right partners (38.9%) finished 17 responses apart out of 2,191. Treat it as a tie — and a tie explains the failure mode we see most: programs built to solve one of the two, which then starve on the other.
— 02 —
The number we got wrong
Our earlier claim that recruiting was the single biggest challenge came from one webinar of 288 people in which recruiting placed second. We show the export, how a correct count acquired a false label, and the rule we adopted so it can’t recur.
— 03 —
A fifth aren’t going to invest
21.8% of 1,617 attendees — people who registered for a webinar about partner programs — said investing in one is not a priority. What that implies for how you qualify, and why non-investment is a different opportunity rather than a lost one.
— 04 —
Enablement, the quiet 16.6%
Sales-enabling partners never wins the poll and is most often the thing actually broken, because recruiting and pipeline have owners and enablement doesn’t. Includes the cheapest test we know for whether you have a partner channel or a referral channel.
— 05 —
What we do about it — and how the numbers were built
Stop treating partners as one bucket. Answer deal registrations in 24–48 hours and explain the rejections. Onboard fewer partners further. Instrument before you scale. Then a full method chapter: 27 webinars, 9,028 de-duplicated responses, 941 duplicate rows removed, 100 of 109 question blocks reconciled against the count Zoom printed — and a list of what we refuse to publish.
Who it's for
Founders, CROs and Heads of Partnerships at B2B SaaS vendors launching or fixing a partner program — from zero-partner founders to teams running a few dozen partners.
How it was built
Live polls run during 27 of our own partner-program webinars between March 2024 and March 2026, recomputed from the raw exports. The operating chapter is Cedric’s judgement from building these programs, and is labelled as such rather than dressed up as data. No vendor sponsorship.
Figures cited are from the 21 webinars that asked the challenge question with an identical option set (n = 2,191). Answers are self-reported by a self-selected audience, and who attends varies a lot between sessions — the founder and CEO share of respondents has ranged from 0% to 78% — so we report these as what our audience tells us, not as a market study.
Who wrote it
Cedric Le Rouzo, founder of Cinna Mon Consulting and CinnaLab.io, with 25+ years in B2B SaaS partnerships and 50+ partner programs launched.
Want to Know Where Your Program Stands?
Read the report, then score your own program against the questions behind it — the free assessment takes three minutes.