Trends in Partner Selling: Digesting Salesforce’s 2024 Report

In a double-anonymous survey conducted from March 8 through April 18, 2024, Salesforce took a closer look at the state of partnership and selling in light of the AI boom. The result is an informative report titled: Trends in Partner Selling. You can access the report here.

Today, partners aren’t just in the game of delivering products: they are creating solutions and becoming more and more central to revenue teams. 

Here’s a look at everything you need to know.

Trends in Partner Selling for 2024

• 9 in 10 sales leaders leverage partners 
• 84% of sales leaders say partnerships are making a bigger impact than the year before 
• 73% of sales teams see major or moderate ROI impact from partner selling
• 91% say partner tools are effective but need refinement 
• 81% of sales teams are using AI
• 86% of partner reps say they have some understanding of using AI

Benefits of AI in sales and partnerships

As alliance managers become centers of growth for revenue organizations, they are thinking more about the benefits of AI and data analytics in their approach. 

According to the survey results, new AI tools are improving partnership and sales strategies across the board:

• 71% benefited from real-time selling guidance 
• 67% benefited from enablement customized for individual reps
• 59% benefited from task reminders
• 47% benefited from call coaching

Top AI benefits for partners include:

• Understanding of the competition
• Prioritization of leads
• Visibility into sales rep activity, such as summarizing discovery calls
• Sales forecasting accuracy
• Prospect / customer communication, including personalization

Top advantages of partnerships in 2024

• Grow revenue with less upfront investment 
• Carry out sales strategies without headcount 
• Expanding into new region, new market, or scaling