B2B SaaS partnerships are often celebrated as key growth levers. But when it comes to making those partnerships perform, many companies still struggle with the same question: How do we actually enable our partners?

During a recent Kiflo Q&A live sessio, we sat down with Anton Silaev, Founder and CEO at ThePartnerGuy™, to unpack this very issue. A seasoned consultant to B2B SaaS companies, Anton has helped mid-market brands achieve remarkable results, like 92% ARR growth in a year and $50K in monthly recurring revenue in under six months, by rethinking how partner programs are built and run.

Start with the Partner Journey & Then Get Personal

When asked what the first step should be in building a partner enablement framework, Anton didn’t hesitate. He pointed to something many overlook: crafting a comprehensive partner journey map.

This map goes beyond onboarding. It spans every interaction from the moment you begin recruiting a partner to the point they’re fully mature and revenue-generating. By aligning this partner journey with your customer journey, you create clarity. You see exactly where partners can add value and where they need support.

But even more important than the journey map is understanding that enablement doesn’t stop at the organization level. The real work starts when you engage with individual sellers inside your partner companies. They’re the ones closing deals. They’re the ones who need to be empowered.

Why Most Enablement Fails

Too many companies focus their enablement efforts on product training. This approach assumes that if the partner company knows how your tool works, they’ll go out and sell it. But this simply isn’t true.

Anton explains that product knowledge matters most for services partners or technical implementers. For the average referral or co-sell partner, what they really need is sales enablement including battle cards, objection-handling strategies, qualification guidance, and clarity around messaging.

In short, they don’t just need to know what your product does. They need to know how to sell it, who to sell it to, and what success looks like.

Think Like a Sales Leader, Not Just a Partner Manager

Anton encouraged partnership teams to think of themselves as external sales leaders. You’re not managing accounts; you’re building and guiding a distributed sales force.

This means setting clear expectations. How many accounts should a partner seller work per quarter? What does good outreach look like? What activities need to happen weekly or monthly to generate pipeline?

You can’t just wait for partners to show results. You need to help individual reps build their own revenue roadmaps and then coach them through execution.

In Crowded Ecosystems, Be the Easiest to Work With

Many attendees wanted to know how to stand out in saturated partner ecosystems. Anton’s answer was refreshingly simple: don’t try to win over the entire sales team. Start with one or two champions.

Find reps who are willing to engage. Help them win. Give them the tools, the messaging, the support. When they start to succeed, others will notice. This creates internal FOMO among partner sellers and draws more of them into your orbit.

This person-first approach works especially well when your partner manager is proactive, but the partner’s sales org is massive and spread across regions or product lines. Instead of boiling the ocean, you build trust one seller at a time.

Measure What Actually Drives Revenue

While revenue remains the North Star, Anton made it clear that leading indicators are where you find real insight. Traditional metrics like total leads or partner count don’t show the full picture.

Instead, track how many individual sellers are active within each partner. Measure how many accounts they’re engaging. Track the conversion rates from outreach to meetings and deals. And regularly assess the relationship strength not just at the company level, but with each champion inside the partner.

Partner managers should focus on these activity-based metrics, while executives may still care most about the revenue outcomes. You need both sets of data to manage effectively and report with impact.

Enablement Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All

When asked how to tailor enablement for different partner types, Anton stressed the importance of understanding your partner’s maturity, business model, and capabilities.

Newer partners may need more guidance and structured training. Mature partners may want co-branded campaigns or joint pipeline reviews. The key is to match your enablement resources to the partner’s tier, persona, and sales readiness.

Anton also encouraged teams to build points-based programs to reward desired behaviors, such as completing training, submitting leads, or co-hosting events. This keeps engagement high, even when revenue takes time to ramp up.

What’s Next for PRM and Enablement Tech?

Looking ahead, Anton sees a clear trend: PRM platforms need to do more than house content. They need to drive performance.

He highlighted several opportunities for innovation:

Partner leaders need better modeling tools to forecast partner-driven revenue. Tools should track the productivity of individual sellers, not just partner-level performance. Real-time dashboards should sync seamlessly with CRMs to avoid siloed reporting. And, perhaps most critically, partner teams need tools that help them manage partner reps like a sales team complete with activities, targets, and accountability.

PRMs that embrace these capabilities won’t just enable partners. They’ll enable people. And that’s where real growth comes from.

Conclusion: Make Enablement Human Again

Anton wrapped up the session with a message that hits at the heart of Kiflo’s mission: Enablement works when it’s personal. When you go beyond checklists and slide decks and start coaching real people with real goals.

That’s how you build partnerships that don’t just exist on paper—but actually deliver revenue.

Want to learn more details? Watch the full recording of the Q&A live session with Anton and dive deeper into enabling your future revenue leaders.