Some stats I noticed over on PartnerHacker. Quoting.
23% of B2B SaaS is sold through partners.
For B2B licensed software, a whopping 64% is sold through partners. Think agencies, consultants, or other companies resell it to the end user. This relationship is the main reason 80% of the B2B software market is still licensed software, not SaaS.
Why do we care?
PartnerHacker’s thesis in this article is that the requirement to enable this transaction on behalf of customers – and, conveniently, there is a solution to deliver on this.
I’ll offer this is why distribution is getting so involved in SaaS, and new distributors have appeared to solve this problem.
We care because the complexity is there for the customer, and there is opportunity in that complexity. I’m less convinced it’s about the magic partner portal being discussed, although cede this area of billing and relationship management is the space.
And I’ll offer one other reason to care. Most new businesses will want the benefits of SaaS, and if the partnership space doesn’t solve it, the market may start to bypass it. May… but certainly could.