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HubSpot Partner Management: 7 Best Practices For 2026
Partner-led growth depends on empowering partners to work alongside direct sales to drive customer acquisition and revenue — and tight integration between your CRM and partner workflows is essential to get this right.
This seamless integration creates a unified view of leads and opportunities, allowing both internal teams and partners to collaborate seamlessly and avoid duplicating their efforts.
Furthermore, integrated systems enable accurate deal registration, attribution, and tracking, which is critical for partner incentives and performance insights.
With synced workflows, partners can register deals directly, co-sell with your team, and stay aligned through shared timelines and updates.
Additionally, CRM integration enables automated notifications, streamlined onboarding, and enhanced forecasting (by including partner pipeline in revenue projections).
The key benefits of tightly integrating your CRM and partner workflows?
Less friction, shorter sales cycles, and better partner trust.
Ultimately, it allows you to scale your partner ecosystem efficiently while maintaining transparency, accountability, and data-driven decision-making — all of which are vital to a successful partner-led growth strategy.
This is why companies are increasingly shifting from standalone PRM portals to CRM-first experiences like Introw — which integrates with popular CRMs, including HubSpot — to streamline their partner collaboration.
This approach meets partners where they work and aligns them more closely with internal sales processes.
Ready to scale your partner management this year?
⬇️ In this guide, we'll cover why HubSpot is a highly effective platform for partner management and take you through seven must-have best practices for scaling in 2026.
Can You Manage Partners in HubSpot? (Spoiler: Yes — with the Right Setup)
HubSpot doesn't have native PRM, but it offers several features that can be useful for SaaS partner management projects.
For example, the platform supports custom objects, labels, and workflows.
All of these elements are super useful for companies running small partner management projects.
The problem arises when you want to scale.
Indeed, most partner programs will quickly outgrow manual tagging and disconnected forms.
Once you get serious about your partner program, you need a PRM that is tailor-made for managing and scaling these schemes.
At the same time, you don't want to silo your partner management efforts from your CRM — this would create data disconnects, limiting visibility into partner-driven deals and slowing collaboration.
The solution?
Invest in tightly CRM-integrated PRM tools like Introw.
This way, you fill the PRM gap natively inside HubSpot and give your partnerships the best possible chance of flourishing.
Why HubSpot Is a Strong Foundation for Partner Management
Many SaaS teams already rely on HubSpot as their central source of truth for customers, deals, and marketing.
But increasingly, partner managers are realizing HubSpot can also be a superb command center for their partner programs — as long as they configure the platform in the right way.
Here's why HubSpot makes sense as a foundation for partner management in 2026:
- Unified CRM: HubSpot consolidates marketing, sales, and service data — giving RevOps and partner teams shared visibility
- Custom Properties & Objects: You can track partner types, partner-sourced deals, referrals, and more — without duct-taping separate systems
- Automation: Workflows make it easy to route leads, assign reps, or trigger partner engagement emails
- Integrations: Certified apps like Introw turn HubSpot into a fully featured PRM, removing the need for standalone portals or duplicate tracking
- No-Code Setup: You can scale your partner ops without custom dev work or heavy training
In short, if HubSpot is already your CRM, there's no reason to manage your partner program outside of it.
Instead, plug in a PRM like Introw, and you'll gain a partner-ready ecosystem inside your CRM — one that works for RevOps, Sales, and Partner Managers alike.
7 Must-Have HubSpot Partner Management Practices for 2026
Ready to scale your partner program with Hubspot?
Here are seven vital HubSpot partner management practices you should be following for success in 2026.
1. Automate Partner Onboarding with Forms + CRM Sync
This one will save you a lot of time!
Did you know you can use Introw to push form data (e.g. "Become a Partner") directly into HubSpot?
First, connect Introw to HubSpot to enable seamless data synchronization.
This integration allows form submissions, such as partner applications, to be pushed directly into HubSpot.
You can then use HubSpot's automation tools to trigger actions upon form submission.
For instance, automatically create a contact or company record, assign tasks, or send follow-up emails.
2. Enable Easy Deal & Lead Registration (No HubSpot Login Needed)
Introw allows for off-portal collaboration, which makes life much easier for your partners.
Indeed, your partners don't even need to log in to HubSpot in order to submit deals or register leads.
Instead, they can submit deals via a form, Slack or email.
The details are then auto-mapped to HubSpot, which acts as your single source of truth.
3. Collaborate on Deals Inside HubSpot with CRM Cards
Using CRM cards from Introw, teams can collaborate on partner-sourced deals directly inside HubSpot.
These embedded cards show deal details, partner info, and updates in real-time — without switching tools.
This means your partner's comments are automatically turned into CRM notes
Real-time sync keeps the deal's status, details, and updates aligned with your HubSpot pipeline, enabling smooth, in-CRM collaboration.
This streamlines communication, boosts visibility and keeps sales and partner teams aligned throughout the deal cycle.
4. Track Partner Performance in Real-Time
The success of your partner strategy hinges on data analysis.
Tracking partner performance in real-time is crucial to help you identify top performers, spot bottlenecks, and optimize your partner strategy as deals progress.
Indeed, without a sophisticated tracking and data analysis system, you're just guessing at what works and hoping you're right.
But with the right tools in your arsenal, you unlock faster decision-making, more accurate forecasting, and effective incentives — driving accountability, growth, and stronger partner relationships across your ecosystem.
Fortunately, Introw and HubSpot work together to make real-time data analysis easy.
Introw generates dashboards based on HubSpot data.
Set up dashboards based on metrics that speak to your goals — for example, revenue, activity, pipeline, or deal data.
5. Engage Partners Off-Portal via Email & Slack
One of Introw's most partner-friendly features is that it allows you to engage your partners off-portal via email and Slack.
This means partners don't need to log into their portal to communicate or collaborate with you.
Instead, they receive real-time notifications, can comment on deals, and stay in the loop — all off-portal — making collaboration faster, easier, and more integrated into their daily workflows.
6. Customize Experiences by Partner Type
In 2026, personalization is crucial when it comes to engaging your partners.
Deliver an irrelevant or jarring experience, and partners could lose trust in your offering and become more reluctant to recommend you.
Introw supports dynamic views and objects in HubSpot, which allows you to customize partner experiences by type.
For example, you can tailor onboarding flows, forms, content, and deal stages for different partner types, like partner submitted referrals, a successful reseller channel, or MSPs.
Simply segment partners within HubSpot and Introw, then deliver relevant experiences and workflows that match their role, ensuring higher engagement and more effective collaboration across partner types.
7. Automate Commission Tracking & Payouts
Connect Introw with your HubSpot CRM to automate commission tracking and payouts.
As deals close, Introw tracks which partner influenced each one, calculates commissions based on preset rules and logs the data.
You can then use CRM triggers to automate payout workflows or give partners visibility over their commissions.
This ensures accuracy, transparency, and timely rewards.
Why Introw Is the Best HubSpot PRM Integration for 2026
Introw stands out in 2026 as the ultimate PRM integration for HubSpot, delivering unmatched efficiency, partner experiences, and growth capabilities.
Here's why it's the best partner relationship management tool integration with HubSpot:
- HubSpot Certified App: Introw is trusted and verified by HubSpot, ensuring a smooth, secure integration.
- Personalized partner portals created in minutes: Launch clean, branded portals for each partner quickly — no technical setup required.
- Keeps HubSpot as the single source of truth: All partner data, leads, and deal activity sync directly into HubSpot, eliminating the need to manage a separate PRM system.
- No partner logins required: Partners can view, register, and collaborate on deals via shared links — no friction, forgotten passwords, or onboarding headaches.
- Real-time deal + engagement sync: Instantly reflects partner-submitted leads and activity in HubSpot, giving your sales team live visibility.
- GDPR-ready, ISO27001 and SOC2 certified: Designed with enterprise-level security and global compliance in mind.
- Works across all HubSpot plans (Sales, Service, CRM): Fully compatible with the entire HubSpot suite, so you can support partner workflows wherever your teams operate.
🚀 Launch Your HubSpot Partner Portal in Minutes — Book a Demo!
Conclusion
If HubSpot is already your CRM, why not make it your partner system too?
With Introw, you can scale partner programs without silos, clunky portals, or extra logins.
Save RevOps time, align with Sales, and drive more revenue from your ecosystem.
✅ Ready to simplify partner management in HubSpot? Get a personalized demo
Introw Raises $3M to build the future of B2B partnerships
The Ghent-based technology startup Introw, which is already helping 100+ B2B companies to boost sales through partners, has raised $3 million in a new funding round led by Visionaries Club and with the continued support from PitchDrive. Since its launch in 2023, Introw’s AI-powered partner platform has facilitated tens of thousands of partner interactions and helped clients generate millions in additional pipeline.
The company had previously raised €1 million from Pitchdrive and angel investors including Pieterjan Bouten (Ex-Showpad) and Ewout Meyns (Ex-HubSpot).
From Local Studio to International Growth
Founders Andreas Geamanu (CEO), Laurens Lavaert (CTO), and Simon Van Den Hende (Head of AI) started Introw in early 2023, originally incubated by StarApps, the venture studio of serial entrepreneurs Lorenz Bogaert & Nicolas Van Eenaeme, also known as the “Netlog mafia.”
2025 has been a breakthrough year for Introw: the team grew from 4 to 15 people, and revenue quadrupled.
AI-Driven Partner Enablement
Buyers now expect highly personalized experiences, yet outreach fatigue and tighter privacy regulations have made it harder for direct sales teams to cut through the noise. That’s why an increasing number of companies are turning to partner sales (indirect sales) as these already have relationships, credibility, and access to customers.
Introw’s AI-powered partner portal enables companies to onboard, train, and activate partners in minutes. Unlike legacy systems that take months to deploy, Introw connects instantly to your CRM, giving partners access to customer data, and sales tools to close more deals.
“Each day a partner lacks the right information, means lost revenue. Where other partner portals take four to six months to launch, we do it in minutes.” says CEO Andreas Geamanu.
Visionaries Club Backs a Fast-Growing Success Story
Visionaries Club, which previously invested in tech companies such as Lovable, n8n, and the Belgian Accountable (recently acquired by Visma), sees huge potential in Introw.
Partnerships drive a huge share of global B2B revenue, yet most teams still manage them with spreadsheets and outdated tools. Introw is changing that with a platform built for speed and simplicity.” said Robert Jäckle, Partner at Visionaries Club. “The team is creating the first truly intelligent partner system, turning partnerships from a ‘nice-to-have’ into a real growth engine. We’re backing them because they move fast and have the ambition to own this category
Becoming the Market Leader in Partner Enablement
A large share of Introw’s revenue already comes from the US, where the company is seeing accelerating traction. With this new funding, Introw is scaling its sales and marketing presence and doubling down on its AI-first vision.
The mission is clear: To become the global leader in AI-driven partner enablement and redefine how companies grow through partners.
About Introw
Founded in 2023 and based in Ghent, Introw is redefining how companies sell through partners. The platform empowers B2B organizations to onboard, train, and enable their partners globally through an AI-powered partner portal.
By deeply integrating with a company’s CRM, Introw enables seamless collaboration between internal sales teams and external partners, ensuring everyone has access to the right data, context, and tools to close deals faster.
Already used by 100+ companies across more than 30 countries such as Factorial, Parloa & Coder, Introw helps organizations transform partnerships into a scalable revenue engine.
About Visionaries Club
Visionaries Club is a leading European early-stage VC with offices in London and Berlin, focusing on B2B with its flagship seed and early-growth funds, alongside its industrial deeptech fund, Visionaries Tomorrow. Visionaries unites the strongest network of successful tech founders together with the family entrepreneurs behind global industrial businesses in a single LP community to supercharge the next generation of category-defining software and AI giants. It counts Personio, Lovable, Miro, Pigment, Accountable, n8n, Tacto, Apron, Choco and Xentral among its portfolio companies.
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How Data is Transforming Partnerships
The world of partnerships is evolving—and for the better! Data has become the cornerstone of modern partnership management, transforming how partner managers make decisions, build relationships, and drive growth. Today’s partner managers don’t just maintain connections—they leverage data to uncover insights, optimise processes, and unlock new opportunities. When I started, I was navigating spreadsheets and tracking relationships through CRMs like Pipedrive and HubSpot. Today, the focus is on integrating those systems into a single source of truth, creating transparent, frictionless experiences for partners that foster long-term success.
This shift is a game-changer for managing and scaling partnerships. I’m Eva Fayemi, Co-Founder & CEO of Bond Agency, and I’m excited to share how data is reshaping partnership management.
1. Companies start with CRM Data
For most companies, CRM systems are the starting point for managing partnerships. These systems provide key data on sales interactions and performance, but integrating partner-sourced data can be a challenge. While it's better than nothing, simply tracking data isn't enough—it's crucial to define a partnership strategy first.
At Bond Agency, we help clients identify their partnership goals and align them with broader business objectives before optimising their CRM or introducing tools like Introw. A common challenge we see is companies not tracking which partnerships contribute most to the bottom line. We guide them in mapping partner journeys, attributing engagement, and tracking conversions in the CRM. This clarity leads to improved decision-making, better tracking, and growth.
Protip: Ensure your sales team is aligned on reporting partner-sourced leads. Create internal documentation and calls to keep everyone on the same page for seamless reporting across teams.
2. Increasing Revenue and Engagement
Growing revenue and boosting partner engagement are top priorities, but these goals can be time-consuming and difficult to track. Modern partner managers balance engagement and tracking more efficiently through technology, automating key processes and logging communication touchpoints with partners.
For example, one of our clients used to spend hours tracking partner engagement manually. After integrating their CRM with automation tools, they gained a dynamic, real-time view of partner contributions. Automated alerts and insights allowed their team to respond quickly, increasing partner engagement and revenue from key accounts.
Protip: Track whether partners open onboarding materials like sales brochures or marketing resources. This helps identify where additional support is needed for smoother, more effective onboarding.
3. More Transparency Through Data Means Better Collaboration
A common issue partners face is a lack of transparency. Without it, trust erodes, and partnerships can’t thrive. Tools like Introw are changing this dynamic by providing greater transparency. It connects CRM data with partnership management, offering a platform that tracks key metrics, aligns partners on pipeline progress, provides content, and monitors engagement.
This transparency empowers partner managers to track the entire partnership ecosystem while giving partners visibility into their performance. When everyone is aligned with clear data, collaboration becomes more efficient and impactful.
The future of partnership management is data-driven. With tools like Introw, partner managers can unlock new insights, improve collaboration, and drive faster, more efficient growth. Companies that embrace this will lead the next era of partnership management.
About Bond Agency: Since 2020, Bond Agency has been helping B2B tech and SaaS startups accelerate growth through strategic partnerships. We specialise in strategy development, execution, and providing fractional partner teams, focusing on scaling businesses in the EMEA and USA. With a diverse network of affiliates, tech integrations, and B2B influencers, we’ve delivered impactful results across industries including hospitality tech (e.g., Unicorn Mews), MarTech (e.g., Hotjar), and SaaS (e.g., Revenue Hero).
Join the conversation in our Slack community, The Nearbound Club, where tech founders and partnership leaders drive innovation in the partnerships space.
Visit: www.bond-agency.io
The 3 ways to manage your partners in HubSpot and attribute revenue
We’ve seen that there are 3 potential ways to manage your partners within HubSpot: custom properties, company association & custom object association. Before implementing a partner portal like Introw we advise to map your partners in your HubSpot.
In this blogpost we’re going to focus on revenue attribution so we’re looking at the object “Deal” in HubSpot. If you also want to attribute contacts, leads, companies,… to partners, you can use the same approach.
Custom properties
How does it work?
- Create a custom deal property
- Step 1: Go to settings —> data management —> properties
- Step 2: Create property:
- Object type: Deal
- Group: Deal information
- Label: This is up to you to decide, we've gone for "Partner". Click "Next"
- Field type: If you’re sometimes working with multiple partners on a deal, we advise going for “Multiple checkboxes.” If there is always a maximum of one partner per deal, go for “Dropdown select.”
- Add your custom property to your view or your teams view (this will allow you to easily select the right partners from the left side panel)
- Attribute the right partner(s) to the right deals
What are the pros?
✅ Easy and fast set-up
✅ Possible with all HubSpot plans
✅ Easy to create revenue reports
What are the cons?
❌ Every sales person should have this custom property in their view
❌ Not possible to navigate directly to the partner company
Company association (with association label)
How does it work?
- Create a custom association label between deal and company
- Step 1: Go to settings —> data management —> objects —> deals —> associations
- Step 2: Create association label:
- Objects you’re associating: Deals-to-companies
- How many labels do you need? A single label
- Create one called: partner sourced (for deals that partners have sourced)
- 💡 Optional: You can create another label called: partner influenced (for deals that partners have influenced)
- Associate the partner company to a deal and select the label “partner sourced” (or partner influenced)
- You can do this by associating an (additional) company to the deal; add company
What are the pros?
✅ Easy and fast set-up
✅ Scalable
What are the cons?
❌ Not possible with all HubSpot plans
❌ Not easy to report on in HubSpot
Custom object association
How does it work?
- Create a custom object
- Step 1: Go to settings —> data management —> objects —> custom objects
- Step 2: Create custom object:
- Object name - singular: “Partner”
- Object name - plural: “Partner”
- Primary display property: “Partner Name”
- Property type: Single-line text
- Associate the right company object to the partner object in order to have all the right data connected
- Associate the partner object to a deal
💡 Optional: Create association labels on this custom object to differentiate between for example partner influenced and partner sourced
What are the pros?
✅ Good for organisations with larger amounts of partners
✅ Scalable
What are the cons?
❌ Not possible with all HubSpot plans
❌ Not so easy
Conclusion
To wrap up, there are 3 ways to manage your partners in HubSpot: via custom properties, via company association and via a custom object.
Introw supports all methods :).
What is Introw?
Working with resellers, referral partners, distributors,...? Keep on reading! Introw is a partner relationship management (PRM) platform allowing you to collaborate with your B2B partners in shared spaces integrated with HubSpot.
One space to be aligned on pipeline, enable partners with content and track engagement.
Partnership data lives in the CRM, so we’re leveraging that to the fullest with our native and 1-click HubSpot and Salesforce integration.
With that, we’re not only elevating your B2B partnership experience, we’re elevating the experience of your entire partnership team.
Partner Deals Have a 32% bigger deal size and 2.8X higher win rate
Introw conducted a research on 2024 comparing the partner-attributed deals with non partner attributed deals.
In today's hyper-competitive business landscape, partnerships are becoming increasingly vital for driving revenue growth and scaling operations. Recent research on 2024 deals reveals compelling insights into the impact of partner-attributed deals compared to non-partner deals, shedding light on why partnerships are more crucial than ever.
Key Findings from Our Research
Introw detected that partner-attributed deals significantly outperform direct sales (non-partner) deals in two critical areas:
- Higher Deal Size: Partner-attributed deals boast an average deal size that is 32% higher compared to non-partner deals.
- Higher Win Rate: The win rate for partner-attributed deals is 2.8 times higher than for non-partner deals.
Interestingly, our research showed no significant difference in the sales cycle length between partner and non-partner deals.
What These Numbers Mean for Your Business
These findings underline a fundamental truth: partner ecosystems are revenue multipliers. Here's why:
- Increased Credibility: Partners bring an added layer of trust and credibility to the sales process, which can be crucial in closing larger deals. Customers are more likely to trust recommendations from partners they already have a relationship with.
- Access to New Markets: Partners can open doors to new opportunities and markets that may have been difficult to penetrate independently.
- Improved Win Rates: With a win rate that is nearly three times higher for partner-attributed deals, it's clear that partnerships are a critical factor in improving sales outcomes.
How to Leverage Partners for Maximum Impact
Based on our findings, here are three actionable steps your business can take to maximize the impact of partner-attributed deals:
- Invest in Partner Enablement: Equip your partners with the right tools and resources to succeed. This includes training, co-marketing initiatives, and providing them with access to your sales collateral.
- Leverage Partner Relationship Management (PRM) Software: Platforms like Introw can help streamline partner collaboration, track deal attribution, and measure partner performance.
- Align Incentives: Ensure your partners are motivated to bring deals to the table by offering competitive incentives and fostering a mutually beneficial relationship.
Conclusion
The numbers don’t lie: Partner-attributed deals are larger, more successful, and just as fast to close. Companies that prioritize building and nurturing their partner ecosystems stand to gain a significant competitive advantage.
If you want to see similar results in 2025, now is the time to invest in your partner strategy. Platforms like Introw can help you get there by simplifying the way you collaborate with partners and driving better outcomes. Schedule a demo here or get started for free.
What is Introw?
Introw unlocks partner revenue by eliminating the friction of partner collaboration. Companies working with resellers, referral partners, distributors, or implementation partners use Introw to seamlessly share sales materials, collaborate on customer data, and drive partner engagement—all integrated with their CRM.