Sourced revenue is the total contract value of deals that a channel partner originated. The partner found the customer, identified the need, and created the sales opportunity. Without the partner, the deal would not exist. This is the clearest form of partner contribution to revenue.
Sourced revenue is tracked through deal registration. When a partner registers a deal and it closes, the full contract value counts as partner-sourced. The attribution is clean: the partner submitted the registration before any other engagement occurred on the account.
For most partner programs, sourced revenue represents 15 to 30 percent of total revenue. The remaining partner contribution comes through influenced revenue. The ratio varies by partner type: referral partners primarily source, while technology partners primarily influence.
Sourced revenue is the metric that most directly justifies partner program investment. It represents incremental business that the vendor's direct team would not have captured. When leadership asks whether the partner program is worth the investment, sourced revenue provides the clearest answer.
Growing sourced revenue requires investing in partner recruitment (more partners means more deal flow), partner enablement (trained partners source better-qualified opportunities), and partner incentives (commissions and deal protection that motivate partners to bring deals to you rather than to competitors). Tracking sourced revenue by partner, tier, and type helps identify which segments of the partner base are driving the most incremental business.