When Smartsheet announced its new Aligned Partner Program last month, it immediately stood out. It had all the core building blocks you’d expect in a modern, scalable ecosystem motion: clear economics, strong focus on customer success, operational rigor, and an ambitious globalization strategy. It felt like a new “gold standard” for how SaaS companies can design partner programs that  drive revenue and adoption vs. looking good on paper.

Smartsheet is also one of the most widely used work management platforms out there, and it’s a product many of us already love. I’ve personally used it to ensure smooth delivery and execution on so many launches. But most of us only see the product side. This was a chance to look under the hood of how they design their partner experience and how they set partners up for success.

So I reached out to Eva Schönleitner, VP, Worldwide Partnerships at Smartsheet, to hear directly from her how they approached the redesign, what changed for partners in practice, how they’re using new tools, and what lessons other partner leaders can borrow when they’re revamping their own programs.

My hope is that this conversation gives partner leaders fresh ideas and inspiration they can bring back into their own ecosystems.

Could you share some context and background about Smartsheet and the recent changes at the company?

Schönleitner explained that Smartsheet has approximately 3,000 employees, over a billion dollars in revenue, and 123,000 customers, including about 85% of the Fortune 500s. The company was formerly public, and in February, it was taken private by private equity, initiating a "very high new growth trajectory".

This shift led to several new leadership changes, including new board appointments, a new CEO, and other leaders like Schönleitner, aiming to move the company to the next level. Recent announcements covered product and strategy, particularly moving towards the "intelligent work management platform" vision.

The changes to the Aligned Partner Program are part of a broader globalization effort, as the Seattle-based company shifts from a historically US-centric model toward a more global, world-centric go-to-market approach.

What is the company’s globalization strategy, and how is the partner program being aligned to support it?

Schönleitner highlighted that the company is pursuing an aggressive globalization strategy to achieve a significant revenue impact in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. She noted that the partner program needed modifications to ensure the rules of engagement were smooth and enabling for partners in these areas, which led to the recent announcements.

The company already has a presence overseas, with the European headquarters in the UK, and a subsidiary in Germany. From a sales perspective in Asia, they are based out of Australia, with a large subsidiary in Japan and a subsidiary in India, plus a presence in other Asian countries. The goal is to "really lean in" and shift the revenue mix to Europe and Asia.

How are you addressing the needs of different partner types and driving future growth through the partner ecosystem?

Schönleitner explained that while looking at existing partners, the company recognized the need for different types of partners for future growth, especially in new regions, requiring increased coverage and depth in all types of partners.

To address differing needs, they added elements, such as the "global partner badge," which is necessary as they are growing global partners and want to view requirements globally rather than by country. Additionally, introducing a formal technology partner program to deepen existing relationships and foster new relationships with the developer and ISV community.

What did you hear from partners on your listening tour, and what key changes did you make to the partner program as a result?

Schönleitner conducted a road tour in the US, Europe, and Asia to listen to existing partners and identify core issues. One fundamental change involved increasing visibility for partners regarding customer adoption through the implementation of a tool called Gainsight.

This tool provides partners with insights on customer usage, challenges, and support cases, offering a "green, yellow, red dashboard" view of customer health to help with informed decisions about upcoming renewals. This tool also provides partners with the same plays and assets the internal Smartsheet teams use to drive adoption within customer accounts. The reselling partners working on renewals truly appreciated this same visibility and capabilities that the internal teams have.

Another critical feedback point was the need for an easier process for closing deals and transacting, particularly for reselling partners, by eliminating manual steps. The response to this was the launch of self-quoting, allowing partners to quote themselves for normal business rules, which dramatically shortens the time to closure and creates huge savings by circumventing manual steps.

Why is customer success certification important, and how does adoption fit into your subscription model and partner strategy?

Gainsight access is critical for treating a selling or reselling partner as an extension of the sales force, although it requires a large level of trust. This access is predicated by a customer success certification because partners need to learn how to use the tool and have competency around customer success.

Since the company operates a SaaS platform with a subscription pricing model, the "name of the game" is adoption; if a customer does not use the software, they will not renew the contract. The partners, who are responsible for customer renewals, need to learn and / or have competency in customer success to excel, with the tool being "the icing on the top".

The subscription model change and transition is a journey for the company, and a large number of customers are now on this model already. It is exciting that partners are transitioning in parallel with the company's internal shift in business models.

If you had 30 seconds with a CRO, how would you explain the value proposition of the new partner program?

The program enables partners to team with Smartsheet in the most streamlined way, allowing them to build a predictable, long-term business on top of or with the Smartsheet platform.

The goal is to offer "consistency and predictability”, and "build a market together" for the "intelligent work management platform". The program serves as an enabler and framework that guides partners to align for a mutually beneficial business relationship that results in the best outcome for the customer.

What advice would you give younger partner leaders who wish to succeed with their first partner program revamp or new program implementation?

When Schönleitner joined the company, they took three main steps:

This includes a combination of tackling hard, long-term changes (like the self-quoting tool which took many months and required system changes) and quicker, low-hanging fruit improvements (like certain discount changes that are less effort but need careful thought to avoid frequent adjustments).

What are your team’s favorite AI use cases today, and how are you thinking about foundational systems before layering on AI?

The partner team is just starting out on the AI journey and focused initially on ensuring to have a solid foundation, which includes the adoption of a leading-edge PRM system

The top priority this year has been to implement the self-quoting tool, which is a module by the PRM vendor and to provide the partners with new demo accounts based on the latest product stack in the new subscription model which will ensure the partners will always remain on the latest product versions. The next steps in the application stack is to improve the use of leading BI tools (Business Intelligence) on top of the PRM, then adding AI tools, emphasizing that adding AI to a "wobbling cardhouse" would be counterproductive. They are currently looking at two areas for AI implementation:

What are you deliberately stopping from the old program, especially around manual workarounds?

The primary thing they are deliberately stopping is the manual workarounds that we eliminated  through automation, such as the self-quoting tool, which is expected to reduce support cases by "several thousand" per year.

This efficiency gain saves actual people's time, which is then utilized to focus on "growth topics" in an aggressively growing environment, rather than eliminating people. The team is already conducting a root cause analysis of the next manual workarounds that are the "worst offenders" to be tackled.

The goal is to address the business use case and fix the core issues to free up time, even if the fix involves resolving underlying system issues, such as those in the CRM system that were improperly set up in the past and now create manual workarounds. Schönleitner emphasized the importance of fixing the root cause to set the "foundations up so that we can scale going forward," avoiding "band-aids" as those tend to get institutionalized causing long-term productivity losses.

How do you think about the role of operations in scaling a partner program?

Their team consists of an operations team and three regional teams (one per continent). While the regional teams focus on glamorous work of building new partnerships and driving revenue with partners (like AWS and PWC UK), the operations team handles the foundation ensuring that the scale is maintained.

Schönleitner advised against neglecting the operations side, as it becomes "super painful" and challenging to scale if missed, and continuous improvements are much easier to implement than a full reset.

When is the right time for startups to hire their first partner leader?

I’m observing a trend where startups are hiring their first partner leader very early in their life compared to the past. Schönleitner noted that series B is typically when companies start hiring a partner leader; series A is often too early, and the ROI may not show quickly enough. The decision depends on the company's business model.

For a platform company like Smartsheet, aligning with a cloud provider such as AWS was one of the first foundational partners and should be done as early as possible as an ISV. Aligning with  system integrators makes sense for companies that require larger or more complex implementations, but it might be challenging to attract large players for a small startup. In that case, startups might look at mid-size or specialty consulting firms first to extend their implementation capacities. 

Can you describe the AWS Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) and what it means for Smartsheet and its partners?

The AWS Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) extends the 20-year foundational technology partnership with Smartsheet into a go-to-market relationship.

The SCA involves collaboration across all continents and is being geared up in key markets (Australia, Japan, Germany, UK, and the Americas) to jointly work with large customers, close deals, build pipeline, and conduct joint marketing. Customers can use the AWS Marketplace as a procurement channel, and through the SCA, they receive a special incentive discount. The partnership also includes joint marketing funds and extra funds for building use cases.

Looking ahead 18 months, what do you hope partners will say about the Smartsheet ecosystem?

When asked what they would hope partners say about the Smartsheet ecosystem in 18 months, Schönleitner stated that they want partners to say that Smartsheet is an "excellent partner," a "trustworthy one," and a "leading edge technology partner" that their business can thrive on and that opens up new opportunities.

She is looking for feedback that the partners acknowledge that the larger vision of the "intelligent work management platform" brings value to them and the joint customers. The ultimate desire is for partners to emphasize that the "consistency that we bring in terms of a long-term business partnership" and the mutual value are the compelling differentiators.

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Disclaimer from the author: This interview reflects information shared at the time of publication and is for general information only. No guarantee of completeness or ongoing accuracy is given, and no liability is accepted for errors or omissions.