RESEARCH NOTE · RN-02 · SEPTEMBER 2026
The Scaler Index: does exactly what it says on the tin
A valuable and welcome benchmark, with perhaps an over-stated outcome. Read it as an adoption pattern, not a channel maturity assessment.
Paul Cunningham, Managing Director
ACE lens: Analytics (performance) · Execution Engine (measure)
The first Scaler Index from Channelscaler is a rare dataset: three years of deal registration behaviour across 30,000 partners. Its headline is that every programme metric compounds. Its own arithmetic reveals something more useful, and perhaps less notable: the commercial gains came almost entirely from conversion, while the pipeline each participating partner contributed barely moved at all.
Research Note · RN-02
01
The average registered deal roughly halved. Registered opportunities grew 7.1× while registered pipeline value grew only 3.4×. That gap is a fall in average deal size from roughly $60k to roughly $32k.
02
Pipeline per participating partner is flat. Up 1.17× in three years. The headline “registered pipeline more than triples” is very largely an output of recruitment, not evidence that partners are bringing bigger or better opportunities.
03
The compounding factor is conversion. Value conversion of registered pipeline went from about 6% to about 17.5%. That is enablement and co-sell facilitation, Value Proposition (Diamonds) and Community (Clubs) in the Blue Barn ACE Framework, not partner portal work.
Research reviewed
Channelscaler, Scaler Index: 2026 Pipeline Performance Report, Edition 01. 30,000+ partners, deal registration data 2016–2025.
Bottom line
Useful benchmark, with perhaps an over-claimed outcome. Read it as an adoption curve, not a maturity curve.
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