From Spreadsheets to Strategy: A New CPO Role Tackles the Partnership Gap

CHICAGO, IL – June 30, 2026 – In a move that signals a major shift in how businesses approach growth, Partnership Mastermind (PMM) has appointed veteran ecosystem leader Jen Kalant as its first Chief Partnerships Officer. The appointment comes on the heels of PMM’s acquisition by The Sanguine Collective and points to a critical evolution in corporate strategy: the professionalization of partnerships from a loosely managed relationship function into a disciplined, data-driven revenue engine.

Kalant’s role is not just another C-suite addition; it represents a direct response to a burgeoning crisis in the tech and B2B sectors. While companies are increasingly pinning their growth hopes on strategic alliances and partner ecosystems, the operational reality on the ground has failed to keep pace. Kalant is now tasked with leading PMM’s charge to bridge this gap, armed with a new suite of services designed to move the function from ad-hoc initiatives to measurable financial outcomes.

The Billion-Dollar 'Execution Problem'

For years, the promise of “ecosystem-led growth” has been a dominant theme in boardrooms and investor meetings. The logic is sound: leveraging the networks, technologies, and customer bases of partners is a capital-efficient path to market expansion. The financial upside is undeniable. Aggregated data from Crossbeam, cited in PMM’s own research and covering over 30,000 companies, found that deals with partner involvement saw an average 73% increase in revenue and a 62% increase in deal size.

Yet, a chasm exists between this potential and the day-to-day reality. PMM's 2026 Partner Management & Enablement Report paints a stark picture of this disconnect. The report reveals that while over 60% of partnership teams are measured on generating sales pipeline, their operational capabilities are lagging dangerously behind. An alarming 83% of teams still use spreadsheets to manage and track partner revenue—a practice unthinkable in any modern sales or marketing department. Furthermore, 52% cite “partner activation” as their number-one blocker to hitting targets, indicating that even when partnerships are signed, they often fail to launch effectively.

This is the core of what Kalant calls the industry's “execution problem.” In a statement, she was blunt: “Most companies do not have a partnership problem. They have an execution problem. They have relationships, customers, integration opportunities, referral sources, and potential ecosystem reach. But they have not built the structure around those opportunities.”

This lack of structure—the absence of a clear strategy, an activation plan, internal alignment, a functioning operating rhythm, and a reliable attribution model—is where immense value is lost. “That is where so much revenue gets left behind,” Kalant noted. Her mandate is to fix this by instilling the discipline that has long been standard in other commercial functions.

A New Operating Model: 'Partnerships as a Service'

To tackle the execution gap, Kalant will spearhead PMM’s innovative 'Partnerships as a Service' (PaaS) and Fractional Chief Partnerships Officer offerings. This model moves beyond traditional consulting to provide businesses, particularly small to mid-sized firms, with both strategic leadership and hands-on operational support.

The Fractional CPO model gives companies access to seasoned executive talent like Kalant without the cost and commitment of a full-time hire. This is critical for organizations that need enterprise-grade partnership strategy but are not yet large enough to justify the role internally. The PaaS component provides the operational muscle to implement that strategy—designing programs, repairing broken processes, and scaling what works.

This approach fundamentally changes the dynamic for growing companies. Instead of relying on an under-supported internal manager or hiring a junior employee to manage a mission-critical growth channel, they can now embed an experienced operator to build the foundation correctly. The focus is on installing durable systems, a concept often referred to as “PartnerOps,” which functions as the operational backbone for the partnership team, much like SalesOps or MOPs do for their respective departments.

“Partnerships can be one of the most valuable and durable growth channels a company has, but they do not become that by accident,” Kalant stated. “They need to be designed, enabled, measured, and run with the same discipline businesses expect from Sales or Marketing.”

An Architect of Ecosystems

Kalant is uniquely positioned for this role. With over a decade of experience building and operationalizing partnership programs at companies like legal tech giant Clio, Reputation, and Searchspring, she has a track record of delivering over $100 million in partner-driven revenue. Her deep experience spans the entire partnership spectrum, from SaaS integrations and e-commerce channels to partner marketing and business development.

Her appointment is the culmination of a strategic process she helped architect. Over the past eight months, Kalant worked within The Sanguine Collective to strengthen its own partnership infrastructure. She was instrumental in facilitating Sanguine’s acquisition of Partnership Mastermind, helping to shape the vision for combining PMM’s educational prowess with Sanguine’s operational focus.

Chris Lavoie, Founder and President of Partnership Mastermind, highlighted her unique qualifications. “Jen has been central to building the partnership infrastructure within Sanguine, and she played an important role in bringing Sanguine and Partnership Mastermind together,” he said. “She understands the work from every angle. She knows what happens when partnerships move from a strategic idea to a real commercial expectation: the challenges around activation, alignment, attribution, internal adoption, and proving impact.”

Fusing Education with Execution

The strategic marriage of PMM and Sanguine, now personified in Kalant’s role, creates a holistic solution for the industry. Partnership Mastermind has already established itself as a leading training ground for the next generation of partnership professionals, having trained over 400 operators. Its self-reported data shows its programs deliver a measurable 34% lift in revenue-driving capability and a 42.5% lift in ecosystem tooling fluency among its alumni.

By integrating the new PaaS and Fractional CPO services, the organization creates a powerful flywheel. PMM can train the market's talent, while its service arm provides a real-world laboratory to implement best practices, generating new case studies and insights that feed back into the curriculum. For clients, it offers an end-to-end solution: they can either upskill their own teams through PMM's courses or hire PMM's experts to build and run the program for them.

As Lavoie put it, partnership teams need more than just good intentions. “They need practical guidance, experienced operators, better systems, and a clearer path from strategy through to execution.” With Kalant at the helm of its new service line, Partnership Mastermind is making a bold bet that it can provide just that, transforming a function often seen as an art into a disciplined science of growth.