---
title: "What Is Indirect Revenue? Definition and Examples"
url: https://www.fours.com/indirect-revenue/
canonical: https://www.fours.com/indirect-revenue/
type: Company
description: "Indirect revenue is revenue earned through a third party: marketplaces, co-sell, resellers and partners. How it counts, and how it differs from direct."
---

# What Is Indirect Revenue? Definition and Examples

> Canonical HTML version: https://www.fours.com/indirect-revenue/

# What is indirect revenue?

Some of your best deals don't come from your own team.  
They come through someone else.

Definition Indirect revenue is revenue a company earns through a third party instead of its own direct sales team. It includes every deal sold, sourced, influenced or transacted by resellers, distributors, systems integrators, referral partners, tech partners and the clouds.

[Map your indirect revenue](/schedule-demo/) [How it counts](#counts)

$10B+

transacted

300+

software companies

6

cloud marketplaces

## Every kind of partner. One revenue line.

Indirect revenue isn't one channel. It's every deal a partner touches, whether they sell it, source it,  
influence it or bill it. Most teams track each partner type in its own system, so nobody sees the total.

-   Resellers
-   Distributors
-   Systems integrators
-   Referral partners
-   Tech partners
-   Cloud co-sell
-   Cloud marketplaces

### Indirect revenue counts four ways.

**Sold**

A reseller, distributor or SI contracts with the customer.

**Transacted**

The customer buys on a cloud marketplace, even if your own rep closed the deal.

**Sourced**

A partner brings you the opportunity, like a co-sell referral from AWS or Microsoft.

**Influenced**

A partner helps a deal you already had move forward or close.

## Direct vs. indirect sales

Direct sales gives you control. Indirect sales gives you reach, budget access and leverage.

Direct vs. indirect sales

| Compared | Direct | Indirect |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who sells | Your own reps | Partners, marketplaces, cloud sellers, or your reps through a marketplace |
| Who contracts and bills | You | Often the marketplace or partner |
| Budget used | Software budget | Software budget, or committed cloud spend (AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud) |
| Reach | Limited by headcount | Extended by partner sellers and marketplace buyers |
| Cost of sale | Rep compensation, longer procurement | Marketplace or partner fees, often faster procurement |
| Systems needed | CRM, billing | CRM plus listings, offers, co-sell, partner management and payout tracking |

## Indirect revenue works. It just doesn't scale.

The upside **Partners reach buyers, budgets and markets you can't.**

Enterprises can spend committed cloud budgets on marketplaces. Cloud sellers are paid to bring partner software into their accounts. Resellers and SIs bundle you with their services.

The reality **Every partner type runs on its own portal, process and spreadsheet.**

The ceiling **Growth stops where headcount does.**

Hundreds of partners. No view of which ones matter.

## Every tool owns a step. Nobody owns the deal.

An indirect deal passes through eight steps, from the first partner signal to recognized revenue. Each step lives in a different tool, so the deal gets rebuilt by hand at every handoff.

1.  **Signal**
    -   Crossbeam
    -   Spreadsheets
2.  **Register**
    -   Impartner
    -   PartnerStack
3.  **Co-sell**
    -   AWS ACE
    -   Partner Center
4.  **Offer**
    -   Cloud consoles
    -   Tackle · Labra · Clazar
5.  **Close**
    -   Salesforce
    -   HubSpot
6.  **Billing**
    -   Stripe
    -   Metronome
    -   Orb
7.  **Payout**
    -   Marketplace reports
    -   Spreadsheets
8.  **Revenue**
    -   NetSuite
    -   QuickBooks

![](/favicon.svg)Fours _One record,_ partner signal to recognized revenue

Indirect revenue doesn't need another tool. It needs infrastructure.

## Indirect revenue, run like a business.

Not a side channel held together by people. A revenue engine you can see, steer and scale,  
across every partner and every cloud.

Partnerships & alliances Glue between tools Strategist

Stop being the glue between tools. Know which partners to back, and prove what they're worth.

Executives Side channel A managed revenue line

Partner pipeline, revenue and payouts on one record that the CRO and CFO both trust.

IT & procurement A patchwork of vendors One platform

Fewer vendors to secure, integrate and renew. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified.

## What to measure once it's one record

Track indirect revenue as one total, then break it down by channel and by how the partner contributed.

**Indirect revenue share**

Indirect revenue as a share of total bookings. The headline number.

**Marketplace-transacted revenue**

Bookings billed through each cloud marketplace.

**Partner-sourced pipeline**

Opportunities partners brought you, including co-sell referrals.

**Partner-influenced revenue**

Closed deals where a partner played a documented role.

**Committed-spend drawdown**

How much customer purchases counted toward their cloud commitments.

**Net revenue after fees**

Revenue after marketplace and partner fees, matched to payouts.

 [![JumpCloud](/customer-stories/jumpcloud-logo.svg) One record to finance

> “\[Fours\] isn’t just useful in one stage — it impacts our entire process, from pipeline sharing to deal closure and finance tracking.”

**Amin Marts** · Strategic Alliances & Ecosystem Leader, JumpCloud Read JumpCloud’s story](/resources/blog/jumpcloud/)

![intel](/home/partners/intel.svg)

![notion](/home/partners/notion.svg)

![webflow](/home/partners/webflow.svg)

![glean](/home/partners/glean.svg)

![airtable](/home/partners/airtable.svg)

![fivetran](/home/partners/fivetran.svg)

![bmc](/home/partners/bmc.svg)

![coderabbit](/home/partners/coderabbit.png)

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![harness](/home/partners/harness.svg)

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![dbt](/home/partners/dbt.svg)

![clari](/home/partners/clari.svg)

![teleport](/logos/company/teleport.svg)

![logicmonitor](/home/partners/logicmonitor.svg)

![redis](/home/partners/redis.svg)

![dialpad](/home/partners/dialpad.svg)

![fireworks](/home/partners/fireworks.svg)

![1password](/home/partners/1password.svg)

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![kong](/home/partners/kong.svg)

![chainguard](/home/partners/chainguard.svg)

![dataiku](/home/partners/dataiku.svg)

![zuora](/home/partners/zuora.svg)

![vanta](/home/partners/vanta.svg)

![tailscale](/home/partners/tailscale.svg)

![pulumi](/home/partners/pulumi.svg)

![baseten](/home/partners/baseten.svg)

![risingwave](/home/partners/risingwave.png)

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![qdrant](/home/partners/qdrant.png)

![aiven](/home/partners/aiven.svg)

![thoropass](/home/partners/thoropass.png)

## Indirect revenue, answered.

### What is indirect revenue?

Indirect revenue is revenue earned through a third party instead of your direct sales team, including cloud marketplaces, resellers, distributors, systems integrators and co-sell partners.

### What is the difference between direct and indirect sales?

In direct sales, your own team sells and bills the customer. In indirect sales, a partner or marketplace sells, sources, influences or transacts the deal.

### Is indirect revenue the same as channel sales?

Channel sales is one part of it. Indirect revenue also includes cloud marketplace transactions and hyperscaler co-sell, which many teams track separately from the traditional channel.

### Does a marketplace deal closed by my own rep count?

Yes. The customer buys and is billed through the marketplace, so the revenue is transacted through a third party.

### Does partner-influenced revenue count?

Yes, if a partner played a documented role in the deal. Record influence separately from the primary channel so revenue isn't double counted.

### What are examples of indirect sales channels?

AWS Marketplace, Microsoft Marketplace, Google Cloud Marketplace, AWS CPPO reseller offers, co-sell programs like AWS ACE, value-added resellers, distributors and referral partners.

### What software do you need to manage indirect revenue?

Typically marketplace listing and offer management, co-sell sync with your CRM, partner relationship management (PRM), and billing and payout reconciliation. Fours combines these in one platform.

## Where does indirect revenue sit in your business today?

Show us your partners, marketplaces and tools. We'll map where your deals lose time,  
and what one record would change.

[Map your indirect revenue](/schedule-demo/)