Partnerships

Partnerships Skill

Partnerships exist to extend distribution, credibility, or capabilities beyond what the core team can build alone. Every partnership must have a clear answer to: what does each side get, and how does it move revenue?

Project context is loaded from the active CLAUDE.md. Apply all frameworks to the specific business model, stage, and ICP from that context.

---

When invoked

$ARGUMENTS defines the partnership type or goal. If no arguments, ask one question: what is the immediate goal — distribution, revenue, product capability, or credibility?

---

Framework 1: Partnership Types

Type	What it is	Best for
Referral partners	Send you leads in exchange for a fee or reciprocal referral	Any stage. Fastest to activate.
Affiliate partners	Promote your offer to their audience for a commission on sales	Products with a clear conversion event and margin to share
Co-marketing partners	Joint campaigns, content, events with a complementary brand	Audience building, lead gen, brand credibility
Technology / integration partners	Product integration with another platform, listed in their marketplace	SaaS. Distribution through where your ICP already lives.
Channel / reseller partners	Third parties sell your product on your behalf, often white-labelled	Enterprise, geographic expansion, markets you can't reach directly
Strategic alliances	Deep mutual investment — co-development, co-selling, revenue share	Later stage. Requires aligned incentives and executive sponsorship.

Start with the type that matches your current revenue stage and the fastest path to proof.

---

Framework 2: Partner Economics

Every partnership structure must pass this test: does the partner make more money working with you than they would without you?

Commission benchmarks (adjust to margin):

• Referral fee: 10-20% of first-year revenue
• Affiliate: 20-40% of sale (depending on LTV and product margin)
• Reseller margin: 20-40% off list price, or fixed margin per unit
• Technology partner: reciprocal — leads flowing both ways, or one-way integration fee

The partner math:

1. What does the partner earn per referral at your current ACV?
2. How many referrals per month is realistic for them?
3. Is the annual partner income meaningful relative to their business size?

If the annual partner income is less than a rounding error in their P&L, they will not prioritise you.

Red flag: Building a partner programme before you have a product that sells. Partners multiply what works. They do not fix what does not.

---

Framework 3: Partner Programme Design

Tier structure (once you have more than 5 active partners)

Tier	Qualification	Benefits
Registered	Signed agreement, completed training	Commission + co-branded materials
Silver	3+ closed deals or $X ARR referred in 12 months	Higher commission, deal registration protection, co-marketing budget
Gold	10+ closed deals or $X ARR referred in 12 months	Highest commission, dedicated partner manager, joint GTM plan, event support

Keep the tier structure simple early. Two tiers is enough until you have 20+ partners.

Programme components (build in this order)

1. Partner agreement — commission, deal registration, exclusivity (avoid), termination terms
2. Onboarding — how to explain your product, ICP, qualification questions, objection handling
3. Deal registration — protect partners from competing on the same deal; builds trust fast
4. Co-branded assets — one-pager, case studies, email templates they can send
5. Partner portal or tracker — a lightweight spreadsheet (Google Sheets, Excel, or similar) is fine early; your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or whatever you already run) or a dedicated PRM at scale
6. Regular comms — monthly partner newsletter: wins, new assets, product updates, incentives

---

Framework 4: Technology Partnership (SaaS)

Goal: appear where your ICP already lives. Integration = distribution.

Integration partnership process

1. Identify target platforms — where does your ICP already spend budget? These platforms have your buyers.
2. Check marketplace data — most SaaS platforms publish their marketplace. Look at review volume and partner count to assess competition.
3. Build the integration — use their API. A native integration always beats being reachable only through a general automation platform (Zapier, Make, n8n, or similar): the middleware route works, but it does not get you a marketplace listing, and it puts a second vendor between you and the customer.
4. Submit to marketplace listing — optimise the listing like a landing page: specific outcome, ICP callout, screenshots, reviews.
5. Co-market the integration — joint blog post, webinar, email to their user base. Most technology partners will do a co-marketing push if you initiate it.
6. Track attribution — UTM every inbound from the integration and marketplace listing.

What makes a technology partnership worth pursuing

• Their user base overlaps your ICP by 70%+
• Their platform has a marketplace that drives installs or sign-ups
• They have a partner team (signal: dedicated partnership page on their site)
• Your integration makes their product more useful to their users (not just yours)

---

Framework 5: Channel and Reseller Strategy

When to use channel sales

• Geographic markets you cannot staff directly
• Enterprise sales motions that require a local trusted advisor
• Products that are sold as part of a larger implementation or service bundle
• Faster scale than direct hiring allows

Reseller programme setup

1. Define reseller margin — typically 20-40% off list. Enough to incentivise but not erode your margin.
2. Define what the reseller does — do they sell only, or also implement and support? Each model has different onboarding requirements.
3. Certify before they sell — require product certification before allowing resellers to quote. Uncertified resellers create support load and reputation risk.
4. Protect direct accounts — agree on account ownership and deal registration upfront. Ambiguity here kills the relationship.
5. Enable constantly — monthly enablement calls, new product updates, win/loss reviews. Resellers who stop learning stop selling.

Signs a reseller channel is failing

• Resellers signed but not generating pipeline after 90 days
• No deal registration activity
• You are doing most of the work on joint calls
• The reseller treats you as a fallback, not a priority

Fix: qualification was too loose, or incentive is not meaningful. Tighten entry criteria and raise the stakes.

---

Framework 6: Co-Marketing

What makes co-marketing work

Both sides bring roughly equivalent audience value. If one side has 10x the audience, the smaller side needs to compensate with effort, exclusivity, or money.

Co-marketing formats (fastest to slowest)

Format	Time to results	Best for
Joint email to both lists	1-2 weeks	Lead gen, event promo
Co-branded lead magnet	2-4 weeks	List building
Joint webinar	3-4 weeks	Pipeline, credibility
Co-authored content (blog, report)	4-8 weeks	SEO, long-term authority
Joint event / conference	3-6 months	Brand, pipeline, community

Co-marketing agreement (basic)

• Who promotes to whom, how many times
• What audience each side brings (list size, social reach)
• Who owns the shared leads and how they are split
• Exclusivity period (if any) on the topic or audience segment

---

Framework 7: Activating and Managing Partners

The 3-week activation window

A partner who does not send a referral within 3 weeks of signing rarely will. Activation is the make-or-break moment.

Activation checklist:

• Day 1: Welcome email + onboarding doc + tracking link
• Day 3: 30-min kickoff call — walk through ICP, qualifying questions, how to position
• Week 2: Send them a warm intro or deal to co-sell on
• Week 3: Check in — have they had any conversations?

If nothing by week 3, ask directly: what would make this easier for you to prioritise?

Partner QBR (quarterly, for top partners only)

• Pipeline they sourced last quarter
• Revenue closed from their referrals
• What new campaigns or assets would help them in the next quarter
• Any blockers or friction in the referral process

Metrics to track

Metric	What it tells you
Partners signed	Programme reach
Partners active (sent 1+ referral in 90 days)	Real activation rate
Referrals submitted	Top of partner funnel
Referral-to-close rate	Partner quality / your close rate on partner deals
Revenue from partners as % of total revenue	Programme maturity
Partner CAC vs direct CAC	Economic comparison

Target: partner-sourced revenue growing as a share of total. If it stays flat or drops, something in the programme is broken.

---

Output format

For a partner programme design:

1. Recommended partner type(s) for current stage
2. Commission/margin structure with rationale
3. Programme components to build in order
4. Activation plan for first 10 partners
5. Metrics to track

For a specific partnership evaluation:

1. What each side gets (be specific)
2. Revenue estimate from partner over 12 months
3. Effort to activate and maintain
4. Verdict: pursue, negotiate, or pass

Rules:

• Never recommend building a partner programme before direct sales are proven
• Always start with referral or co-marketing before channel or technology
• If the partner economics do not work without significant effort from your side, the programme is not ready