How to Build Scalable Partnership Programs

Over the last 10 years, I’ve built 2 startup partnerships programs to over $25M ARR. Here’s my 9 step process to successfully launch and grow your partnership program (with a limited budget): 1. Set Early Expectations This is non-negotiable. You must set expectations on timeline, budget, outcomes, everything. You should ideally do this in the interview process, but just do it as early as possible. 2. Build Internal Partnerships You’re going to need marketing, sales, product, and CS support to hit escape velocity. Start building those relationships and getting buy-in early (again, ideally in the interview process). 3. Create Process and Structure Early It doesn’t have to be deep or perfect. Start with something basic, document, and add to it over time. This will allow you to experiment and iterate quickly. 4. Track and Measure Everything (or as much as possible) Data is your biggest friend and will give you the ability to optimize for outcomes early and often. It starts with a good CRM setup and google sheets. This is the only way you scale lean. 5. Know Your Customers Learn who they are, what they need, and where you fit in their value ecosystem. This will help you identify who to partner with and why. 6. Find your Ideal Partner Profile Spending your limited bandwidth on the right partners is a critical prioritization. To do this you must understand your business’ strengths, weaknesses, customers, and ecosystem. Don’t be afraid to iterate on this as new data comes in. 7. Don’t Sleep on Partner Experience (PX) PX is every single interaction a partner has with your business. And a good one can quickly set you apart from competitors. It’s a lot of small things that can add up to a big difference in outcomes. 8. Always Think About “What’s in it for them?” Know all of the ways you could bring value to a partner, find out what each partner values, and align these for success. In the early days you won’t be able to offer much so be prepared to think outside the box and go the extra mile for partners. 9. Hit Your Numbers At the end of the day, Partnerships is a GTM strategy for revenue growth. You have to be ready to roll up your sleeves and do whatever needs to be done to hit the numbers you committed to. TAKEAWAY: Yes, this is a lot to do early on. But with Partnerships you don’t get to ease in and ramp. In fact, your leadership is probably already skeptical of partnerships’ ability to produce. You have to set a tone of action and build the foundation you’ll need 6-12 months down the line. So hit the ground running.

Keep failing!    Albert Einstein once said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”    We’ve all been there (I know I have): your partnerships team is struggling, not achieving results, and you are looking for help and answers.    We all fail, but failure doesn’t have to be a bad thing; however, you can only turn it into a good thing if you are willing to learn from it.    Back then, I wish I had had the network and support system I’m lucky to have these days. Thanks, Partnership Leaders!   So, let’s try something new. Let’s see if we can make this a collaborative post, a cheat sheet of sorts, that can help leaders identify issues and start turning things around.    So, if your partnerships team is struggling, here are some foundational elements that, if not done right, could be creating some of your issues:    💥 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐞𝐝 𝐯𝐬. 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 – Internal alignment is non-negotiable. Work with every department to understand what matters to them. Then tailor your strategy and collaborate with them to embed it into their everyday jobs. Your team can’t do this alone!    💥 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐍𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭 – You don’t want to compete against your own internal team(s). Compensation across your sales org should be neutral and conflict-less. Additionally, make sure that your own team’s comp and KPIs aren't opportunistic, transactional, and short-sighted.    💥 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐩𝐬 – Who is running ops, managing tools, gathering data, measuring impact, removing speedbumps, and enhancing PX? If you don’t have a #partnerops person, what are you waiting for?    💥 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 – Unless you are just starting, your program isn’t mature enough, and you don’t have a defined IPP, make sure you are working with the right partners. Make sure that you have real and reciprocal partnerships. You can’t afford to waste time and resources.    💥 𝐄𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 – Don’t expect your partners to be successful if you just give them cookie-cutter one-pagers, battle cards, or on-demand modules. As Jessie says: "enablement starts before you sign." Spend time with them and build real relationships. If you don’t care, they won’t care.    💥 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 – CS, in yours and your partner’s orgs, are the guardians of your current and potential customer relationships. Show them how partnerships can help with customer management, improve engagement, and reduce churn. Tap into those relationships and trust.    💥 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 – Is it easy for your partners to work with you? Remember, PX directly affects CX, and bad PX can hurt you deeply.    💥 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 – Don’t treat partnerships as transactional or as a zero-sum game. Give first in order to receive. Look for the triple win. Build real partnerships!   What else would you add?    #Partnerships #PartnerPrograms #GTMStrategy #Sales 

We generated $1BN+ revenue across the three partnership businesses I led. These are my simple observations for building a strategic partner organization: 1. Understand from the CEO what the most important metric/thing for the business to achieve is and focus on impacting that. 2. Set simple quarterly goals which clearly align to 1, if the top priority for the company is growing revenue your goal should be delivering additional revenue etc. 3. Build an immediate plan which prioritises the partners who are going to drive 2 with you, don’t get distracted from it. Form a long term vision over time as you learn, but execute on the quarter immediately. 4. Write an ‘elevator pitch’ which articulates 1, 2 and 3 clearly. Tell it to everyone you talk to at your company, tell it to your partners too. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat…. 5. Build rituals for celebrating partnership wins. Send out a bi-weekly summary to leadership, post a celebratory Friday post shouting out the AEs and CSMs who did good stuff with partners, secure a slot at SKO/All-Hands/Board meetings etc. 6. Hire into wins, not opportunities. Seeing success with Solutions Partners? Hire a partner manager to work on it full time and spend your time on the next partner type/category/geo until you find something else that works and then hire again. Partner Manager exceeding quota? Hire another partner manager and split the territory etc. Hiring a team based on bets is an unnecessary risk. 7. Get in front of the process. Have your headcount and budget ready for finance before annual planning starts, increase your own quota, proactively performance manage your team. Build a reputation for being on top of your sh*t, prepared, and reliable. Doors will open much more easily for your team when you need them to. 8. Own your performance. Your team should be able to perform despite low resources, alignment with other teams, executive buy-in etc not because of it. If you’re crushing without support, imagine how good it’s going to be when you get it. 9. Hire above the mean. Every new hire should increase the mean capability of your team, instill this culture across your organization. Aim to hire people as good or better than your top performers, not your bottom performers. 10. Be the easiest to partner with. Send leads to your partners, even if it’s only 1 or 2 a quarter. Be super responsive. Remove process. Remove admin. Remove blockers from engaging with your team. This is my checklist for ensuring I’m on the right track with my partner organization. What would you add? #partnerships #goals

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 At a certain stage, most tech companies hit the same wall: Revenue expectations rise, but pipeline efficiency starts to slip—and sales headcount alone won’t fix it. One of the most effective levers I’ve seen? 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. At ServiceNow, I helped design and launch a training program that went from market validation to full operational rollout in under 9 months. The platform now supports 50+ programs globally—without requiring a proportional increase in partner support resources. Key to making it work: ✅ 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 We built the system to extend reach and impact without relying on one-to-one onboarding. That meant creating a durable digital platform with high usability and clear outcomes. ✅ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝘇𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 By creating shared services and team structures aligned around learning and agility, we enabled consistent engagement at scale—even as partner needs varied across geographies and segments. ✅ 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Success wasn’t about customizing every experience. It came from identifying the right frameworks once, and deploying them efficiently across the ecosystem. The lesson: 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗶𝗳 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗱. That requires more than content. It takes systems, training, and operational scale designed to evolve as the business does. #GTMStrategy #PartnerEnablement #TechGrowth #SaaS #OperationalExcellence #RevenueAcceleration #ChannelStrategy #ServiceNow #GrowthExecution