The Complete Guide to Standing Up Your First Partner Program

Rich O'Connell -

Building a successful partner program can be a game changer for your business, enabling you to scale faster, tap into new markets, and leverage the strengths of strategic partners. But where do you start? Creating a well-structured partner program from the ground up requires careful planning, collaboration across departments, and a phased approach to execution.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the key phases of standing up your first partner program and how to engage cross-functional teams to set the stage for sustainable growth.

Key Cross-Functional Partners: Who You Need in Your Corner

To build a successful partner program, you’ll need to engage several key stakeholders across your organization. Each of these teams brings a different perspective and expertise that is critical to your program's success.

  • Product: Your product team ensures that partners have access to the right tools, APIs, and resources to effectively integrate or resell your product. They play a vital role in developing the roadmap for partner-specific features or ensuring compatibility with partner solutions.
  • Developer Relations (DevRel): This team is crucial for technical enablement. They help onboard partners, provide documentation, and offer support to ensure that integrations are smooth and partners are empowered to build on top of your platform.
  • Marketing: A successful partner program requires a compelling value proposition. Your marketing team will help craft messaging, create co-marketing strategies, and ensure your partners are aligned with your brand and goals.

Key Phases of Building a Partner Program

To simplify the process, let’s break it down into five essential phases: Outreach, Assess, Incubate, Launch, and Grow. Each phase is critical and should be approached with specific goals in mind.

1. Outreach: Building a Pipeline of Potential Partners

Goal: Identify and engage with potential partners who align with your business goals.

During this phase, your objective is to build a pipeline of potential partners that fit your ideal partner profile. These may be technology partners, resellers, or service providers who can add value to your ecosystem.

Key Activities:

  • Conduct market research to identify target partners.
  • Engage cross-functional teams to brainstorm potential partnerships.
  • Develop a compelling outreach strategy (e.g., email, social, direct meetings).

Do’s:

  • Do ensure your outreach messaging is aligned with your brand and partner value proposition.
  • Do engage your marketing and product teams early to align on key messaging and target profiles.

Don’ts:

  • Don’t reach out without a clear strategy and mutual benefit. Partners need to understand the “what’s in it for me” from the start.
  • Don’t overlook smaller, niche partners. They may have deep expertise or access to markets you’re not reaching yet.

2. Assess: Evaluating Partner Potential

Goal: Determine which partners are the best fit for your program based on alignment, capability, and mutual value.

Once you’ve built a list of prospective partners, the next phase is to evaluate their potential fit. Focus on alignment with your business goals, their customer base, and their ability to drive growth.

Key Activities:

  • Set up criteria for evaluating partners (e.g., market reach, technical capability, customer base).
  • Conduct interviews and discovery calls to assess mutual alignment.
  • Prioritize partners that show high synergy and business potential.

Do’s:

  • Do leverage your analytics and product teams to assess the technical compatibility and potential impact of the partnership.
  • Do look for partners with a strong track record of collaboration and successful customer outcomes.

Don’ts:

  • Don’t focus solely on big logos. Consider partners that can provide high-value, niche solutions or a deeper customer relationship.
  • Don’t rush the evaluation. A poor partner fit can result in wasted resources and missed opportunities.

3. Incubate: Pilot the Partnership

Goal: Validate the potential of the partnership with a small-scale pilot.

The incubation phase is where you begin testing the waters. Start small, perhaps with a limited product integration or co-marketing campaign, to evaluate how well you and your partner can collaborate.

Key Activities:

  • Develop a pilot project or test campaign.
  • Collaborate with your product and DevRel teams to enable technical integrations.
  • Track early success metrics through analytics to measure initial performance.

Do’s:

  • Do clearly define success criteria for the pilot phase (e.g., number of leads generated, successful integrations).
  • Do maintain open lines of communication with your partner to address challenges early on.

Don’ts:

  • Don’t overcommit resources before validating the partnership.
  • Don’t move forward without gathering feedback from both internal teams and the partner to make improvements.

4. Launch: Rolling Out the Full Partner Program

Goal: Officially launch the partner program and scale your efforts.

After successfully incubating and validating partnerships, the next step is to officially launch your partner program. This involves opening up your program to a wider audience and establishing processes for onboarding and support.

Key Activities:

  • Create an official partner onboarding process with your Customer Success and DevRel teams.
  • Work with marketing to develop partner enablement materials (e.g., partner portals, playbooks, co-branded assets).
  • Set clear expectations around revenue sharing, support, and KPIs.

Do’s:

  • Do invest in partner enablement through training, certification, and continuous support.
  • Do use your analytics team to track and measure the success of the launch.

Don’ts:

  • Don’t neglect partner communications after launch. Continuous engagement is crucial for long-term success.
  • Don’t overlook the importance of customer feedback during the early launch phase.

5. Grow: Scaling and Optimizing Your Partner Program

Goal: Expand your partner program while optimizing for continuous improvement.

As your partner program matures, the focus shifts to scaling and optimizing for long-term growth. This involves expanding your partner ecosystem, iterating on what’s working, and phasing out what’s not.

Key Activities:

  • Regularly review partner performance and success metrics.
  • Expand your program by targeting new markets or verticals.
  • Collaborate with marketing to run joint campaigns that enhance partner visibility.

Do’s:

  • Do invest in ongoing partner relationship management and support.
  • Do continuously iterate and refine your partner program based on data-driven insights.

Don’ts:

  • Don’t rest on your laurels. Continuous improvement and adaptation are key to staying competitive.
  • Don’t neglect underperforming partners. Regular feedback can help turn things around.

Conclusion

Standing up a partner program requires intentionality and collaboration across multiple functions in your organization. By following these key phases—Outreach, Assess, Incubate, Launch, and Grow—you can lay the foundation for a scalable, sustainable partner program that drives mutual value.

Remember, success hinges on building strong, mutually beneficial relationships with partners and aligning closely with your internal stakeholders to ensure the program delivers on its potential.

“Partnership is not a legal contract between two equal individuals. It’s an emotional alliance between people who are committed to each other’s success.” – Warren Buffet

If you enjoyed this piece, please share it. Thanks. 🙏