I’ve built five partner programs from zero to one and reached $150m+ in ARR.
One of the most critical parts of this is having a clear crawl, walk, run strategy to get executive alignment and resource allocation. Here’s why a crawl, walk, run strategy can be a game changer:
It gives you time in the first phase to lay a solid groundwork for long-term partner success.
Examples include:
Being able to do enough customer interviews to understand the customer journey
Meeting with and learning from cross-functional stakeholders on what’s working and what isn’t
Building an ideal partner profile and mapping it to the customer journey
Building a process for both inbound and outbound partner workflows
Finding partner market fit with validated customer demand
It sets proper expectations around timelines and outcomes.
It mitigates risk. You don’t want to try to scale a partner program when you haven’t found a partner market fit based on the customer’s needs.
Efficient resource allocation to ensure sustainable long-term growth.
To bring this to life for the partner community, I’ve built a template (in partnership with Partnership Leaders, Gamma, and nearbound.com) that includes:
7 key partnership pillars to consider
75 considerations in moving from current state to future state
3-phase approach with a detailed breakdown by potential timeline
3 key success factors
Case studies template
