Pre-week 1: pick the motion (not the partners)
Before signing anyone, decide which partner motion fits your stage. The four motions: Referral (pipeline gap, low ACV, fastest to revenue), Reseller / Channel (coverage gap, 25%+ margin headroom), Technology / Integration (product breadth gap, requires API surface), and SI / Services (implementation gap, services-heavy product).
Most companies under $10M ARR should start with Referral. The economics are forgiving, the time-to-first-revenue is shortest (60-90 days), and the learnings transfer to bigger motions later. Companies above $50M with field sales and geographic expansion plans should start with Reseller. Companies with deep platform plays should start with Technology.
The diagnostic in the Partner Operator's Library scores you on 10 questions and outputs a recommendation. Use it or use your own framework, but make the motion decision before recruiting.
Weeks 1-2: paper before partners
Have these documents ready before you talk to a single partner:
- Mutual NDA (Foundations Pack)
- The right agreement type for your chosen motion (Referral, Reseller, Tech, or SI)
- A partner one-pager describing what you offer partners (not what you sell)
- Commission or margin schedule
- For sales / channel motions: deal registration form and rules
The reason: when a great prospective partner says "send me what you have," you have 48 hours before momentum dies. If you do not have the materials ready, you will lose your best early partners while you are drafting.
Weeks 3-6: recruit a tight first cohort
Do not try to onboard 50 partners in month one. The first cohort should be 5-10 partners who meet three criteria: they reach your ideal customer, you reach them through warm introduction (not cold outbound), and they have an explicit problem you solve in their own customer conversations.
For Referral programs, this looks like 5-10 advisors or consultants who already work with your ICP. For Reseller, this looks like 3-5 regional resellers or boutique SIs who have a coverage advantage you do not. For Technology, this looks like 2-3 anchor integrations covering 60-80 percent of your customers' adjacent tools.
Recruit through warm intro. Cold outbound to partners produces noise; the best partners come from customer referrals, mutual investors, and your existing personal network.
Weeks 5-10: enable, register, source
By week 5 you should have signed agreements with 3-5 of your initial cohort. Now they need enablement (not a 90-page deck — a one-page pitch they can use in their own sales conversations, plus a quick demo video), deal registration access (form or portal), and a named contact at your company they can reach.
The metric you are managing in this window: number of registered deals per active partner per month. Target 1+ for Referral programs, 2-3 for Reseller programs. If you are not seeing registrations by week 8 you are either signed with the wrong partners, did not give them enablement, or your product is harder to position than you thought.
Weeks 10-12: first close, first learning, first iteration
By week 12 you should have at least one partner-sourced closed-won. If you do, you have proven the motion works at your stage and earned the second quarter. The learnings to capture and iterate: which partner archetype converted (double down), which commercial terms friction-ed (revise), what enablement assets actually got used (build more), and what attribution disputes emerged (codify rules).
If you do not have a closed-won by week 12, before adding partners, diagnose: was the gap in partner fit, enablement, commercial terms, or product readiness? Adding partners on top of an unresolved gap multiplies the gap.