Finding partnership prospects

Partnerships usually start when someone you know comes to mind, and where things got to last time, and with whom, is scattered. Yet deals with a partner in them actually win more. Across network data from thousands of companies, deals a partner took part in had a win rate 11.7% higher on average. As long as partnering stays a function of who you happen to know, that 11.7% shows up only in the quarters you happen to know someone.

A request like this, handled like this.

We gather the work as it actually arrives, and record what each step is judged against.

Find candidates

Find companies whose customer base overlaps with ours but that don't compete for the same budget, and lay them out with their public points of contact.

Judgment Do the customers overlap, and is this a competitor or a complement.
Assess fit

Grade fit on customer overlap, product complementarity, and balance of size. If sizes are too far apart, the collaboration structure doesn't hold.

Judgment Is it worth contacting now, or someone to revisit later.
Write the collaboration scenario

Put on one page what you'd sell together, who provides what, and what's in it for the other side. If there's nothing in it for them, it isn't a pitch.

Judgment Is what the other side gains clear.
Draft the first pitch

Make a first pitch as a draft with the collaboration scenario attached per company. Terms and numbers are left blank.

Judgment Do we send it, or approach through an introduction.
Record the stage

Keep the response to the pitch, meetings, and the reason a discussion stalled, and feed it back into the next candidate criteria.

Judgment Do we keep going or hold.

The moment they ask about terms, we raise it to a person.

We settle the exceptions that actually come up before they do. When a rule doesn't fit, we don't force it through. It goes to a person, with the evidence.

Exception A candidate also sells a product that competes with us directly

Don't drop them from partnering; classify them as a competitive case and hand them to competitor watch.

Exception The other side asks about terms first

Don't put commission or settlement structure in the draft; raise it to a person at once.

Exception An existing account turns up as a partner candidate

It's not a new contact; tell whoever owns the existing relationship so the relationships don't overlap.

A person confirms the commission and the contract.

Anything touching money, contracts, personal data, or the brand is drafted and no further. It sends only after a person approves.

Partnership terms and the commission or settlement structure

Money moves, and the structure you set once becomes the standard for every later partner.
Signing a contract

It's hard to undo.
A joint announcement or co-branding

It's public exposure, and the other brand rides on it.
Confirming who to contact

Relationships with existing customers or competitors can get tangled.

How you know it worked

With whom, and how far it got.

The effect of partner involvement

Deals a partner took part in had a win rate 11.7% higher on average (Crossbeam network data, 2024)

The lift grew with the size of the ecosystem. Still, it's network data from companies with active partner programs.

The weight of indirect channels

About 75% of world trade runs through indirect (channel or partner) routes (Forrester, citing the WTO)

It's a macro figure. Don't read it as the partner share of our own revenue.

First-meeting conversion

It shows whether the fit criteria were right, not the pitch.

Rule

If a partnership pitch is marketing email, CAN-SPAM applies, opt-out with accurate headers, ad identification, a physical postal address, and opt-out honored within 10 business days; a marketing SMS pitch needs prior express written consent under the TCPA. Sharing customer data with a partner needs a lawful basis, and under state laws like the CCPA and CPRA the sharing may require disclosure and an opt-out. A person makes that call at the contract stage.

There is less that a person has to hold on to.

Once the scattered checks and repeat replies are drafted and sorted, your staff can spend the day on review and exceptions, and you look only at the decisions that matter.

Get an assessment

Today

Checks pile up on a person.

Partnerships only move when someone you know comes to mind, and who said what last time is scattered everywhere.

With Velros running it

The work arrives ready to go.

Partner candidates whose customers overlap with yours come up with a fit score, and a first-proposal draft is ready to go.

Partners contacted First-meeting conversion rate Partnerships in progress

What people ask before they hand this over

The things people actually check first about Finding partnership prospects.

I heard partnerships close deals faster.

Numbers like "partner deals close 46% faster" circulate only on vendor blogs and we couldn't confirm a source. What is confirmed is the win rate. Deals a partner took part in won 11.7% more often on average (Crossbeam, 2024). Speed is better measured directly from our own records.

Can you handle negotiating terms too.

No. We prepare the collaboration scenario and the first-pitch draft, and a person confirms the commission or settlement structure and the contract terms. The draft leaves the numbers blank.

What to sort out next

Channel performance report

Channel performance report can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.

Days to hire

Hiring pipeline

Hiring pipeline can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.

Onboarding checklist completion rate

Onboarding and offboarding

Onboarding and offboarding can be joined up the same way, on the channels you already use, from intake through to the approval queue.

See every workflow

Inquiries, bookings, quotes, order updates. You can compare the work that keeps a person busy, side by side.

We start with the work that keeps a person tied up.

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