Partnership Pipeline Builder

---
name: partnership-pipeline-builder
description: Use when planning or fixing a partner-sourced pipeline. Triggers on "partner pipeline", "partnerships strategy", "co-sell", "joint GTM".
---

# Partnership Pipeline Builder

Most partnerships produce nothing. The pattern is signed MOU → enthusiastic kickoff → silence. Partnerships that source real pipeline have structural properties most teams skip.

## Required inputs

1. **Your product + ICP** — concrete
2. **Why partners would refer to you** — the genuine reason, not "we have a partner program"
3. **What you can give partners in return** — revenue share, co-marketing, referrals back, joint customers
4. **Current partner count + pipeline produced** — to calibrate
5. **The specific partner type you'd target** — vertical SaaS, complementary tools, services firms, etc.

## Partnership types + realistic pipeline expectations

### **Reseller / channel partner**
- They sell your product, you pay margin
- Realistic pipeline: depends entirely on partner motivation
- Common failure: signed but no enablement — partner can't sell what they don't know

### **Tech / integration partner**
- They build to your platform or vice versa
- Realistic pipeline: very low unless you also have co-sell motion
- Common failure: integration ships, then both teams move on

### **Referral partner**
- They route warm leads to you (services firms, consultants, complementary SaaS)
- Realistic pipeline: highest of the three if structured right
- Common failure: no clear "why they refer," no closing-the-loop with attribution

### **Strategic / co-sell partner**
- Joint pursuit of accounts you both want
- Realistic pipeline: high for the specific accounts in scope
- Common failure: trying to scale beyond the 5-10 accounts where it actually works

## What makes a partner produce pipeline

- **Aligned ICP** — same customer, different problem
- **Self-interest in referring** — revenue share OR fills a gap in their offering OR genuinely helps their customer
- **Easy to refer** — clear "who to introduce" and "how"
- **Closes the loop** — partner sees the deal close, gets credit, gets paid
- **Active enablement** — joint training, joint sales conversations, co-pitch decks

## What makes partnerships theater

- **No revenue share or weak commission** — partners optimize for paying clients, not your interests
- **No clear ICP overlap** — "we both sell to enterprise" isn't enough
- **No joint sales motion** — partners don't magically remember to mention you
- **Misaligned incentives** — partner's economics don't reward referrals

## Output

```
## Partner type recommendation
[The one type that fits your product + stage best — defend the choice]

## Top 5 target partners
| Partner | Why aligned | Realistic annual pipeline | Asks from them | Asks of us |
|---|---|---|---|---|

## The joint-GTM motion
- Trigger: when does partner introduce
- Process: introduction → discovery → joint pitch → close → revenue share
- Tools: shared deal tracking, joint Slack channel, etc.

## Why partnerships will fail (anti-pattern audit)
[The 2-3 most likely failure modes for YOUR setup]

## Pipeline expectations
- Q1 with first partners: 0 deals (build-out)
- Q2: 1-2 deals if anything (early signal)
- Q3-4: 3-8 deals if motion is right
- "Real" partner pipeline at 6-12 months in

## When to kill partnerships
- 12 months in, partner has produced 0 pipeline → wind down
- Joint sales calls show partner doesn't actually understand the value prop → re-enable or wind down
- Partner is asking for more than they're producing → renegotiate or wind down
```