Partnerships Readiness and Ramp Audit
3 weeks. A scored, honest verdict on whether your partner motion can scale, and exactly what it would take.
$10,000 · 3 weeks · fixed scope
Something is working. Somebody closed revenue through a partner.
But it happened once, or it keeps happening because one person is holding it together, and nobody can tell you whether it will happen again next quarter. So the honest answer to "how are partnerships going" is a shrug with a good anecdote attached.
Most companies respond to that by hiring someone, buying a PRM, or waiting to see. All three are expensive guesses. This replaces the guess with a diagnosis.
What it answers
- Is there real signal here, or was that one good relationship
- What is actually holding the program back: the strategy, the partner mix, activation, internal alignment, the economics, the measurement, or who owns the decisions
- What would have to be true for this to scale, and in what order
- What it would realistically cost, in money and in headcount
- Whether to invest now, wait, or stop
And the answer comes with a number attached. Your program gets scored across 7 dimensions, level 1 to 4, so "we're doing okay on partnerships" turns into something specific enough to act on and specific enough to take to a board.
Who it's for
You've closed real revenue through partners. Enough that it's a pattern rather than one lucky deal, usually somewhere around 10 closed deals or more. The exact number matters less than what it proves: the market will buy your product through a partner. That's the hardest thing to establish, and you've already established it.
Your deal sizes are roughly $25,000 or under. Annual contract value. Smaller is fine, including high-volume SMB products where each deal is small and the partner volume is what matters.
A partnerships function exists in some form. 1 or 2 people owning it, or a hire about to be made.
Who it's not for
- No partner has closed anything yet. That's 0 to 1, and this is the wrong tool for it.
- Your product sells to the Fortune 500. That becomes an SI, GSI and hyperscaler motion, which is a different playbook and not my practice.
- You want someone to run partnerships for you, or to make introductions. I work at the strategy layer, not the execution layer.
The 7 dimensions
7 things decide whether a partner motion scales. Most programs are strong in 3 of them and quietly broken in the rest.
Strategy and thesis
What it tests
Whether your partner mix follows a stated revenue thesis or accumulated by accident
What it looks like when it's broken
Partners collected opportunistically, no thesis anyone can recite
Ideal partner profile and acquisition
What it tests
Whether you can describe a good partner and repeatably find more
What it looks like when it's broken
One lucky partner, and no clear reason why it worked
Activation and ramp
What it tests
Time from signed to first sourced deal, and whether anyone manages that time
What it looks like when it's broken
Signed partners who never transact, counted as wins
Internal alignment and shared goals
What it tests
Whether sales, CS, product and finance carry any goal tied to partner outcomes, and whether they know what to do with a partner-sourced lead
What it looks like when it's broken
Partnerships owns the number, nobody else is measured on it, and every team optimizes its own lane
Economics and incentives
What it tests
Whether partner margin, rev share and MDF are modeled or improvised
What it looks like when it's broken
Terms negotiated partner by partner, no floor and no logic
Measurement and attribution
What it tests
Whether partner-sourced and partner-influenced revenue can be produced on demand, and whether the metrics being reported are the ones that actually predict anything
What it looks like when it's broken
Attribution argued about every quarter and never settled, under a dashboard of activity counts nobody acts on
Ownership and decision rights
What it tests
Who decides tiers, terms and exceptions, and whether the exec sponsor is real
What it looks like when it's broken
Every exception escalates to the founder
How it works
- 0
Week 0.
You get an intake packet and a data request. You complete it and name who I should talk to.
- 1
Week 1.
Discovery call with whoever runs partnerships. 90 minutes. I've already reviewed your data and pre-scored what can be scored mechanically, so we spend the time on what the data can't tell me.
- 2
Week 2.
2 to 3 stakeholder interviews, usually sales, marketing and/or product, plus a couple of partner-side conversations where it helps. 2 to 3 hours of your team's time in total.
- 3
Week 3.
Readout with your exec team. 90 minutes. You get the verdict, the scorecard and the sequence, and we talk through what it means.
What you walk away with
6 artifacts you keep, not just a slide deck and a handshake.
Readiness Scorecard
What it's for
All 7 dimensions, level 1 to 4, plus a composite
The Verdict
What it's for
The binding constraint, what it's costing you, and what breaks in 6 months if nothing changes
Findings by dimension
What it's for
Evidence-backed, with anonymized quotes from the interviews
The 90-day sequence
What it's for
What to do first, second and third, and what to explicitly defer
Resourcing call
What it's for
Headcount and budget implications, and an honest read on whether you need ongoing help
Readout deck
What it's for
Built to be forwarded internally, because the person who needs convincing usually isn't in the room
What you won't get is a vendor shortlist. I don't make tooling recommendations unless you explicitly ask for them. Software is rarely the binding constraint, and a list of products is not a diagnosis. My job is to work out what's right for your business, and if that turns out to include a tool, you'll hear it because you asked.
$10,000. Fixed scope, fixed price, 3 weeks from signature.
If you go on to the Partnerships Growth Program within 60 days of the readout, 50% of the audit fee applies to it.
It's priced rather than free on purpose. A diagnosis you paid for is one you act on.
If the answer is that you're not ready, you'll get that answer, and it's worth the same $10,000 to know it before you spend a headcount finding out.
Not sure whether it's the right time?
Take the readiness quiz
5 minutes, no email required to see your result. It scores where you are and tells you whether the audit is the right next step or whether something else is.
Take the readiness quiz