Your channel program, without the three-to-five-year learning curve.
A complete partner program for ISVs: the full method taught free, then built for your company. Everything you need to build, manage, and grow a productive network of channel partners.
A channel in a box
Every step, process, and policy you need to build, manage, and grow a productive partner network, drawn from more than twenty years of channel work and distilled into a program you can follow.
ISVs that want strategic partners
Software companies whose partners own their own sales and marketing and drive repeatable revenue, not resellers who forward the occasional lead. If you want a program you can actually run, you are in the right place.
Building a partner program that produces productive partners is hard.
No clear partner strategy
No view of which partners to pursue, how to engage them, or what a productive partnership should even look like.
No budget for channel expertise
Experienced channel executives are scarce and expensive, so the program never gets built the right way.
No program policies
Nothing written down for deal registration, client ownership, incentives, or how a partner exits.
The result is a channel that never gets off the ground, or a handful of random partners who never produce.
Ask yourself a few honest questions.
- Ask yourself: Do you know what your ideal partner looks like?
- Ask yourself: Do you have a clear business model that aligns you with how your partners make money?
- Ask yourself: Do you have a structured process to identify, qualify, and onboard new partners?
- Ask yourself: Do you have a compensation program that rewards the right partner behavior?
- Ask yourself: Do you have repeatable processes for motivating, managing, and evaluating partners?
If these are questions you want answers to, Teach is where you should start.
Start Teach, free →Learn the motion first. Build the program second.
Learn the motion before you spend a dollar. Five modules, taken in order:
1 Channel Fundamentals
- Orientation
- Why Channels
- Why Channels Fail
- Principle 1: The Strategic/Portfolio Binary
- Principle 2: Be a Good Pack Leader
- Principle 3: Don't Keep Non-Performing Partners
- Why Resellers Don't Sell
- Principle 4: Understand the Risk from the Partner's Perspective
- What This Means for You
2 Partner Type & Business Model
- The Strategic / Referral Binary
- Strategic Partners
- Referral Partners
- Marketplaces
- SaaS Business Models by Transaction Value
3 Financial Modeling
- Value proposition
- Partner profitability
- Market prioritization
- What one partner can deliver
- Pond size
- Revenue Projections
4 Recruitment
- Ideal Partner Profile
- Outreach materials
- Qualification checklist
- Partner Application
- Product Evaluation Playbook
- Visit Briefing Kit
- LOI and marketing plan
- Revenue Acceleration Program / market validation
- Reseller Questionnaire
- Onboarding and training
5 Compensation & Management
- The downward spiral
- Partner Compensation
- Setting the Right Discount Level
- Client ownership
- Marketing for, with, and to
- Incentive levers
- Channel conflict rules
- Manage performance
- Classify and exit
We would rather every ISV build a productive channel than watch another one stall for lack of a method, so Teach is free and complete, with no strings.
You leave with the working program for your company, ready to run:
• Your channel model
- Your partner type and business model, set in Module 2: transaction structure, partner model fit, partner investment model, product and market, and channel state
- Revenue Projections workbook (Excel): your partner economics and five-year revenue forecast, with live formulas you can adjust
• Value proposition and recruitment brief
- Value Proposition: an interactive, AI-facilitated session to build the value proposition for your end-user customers
- Partner Recruitment Brief (Word and PDF): where to recruit first, what one partner can deliver, and how many partners you need
• Full recruitment kit, from ideal partner profile through onboarding
- Ideal Partner Profile
- Partner Long List
- Vendor Overview
- Partner Qualification Checklist
- Partner Application, with a sample mutual NDA
- Product Evaluation Playbook
- Visit Briefing Kit
- LOI Template
- Marketing Plan Template
- Partner Revenue Acceleration Program / Market Validation + Co-Sell Packet
- Full framework and content for your reseller agreement
- Partner Onboarding Checklist
- Sales Training Outline
- Technical Training Outline
• Operating rules: compensation, client ownership, MDF, deal registration, pipeline, QBR, and exits
- Partner Compensation
- Client ownership
- Marketing for / with / to
- Incentive levers
- MDF policy + sample
- Channel conflict + Deal registration
- Annual partner review + scorecard
- Light QBR checklist
- Monthly pipeline report
- Classify and exit guide, with a sample termination letter
Everything above, written for your product, your market, and your partners, so you can run it on Monday instead of turning a stack of notes into a program.
Versus the ways ISVs usually try.
Doing it yourself
You build a program either way. It just takes three to five years and costly mistakes. Academy compresses that into a motion you can follow now.
Copying another program
It was built for someone else's product, market, and partners. Borrowed rules rarely fit yours, and the gaps show up later.
Buying PRM software
Tools automate a program you do not have yet. Academy gives you the program; the software comes after.
It is free. Lay the foundation for the channel program that is right for you.
Create your account and start with Channel Fundamentals. Five modules, at your pace.
You will know within the first two modules whether this is the channel you have been trying to build.
You're in.
Check your inbox for a confirmation link to activate your Teach access.
Teach is how you stop guessing. Build is the program you can actually run.
Start with Teach. It is free, and it will cost you nothing to find out.
Start Teach, free →