One of the best VPs of Partnerships I know consistently 2x's revenue quarter over quarter. I asked him how he did it. His answer sounded obvious. His method was anything but...
He told me it’s all about partner management. But, to him, real partner management starts long before the first QBR. It starts at acquisition.
Most partner leaders treat acquisition as a checkbox. Sign the partner, move on. He built his entire application process to filter for fit, intent, and readiness before anyone signs anything. That's what sets his partner managers up to win in the first 90 days.
The result is a partner pipeline that converts like a sales funnel.
Three tiers of partners move through it at all times:
Low-hanging fruit - Activate in 1 to 3 months. Not the biggest logos, but they put points on the board fast and build internal credibility.
Mid-tier - Activate in 3 to 6 months. They need more nurturing to activate, but they become the core of your portfolio.
Stretch goals - The big logos your execs want you chasing. 12 to 24 months to activate, but they change the game if and when they convert.
The key is to always have partners in each tier moving through your funnel. That's how you build a predictable revenue engine instead of a volatile feast or famine program.
Equally important, feed who feeds you.
Prioritize partners the way you prioritize your time. QBRs are dogma, not strategy. And failing to manage up is an existential threat to your program no matter how good your numbers are.
The results speak for themselves.
His team surpassed their prior full-year revenue in 5 months. They grew their partner network from 40 to over 150 in 9 months. They're on pace to 4x revenue year over year.
So, how are you turning partner management into an operating system?
This week on Partnerships Unlocked
Marc Monday explains why signing a partner is the wrong finish line, and the metric that should replace it.
Marc Monday has spent 30 years as a roving channel chief at some of the most influential companies in tech: Microsoft, VMware, Concur, SAP, and now ServiceNow, where he leads partner programs globally. He has built more channel motions than most people have had roles.
His core belief: the celebration almost always happens at the wrong moment.
Marc joined me this week and turned 30 years of pattern recognition into a handful of plays. Here are the key takeaways:
Stop counting partners signed. Count partners transacted. A net new partner isn't real until they've closed deals. Marc changed the metric entirely. You don't get a party until there's a there there. 5 deals, 25 deals, whatever makes sense for your program. That's the finish line.
Sign it. Don't tell anybody. The wahoo email kills more programs than bad partners do. Send the announcement and your CEO will be in your inbox in 30 days asking where the revenue is. Do the work first. Get 10 deals. Then tell everybody.
Map the next logical purchase. You won the customer through the partner. Now build on that win. Benchmark who they are, look at what companies like them buy next, and connect the dots. The renewal stops being a scramble and starts being automatic. A 110% renewal isn't a price increase. It's proof you kept selling.
Write it down. Set gates and dates. Keep score. A plan without a date is hope. Pick the moment you decide you're in or you're out. Track leading indicators like a quota carrier, because you are one. Partner teams that keep score stop being hand-wavers.
Fail fast, fail quiet. Signing 3 partners and running 3 experiments under the radar is a feature, not a bug. You can't learn what moves the lever if every test has to work publicly.
Watch the full episode for more, including his take on what makes peanut butter meet chocolate in a channel program, and why he'd rather be lucky than good.
Most partner teams are measuring the wrong thing.
They're counting partners signed, deals registered, emails sent. Meanwhile the CFO is asking one question: which partners actually sourced revenue this quarter? And nobody has a clean answer.
POPS AI gives you that answer in seconds. Ask which partners closed deals this month, who hasn't moved in 30 days, or how the pipeline is trending quarter over quarter. It tells you instantly, without a single manual pull or end-of-quarter scramble.
Keep score like Marc says you should. Now you actually can.
Takeaway of the week
Sign the deal in private. Celebrate the revenue in public. The sequence is everything.