One of the key lessons I learned building a partner program from ZERO to $100M

Time for a flashback!

Here's a photo of me from 10 years ago when I was at Box helping to build the partner program from zero to one.   

We had this awesome slide that would take us from 2nd floor to the ground floor.  

Going down that always brought me so much joy. 

I mean, check out the sweet Christmas decorations on it, how can that NOT delight you?

Every time I went down that slide, it was such a good reminder to have FUN in the journey.  It can make all the difference.

But that's not what you came here for today...you're reading because you want to learn about one of the key lessons I learned in building a partner program from zero to $100M.  

So what did I learn at Box building a partner program from zero?

Well, in my first year there, I recruited...700 partners. 

Yup, you read that right.

SEVEN HUNDRED.

In hindsight, that was WAY too many partners based on customer need and what our goals were. 

After 10 additional years of building partner programs 4 more times at other companies, this became really obvious in hindsight.  

Since then, one of the key frameworks I use to better assess whether or not a partner is a good fit has helped me go from zero to $150M+ in ARR across 5 companies in aggregate.

I call it the 3C framework:

Capacity, Capability and Commitment 

Here are 24 data points that I usually collect as a foundation to the 3 C framework (this is not an exhaustive list, but simply something to get you started on the ideation process.  The reality is that the specifics of the 3C framework will always vary based on the specific company and customer needs you're in the middle of!) 

Capabilities:

1. Headquarters

2. What regions they serve

3. Language support

4. Professional services offered

5. Specific services offered related to your platform/product offering

6. Vertical expertise

7. Segment focus (SMB, Midmarket, Enterprise)

8. Their economic buyers

9. Practice areas

10. Complementary or competitive vendors they partner with

Key Questions to think about:

What type of capability is needed to best serve the customer on their journey with your platform, in a way that meets them where they are on the journey?  

What are the key capabilities your customers need from your partners to get to future state?

What are recurring patterns you're seeing around capabilities from your key partners?

Capacity

11. Revenue

12. Relevant practice area revenue

13. Number of employees

14. Number of sales reps

15. Number of consultants

16. Number of pre-sales engineers / architects

17. Number of post sales engineers / technical staff

18. Social media following (LinkedIn, Twitter)

19. # of customers by segment

Key Question:

What capacity do you need in the short term vs the long term to scale the business? 

What types of capacity do you need to consider from your partners (for example, with re: to the type of staff needed for each functional role)? 

Commitment

20. Will they assign a champion?

21. Will they assign an executive sponsor?

22. Will they commit to a cadence of meetings?

23. What marketing resources can they invest to drive a joint GTM?

24. Will they build a joint plan together?

Key Questions:

If a partner went above and beyond for your customers, what would that look like?  

What are ways in which you can see how committed a partner is? 

Hope this 3C framework helps!

Cheers,
Nelson