partnership-bd

Partnership & BD

Scope

Covers

• Defining partnership goals and selecting the right partnership type (platform, integration, channel, referral, co-marketing)
• Building a prioritized partner target list with a scoring model and “finger-on-the-button” decision-maker mapping
• Crafting a clear value exchange (why them / why us / why now), including alpha/beta + case-study angles
• Designing an outreach + relationship system (warm intros + ethical cold outreach + lightweight content plan)
• Aligning internally on a scalable partner offer (avoid bespoke one-off deals; define negotiation parameters)
• Negotiation prep (guardrails, walk-away, patience) and a simple deal process (MAP + pilot)
• Partner launch + operating cadence (enablement, metrics, check-ins)

When to use

• “Create a partnership strategy and a target partner list.”
• “We need an integration/platform partnership—draft a pitch and outreach sequence.”
• “Design a channel/referral partner program for distribution.”
• “Help me negotiate partnership terms and define what’s negotiable vs standard.”
• “We signed a partner—build a launch plan + operating cadence.”

When NOT to use

• You need to define the product/ICP/positioning from scratch (do that first; then return here)
• You want high-volume spam outreach or anything deceptive/manipulative
• You need legal advice or contract language (use this skill for non-legal term framing only; involve counsel)
• You’re doing M&A, fundraising, or procurement/vendor selection (different motion)
• You’re selling directly to enterprises as the primary motion (use enterprise-sales)
• You’re a founder doing early direct sales to validate product-market fit (use founder-sales)
• You want to build a community or developer ecosystem, not a partner channel (use community-building)
• You need to set pricing/packaging strategy for your product (use pricing-strategy)

Inputs

Minimum required

• Partnership objective(s) + success metric(s) (e.g., qualified pipeline, revenue, distribution, integrations shipped)
• Product summary + differentiation (1–2 sentences) and what you can offer partners (API/integration, audience, revenue share, credibility, data)
• Target customer/market and the partner archetype(s) you want (platform, integration, channel, referral, strategic)
• Constraints: timeline, geo/segment focus, compliance/regulatory constraints, exclusivity appetite, budget
• Internal capacity: BD owner, engineering bandwidth (if integration), marketing bandwidth (if co-marketing)