Insights

How to start a distribution partnership programme

The first partnership is a different problem from the tenth. This is the sequence that works when you have none, written from what the announcements actually show.

Start from where the customer already is

The useful first question is not who would partner with us. It is where are our customers already transacting, and who owns that surface. Everything else follows from the answer.

In this dataset the arrangements that recur are the ones where the partner already owned the moment. A merchant offering financing at its own checkout. A payroll platform offering earned wage access to workers it already pays. A core banking vendor whose customers are banks that need the capability anyway.

The sequence

One partner, fully operated, before the second. The first arrangement teaches you what the contract needs to say, what support costs, and where the product breaks in somebody else's hands. That knowledge is not available any other way.

Write down what the partner earns before the first conversation. A partnership proposal that does not state the partner's revenue in plain terms is a request for a favour.

Decide who operates the customer relationship. Most disputes later are this question, unresolved at the start. The announcements that read as durable are the ones where it is obvious from the first sentence.

Instrument it before launch. A partnership without a number attached cannot be renewed on evidence, and renewal conversations happen whether you have evidence or not.

What to expect in the first year

Announcements in this dataset frequently precede volume by a long way. An arrangement announced in one year and extended in a later one is the pattern that indicates it worked. A first announcement with no follow up is common and is not by itself a failure.

Written from the partnership dataset. The taxonomy defines the kinds of arrangement referred to here.