How partnerships actually make money.

What we teach founders about partnerships and events. Free to read, free to use.

The partnership map

Which kind of partner would actually sell for you?

Not one partnership. Ten. Three families, split by what the partner really does for you.

Start from your goal.

Start with

Referral, Affiliate

The signal it works

Signed clients traced to the partner, not just contacts.

Start with

Channel, Reseller

The signal it works

The partner closes on their own, without you on the call.

Start with

Co-marketing, Influencer, Events

The signal it works

People arrive already knowing your name before the first call.

Start with

Integration, Co-selling, Marketplace

The signal it works

A shorter sales cycle on shared accounts.

Family 1

Distribution

They sell for you.

  • ChannelA partner with a sales team brings your offer to their clients.
  • Reseller / White-labelThey resell it, sometimes under their own brand.
  • ReferralThey send you qualified clients, for a fee or in exchange.
  • Co-selling / AllianceA joint offer, the same accounts, a shared pipeline.
Family 2

Audience

They lend you their trust.

  • Co-marketingContent, webinars and campaigns with someone who has your same client.
  • InfluencerA voice your ideal client already trusts.
  • AffiliateYou pay only for results: per sale or per lead.
  • Events & sponsorshipSomeone else's room, with your content on the stage.
Family 3

Product

You enter your client's workflow.

  • IntegrationYour solution inside a tool your client uses every day.
  • MarketplaceYour offer in the store of a platform they already use: Shopify App Store, AWS, HubSpot.
What I see most: twenty partnerships signed, zero clients. A partnership that brings no clients is not a partnership. It is a relationship.

Five moves that make it bill.

A good call with a partner is not a sales channel. It becomes one when someone owns it and there is a number to reach.

1

Start from the shared client

Same ideal client, complementary services. If you complete each other, selling for each other is easy.

2

Write the exchange

What the partner gains: money, clients or credibility. If you cannot say it, they will not move.

3

Put a target in the contract

Leads, clients or minimum revenue. If it is not written, it does not exist.

4

Tier your partners

They do not all bring the same revenue, so they do not deserve the same time. One owner per side, reviewed weekly or monthly.

5

Decide at 90 days

Scale it, change the format or close it. Without guilt.

One lever: 90 days. A number written in the contract before you start. Then scale, change or close. Five half-built partnerships are worth zero.
Download the one-page map (PDF)
Events

An event is not visibility. It is a budget.

€20,000. €50,000. A stand, travel, a team, three days of calendar. If your ideal client is not in the room, you did not buy revenue. You bought a photo for LinkedIn.

Before the event, three foundations.

An event gets pitched like a coffee. Without these three, you cannot tell which room to choose, what to say at the stand, or what to do on Monday.

1

Your ideal client

Who buys, why, when, with what budget. Without it, you choose the event by its name, not by its audience.

2

Positioning

Can they tell in 30 seconds why you and not someone else? Without it, nobody remembers your stand.

3

A sales narrative

The whole team tells the same story, all the way to the signature. Without it, good conversations die after the event.

ROI = 0 if even one is missing. Not low. Zero.

How I analyse an event.

Before any sponsorship, do not ask how many people will be there. Ask how many of them can sign.

1

What share of the room is my ideal client?

Ask for last year's registration data, not the brochure.

2

Who already sponsors?

Competitors to stand apart from, or partners to meet.

3

Can I teach, not just be there?

Talk, workshop, 1:1. A stand alone convinces nobody.

4

What does each qualified conversation cost?

Budget divided by conversations with your ideal client, not by badges scanned.

5

What happens the Monday after?

If the follow-up does not exist before the event, it will not exist after.

6

What minimum of leads do I write in the contract?

If it is not written, it is not a partnership.

A real case · A B2B SaaS company × Shopify

One partner. Ten enterprise clients. One quarter.

Where we started

A B2B SaaS company with a long list of partnerships and almost no clients coming from them.

The partnerships existed. Nobody owned a number, and the enterprise brands we wanted were not getting through the door.

What I did

  1. Shopify was the fastest, easiest way to new clients from our ideal client profile: they served exactly that profile, and they had a pain point we could solve.
  2. I mapped the accounts we shared with them, and which of those we could serve best.
  3. I wrote the exchange and a target: what Shopify's team gained, and the number of qualified accounts we aimed for.
  4. I ran it as one shared pipeline, with one owner and a weekly review.
10enterprise clients closed
1 quarterfrom the first conversation to signature
1 partnerShopify, chosen for its fit with our ideal client
A partner who already has the client you want, an exchange written down, and one person who owns the number. That is what turns a partnership into a sales channel.
A real case · TikTok for Business × AI Week, Italy, 2024

Everyone chose the biggest room. I chose the right one.

Where we started

Italian companies saw TikTok as a social network for teenagers. The market reflex: buy a stand at the most crowded conferences and count the leads.

AI Week was in its second edition, niche, and few big companies wanted to be associated with AI.

What I did

  1. I read the audience, not the name: 90% were C-level, founders and agencies.
  2. From sponsorship to education: 2 keynotes, 5+ workshops, 1:1 spaces.
  3. 3,500 minimum leads written into the contract, calculated on the return on investment.
  4. All departments together, PR, marketing, sales and partnerships: leads warmed before the first talk, follow-up ready for each lead after.
3,500minimum leads, written into the contract
6,000+leads generated
€2M+in revenue, in one market
From a room the rest of the industry thought too small and too risky. If your client does not yet believe the category is for them, you do not have a sales problem. You have a trust problem. Trust moves when you teach, not when you pitch.

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