# Do we need partners? > What a partner can bring (reach, trust, delivery), the three common models (referral, reseller, co-delivery), what each leaves you per sale, and when a partner is the wrong answer. - Course: [B2B Marketing and Sales: Win Your First Company Customers](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales.md) - Module: Partners and channels - Lesson 25/32, ~23 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/do-we-need-partners ## Where we are **Alex Tutor:** You're still Klasna for Teams' first marketing-and-sales hire, and so far every deal has come from your own pipeline. This module asks whether someone else should help you sell. **Leo:** I was at an HR conference. Three companies want to work with us: an HR consultancy, a training agency, a logistics association. Partners sell for free, right? Let's sign them all. **Alex Tutor:** Not free. A partner takes a share of each sale, needs training and materials, and can clash with your own deals. Before choosing whom, ask what problem a partner would solve. **Marta:** Our problem isn't closing. Veloria closed once we got in the room. It's getting into the room with companies who've never heard of us. > **Exercise:** Which is the best reason for Klasna for Teams to look for a partner now? ## Reach, trust, delivery **Alex Tutor:** A **channel partner** earns its share by bringing one of three things you lack. Reach: access to buyers you can't reach yourself. Trust: buyers already believe them. Delivery: they can do part of the work you can't. **Pavlo:** For what it's worth, we bought our safety course because our logistics association recommended the provider. Nobody at Veloria reads cold emails from trainers. **Alex Tutor:** That's trust lowering the buyer's risk before you've said a word. An association that recommends you is a kind of proof, not just a list of members. **Sofia:** And delivery? We have tutors. **Alex Tutor:** We have English tutors. A client might also want a needs assessment run by an HR consultant, or classes in a city where we have no one. Then a partner fills the gap. > **Exercise:** Match each situation with what a partner would bring. ## Three models **Alex Tutor:** Referral: the partner introduces a client, we sell, sign and deliver, and pay a commission. The client is ours. A **referral partner** is the lightest model to start with. **Alex Tutor:** Reseller: the partner buys our lessons and resells them under its own contract, at a price it sets itself. The client is theirs. Co-delivery: each side delivers part of one program, and each bills its part or one bills both. **Alex Tutor:** Quick check before the money: which model is this? > **Exercise:** A training agency buys Klasna's lessons, signs its own contract with the client company and sets the price it charges. Which model is this? **Marta:** The money differs too. A referral at 10% commission leaves us 339 − 80 = 259 a lesson. A **reseller** buying at 640 leaves us 640 − 461 = 179. **Sofia:** So a reseller costs us more per lesson. Why would anyone choose that model? **Alex Tutor:** Because the reseller does the selling, the contract and the billing, and carries the client's payment risk. You pay for work you don't do. Whether it's worth it depends on how many deals they truly bring. > **Exercise:** Klasna keeps 339 UAH on an 800 UAH lesson. A referral partner earns 10% of the price; a reseller buys lessons at 640 UAH. How much does Klasna keep per lesson in each model? **Alex Tutor:** So the reseller leaves less per lesson. Does that settle it? > **Exercise:** **True or false:** because a reseller leaves Klasna 179 UAH a lesson and a referral 259, the reseller model is always the worse choice. ## When not to **Alex Tutor:** Partners multiply what already works. If you can't yet explain who your best client is and why they buy, a partner can't either; they'll just bring you more of the wrong deals. **Marta:** Also no partner whose margin we can't carry, and none who sells the same thing we do to the same people. That's a competitor with a contract. **Leo:** And if we can't support them? Someone has to train their people and answer questions. **Alex Tutor:** Then fewer partners, done well. One partner you support beats five who forget you after the launch call. > **Exercise:** In which situations is a partner the wrong answer for now? Select all that apply. ## A decision in order **Sofia:** So for Leo's three, where do I start? **Alex Tutor:** Name the gap first: reach, trust or delivery. Then check the margin can carry a share. Then pick the lightest model that fills the gap, and test it with one partner before signing three. **Marta:** And agree how we'll judge it: introductions, deals, contribution after commission, a review date. **Leo:** Fine, one at a time. But I want an answer this month on which one. > **Exercise:** Put the steps for deciding on a first partner in order. **Alex Tutor:** Leo wants to know in six months whether the first partner works. What do you look at? > **Exercise:** Six months into a referral partnership, which measure best tells Teams whether to continue? ## Your note to Leo **Marta:** Write Leo a short note: do we need partners now, for which gap, which model first, and how we'll know it works. **Sofia:** Do I name a partner already? **Alex Tutor:** Not yet. Choosing comes next lesson, with criteria and weights. Today, decide what you need a partner for. **Marta:** And keep it short. Leo reads the first two lines. > **Exercise:** Leo wants to sign all three companies he met at a conference: an HR consultancy, a training agency and a logistics association. Teams closes well once it is in the room, but struggles to get first meetings with companies that don't know Klasna. Write Leo a short note (3–5 sentences): do we need partners now, for which gap, which model to try first, and how you'll judge it. > **Key ideas** > > - Partners aren't free: they take a share, need support and can clash with your own deals. > - A partner earns its share by bringing reach, trust or delivery you lack. > - Referral: they introduce, you sell and own the client (10% commission leaves Klasna 259 a lesson). Reseller: they buy and resell at their own price and own the client (buying at 640 leaves 179). Co-delivery: each side delivers part of one program. > - Don't use partners to sell what you can't yet explain, when your margin can't carry them, or when they sell the same thing to the same buyers. > - Name the gap, check the margin, pick the lightest model, test with one partner, agree how you'll judge it. **Alex Tutor:** Next: five candidates on one sheet, and how to score them so the loudest one doesn't win by default. - Previous lesson: [Case: 60 days and 20% off](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/sixty-days-twenty-percent-case.md) - Next lesson: [Choosing partners with weighted criteria](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/choosing-partners.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.