What a partner manager does
The role covers the whole partner lifecycle:
- Recruiting: finding companies that serve the right buyers and signing them. See partner recruitment.
- Onboarding: getting a new partner through the agreement, training and their first referral or deal.
- Enablement: keeping partners up to date on the product, pricing and positioning.
- Deal support: approving registrations, joining partner calls and connecting partners with the sales team.
- Reviews: running partner QBRs, tracking each partner on a partner scorecard and agreeing plans for the next quarter.
Partner managers also represent partners internally. When a partner's deal is stuck in approval, or a commission is late, the partner manager is the one who fixes it.
How the role differs by program
In a referral or affiliate program, a partner manager may look after many partners with light contact, relying on a portal, email sequences and clear rules. In a reseller or system integrator program, the role looks more like account management: fewer partners, deeper relationships and joint business plans. Larger teams often split the work between partner recruitment managers and partner account managers.
Example
A SaaS vendor hires a partner manager to grow its agency channel. In her first 90 days she reviews the 40 signed agencies and finds that only eight have referred a deal in the past year.
She sets up a short onboarding sequence for new agencies, runs product training for the inactive ones and meets the top five each quarter. She also recruits six agencies that serve the vendor's target market. By the end of her first year, 22 agencies have referred at least one deal, and partner-sourced revenue has grown from $180,000 to $410,000.