What this template covers
Most joint business plan templates online are written for consumer goods suppliers and retailers, with shelf space, promotions and case volumes. This one is written for B2B SaaS: a software company and a partner that refers, resells or implements its product. The targets are in new ARR, pipeline and registered deals, and the investment covers people, enablement and marketing rather than trade spend.
It comes as a Word document for writing and signing, and an Excel workbook where every table is its own tab with the totals calculated for you. It includes:
- Plan overview with owners and executive sponsors on both sides.
- Executive summary prompts, so the plan can be read in one minute.
- Shared goals with a metric, an annual target, an owner and a reason for each.
- Target segments and named accounts, with which side leads each.
- Revenue and pipeline targets by quarter, Q1 to Q4 with a Total column, plus total new ARR and average deal size calculated from the inputs.
- Marketing activities with budget, target leads and target pipeline, totaled.
- Enablement commitments such as certification, product updates and a demo environment.
- Resources and investment: the people and time each side commits, and a budget table totaled by side.
- Governance and review cadence, with how changes and escalations work.
- Risks with likelihood, impact, mitigation and owner.
- Sign-off from both sides.
How to fill it in
- Agree definitions first. Decide what counts as partner-sourced and partner-influenced before you set a single target. Use the same rules as your partner agreement and CRM. The partner-sourced vs partner-influenced guide covers how to draw the line.
- Write it with the partner, not for them. Book two working sessions: one for goals and target accounts, one for activities and investment. A plan the partner did not help write is a plan they will not work to.
- Start from the partner's last four quarters. Use their actual sourced pipeline and win rate to set targets, then add a stretch both sides believe.
- Ramp the quarters. New plans rarely produce much in Q1. The example puts $150,000 of pipeline in Q1 and $350,000 in Q4.
- Write the executive summary last, in five to seven sentences.
- Sign it and set the first review date before the meeting ends.
A worked example
The template ships with example figures for a services partner. The partner commits to $1,000,000 of sourced pipeline across the year and $400,000 of sourced new ARR, which is 2.5 times pipeline coverage. With 26 new customers expected, the average sourced deal works out at about $15,400 ARR, and the workbook calculates that for each quarter so you can see if the targets assume unusually large deals.
On investment, the vendor puts in $22,000 (marketing, development funds, demo licenses and travel) and the partner $12,000 (marketing, training time and travel). If $400,000 of new ARR arrives, that is a small cost against the revenue. If it does not, the quarterly review shows where the plan fell short while there is still time to change it. If you fund partner activity, set the rules out first in a market development funds policy.
Tips for a plan that gets used
- Five goals or fewer. Every goal needs one owner and one number.
- Name accounts. Segments are useful, but a short list of named target accounts is what sellers on both sides actually work from.
- Make investment two-sided. If only the vendor commits budget and only the partner commits targets, the plan reads like a quota. Ask the partner to commit people and time too.
- Keep commercial terms out. Fees, margins and deal protection belong in the partner agreement. The plan should say it does not change them.
- Plan for the obvious risks. A single key seller leaving the partner is a common reason partner plans miss, so certify more than one.
After it is signed
Review the plan every quarter in a partner QBR, comparing results to the quarterly targets and resetting the next quarter where needed. Score the partner with the partner scorecard template so you can compare plan partners with the rest of the program, and rewrite the plan each year from what actually happened.