What this template covers
This is a working checklist for onboarding one partner, from the day you approve their application to the 90-day review. It is written for B2B SaaS partner programs and works for referral partners, agencies, resellers and technology partners, with reseller-only steps marked so you can remove them.
It has four parts:
- A partner header for the partner's name, type, contacts, approval date and the target date for their first referral.
- A 40-step checklist in four phases. Before kickoff covers approval, the agreement, tax forms and portal access. Week 1 covers the kickoff call, training and first materials. The first 30 days are about the first referral. Days 60 to 90 are about the first deal, the first commission and deciding whether the partner is active.
- A 45-minute kickoff call agenda with timings, ending in three named target clients.
- A milestones table with target days, dates, owners and status, which you can paste into a status update or a partner review.
Each step has an owner in brackets: partner manager, finance, sales, partner marketing or the partner's own contact.
How to use it
- Make a copy for each new partner on the day you approve them, and fill in the header.
- Replace the owners in brackets with names. A step owned by "the team" usually does not happen.
- Set the target dates in the milestones table from the approval date. The defaults assume a first referral by day 30.
- Delete the steps that do not apply. Referral partners do not need the reseller steps. Technology partners may need an integration review instead of a sales call.
- Work through it with the partner, not about them. Share the milestones table after the kickoff call so they know what comes next.
- Review open steps weekly for every partner in their first 90 days. A step that has been open for two weeks is where that partner has stalled.
The partner onboarding guide explains the reasoning behind each phase and includes a worked example of a partner going from approval to a first closed deal.
Tips for getting onboarding right
Ask for one thing at a time. The approval email should ask the partner to book the kickoff call, nothing more. Send the agreement and tax form together in the next step, so the partner does all the paperwork at once.
Name target clients on the kickoff call. The single most useful output of onboarding is three specific clients the partner will introduce first. Partners who leave the kickoff call without them often never send a referral.
Reply to referrals fast. The checklist sets two business days to accept or reject a referral. If a partner's first referral waits a week, they assume the rest will too.
Explain every rejection. A rejected referral with a clear reason, such as "too small for us, here is who is a fit," teaches the partner your ideal customer faster than any training.
Check the first commission yourself. A late or wrong first payment does more damage than any other onboarding mistake. Confirm the rate, the date and the amount before it goes out.
For the emails that go with each step, including the welcome email and the first-referral nudge, use the partnership email templates. For what to cover in training, see the partner enablement guide.
After the first 90 days
At the 90-day review, every partner should end up in one of two places. Active partners, who have sent at least one referral, move to monthly updates and a quarterly review. Partners who have not sent anything are paused, with a date to check in again, instead of being chased every week.
Use the notes section at the end of the checklist to record what slowed each partner down. After ten or so partners, the same few problems will show up again and again: an unsigned agreement, no kickoff call, no named clients. Fix those in your process and the next partners will onboard faster.