- Path A
Build a partner program that actually runs. Skip the $100K+ hire.
Start My Partner Program gives you the system, the plan, and the guidance to go from zero to a real partner program in 90 days, with active partner relationships and a team that knows exactly what to do next. No partnerships hire required.
Most first partner programs fail before they start. Here's the math.
You have three conventional options, and they are all expensive ways to learn the same lesson.
Wing it
A founder or sales leader squeezes partnerships into nights and weekends, picks partners by gut feel, signs a few logo swaps that never produce, and concludes partnerships do not work here. Cost: a year of leadership time and a market window your competitors used.
Hire a fractional consultant
$5,000 a month buys a few hours of advice, and you still need someone internal to do the work. When the retainer ends, everything they knew walks out the door. Cost: $60,000 or more a year, and you own nothing.
Make the full-time hire
$120,000 to $150,000 fully loaded, six months of ramp, and most companies cannot evaluate a partnerships resume. Having done partnerships is not the same as building a program from scratch. A mis-hire costs $200,000 and 18 months, and then the whole category gets a bad name internally.
Or start with the system.
Get the right answers out of the gate, run it with your own team against a real plan, and hire a person later to scale what is already working, with money the program already earned.
In 90 days, you will know exactly what you are doing.
1. Get the strategy right
Every customer starts with a partner-strategy assessment and a working session with a certified advisor. We determine which partner types you should actually activate: services partners, technology partners, OEMs, resellers, VARs, MSPs. Then we load the right program plan into your Forecastable platform, connect Crossbeam, and invite your first partners. From day one you are operating against a plan, not staring at a blank tool.
2. Build your first play
Your value story: what is the play, through which partner, to which buyer. Step-by-step videos show exactly what to load, what your CRM needs, and what has to exist before outreach. Everything is sequenced to one goal, a partner program that runs and produces.
3. Instrument everything
Activation plans for each partner. Goals and forecasts set in Forecastable and wired to your CRM: leads, lead-to-opportunity conversion, win rate. By day 90 you are tracking everything from first lead to closed-won against the goals you set.
A word on pipeline. Many of our customers source partner pipeline inside the first 90 days, especially when they already have a few partner relationships to build on. If you are recruiting partners from scratch, those 90 days go into building the machine that produces: the plan, the relationships, the plays, and the tracking. Anyone who promises you closed pipeline in 90 days without knowing your partner base is guessing. What we commit to is this. In 90 days you will have a real partner program, you will know exactly what to do next, and you will be executing it systematically. Pipeline follows a working program, and by then you will have one.
Beyond 90 days: a working session with your advisor every six weeks, your AI Chief Partnerships Officer running continuously in between, and new plays and templates as your program grows.
What you get
- Partner-strategy assessment and a working session with a certified advisor
- Up to 10 partners under management
- Step-by-step video curriculum for every stage
- Goals and forecasting wired to your CRM, tracked from first lead to closed-won
- A session every six weeks after that
- Your program plan built and loaded into the Forecastable platform
- Crossbeam connected and your partners invited
- Per-partner activation plans
- Four working sessions with a senior Forecastable advisor in your first 90 days
- An AI recommendations engine that tells you what to do next, included
$5,000 to get moving.
That covers your $500 activation, which includes onboarding, your partner-strategy assessment, and your first consulting call, plus your first 3 months. After that it is $1,500 a month, month-to-month. No long contract. Prefer annual? $15,000 a year with two months free, and your first $5,000 counts toward it.
More partners
Your plan includes 10 partner accounts synced from your CRM. Each additional partner is $300 a month, self-serve, no sales call. If you are hitting this meter, your program is working.
Extra guidance
Book additional certified advisor hours at $250 an hour, whenever you want more help.
You also get a Chief Partnerships Officer that never sleeps.
Alex is your AI Chief Partnerships Officer, included in your plan. Alex understands your goals and your plans, and connects to the systems where partnership work actually happens: your CRM, your email, and Slack or Teams. Nothing gets missed, because Alex knows exactly which activities are happening with each of your partners, and which ones are not.
With years of partnerships consulting expertise built in, Alex does more than report activity. Alex tells you what to do next, and how to work through the challenges in front of you, partner by partner.
For the hard things, and for anything that needs a real human conversation, you have working sessions with a senior Forecastable advisor: four in your first 90 days while you are building, then one every six weeks.
Is this the right path?
- You do not have a dedicated partnerships hire yet
- You are building a partner program for the first time, or restarting one that stalled
- You want your own team running it, with expert guidance at the moments that matter
- You want a system in place before you spend six figures on a hire
Look at Accelerate My Partner Program instead if:
- You already have an established partner program and a team running it
- You want Forecastable running the program with you across your full partner base
- You are managing well beyond 10 partners today
Frequently asked
What counts as a partner under management?
A partner account loaded into Forecastable and synced from your CRM. Your plan includes 10. Sync an eleventh and your price increases by $300 a month per partner, automatically, with your card on file. You will always see the meter before you cross it.
Who actually works with us?
A senior Forecastable advisor, assigned to you at onboarding. They run your assessment and four working sessions with you in your first 90 days, then a session every six weeks, and they are available for additional hours whenever you want more help. Between those sessions, your AI Chief Partnerships Officer is watching your systems and telling you what to do next.
We already know what kinds of partners we want. Do we still do the assessment?
Yes, everyone does. It is fast, and it is the highest-leverage session of the program. Teams that arrive certain are sometimes certain about the wrong partner type, and finding that out in week one is a lot cheaper than finding out in month six.
What happens after the first 3 months?
You are month-to-month. Most customers keep going because by then their program plan, partner plans, goals, and pipeline tracking all live in the platform. There is no lock-in, and that is on purpose.
How is this different from Accelerate My Partner Program?
Start gives you the system and the plan, and your own team runs it, with a certified advisor guiding you at key moments. Accelerate is Forecastable running your program with you across your full partner base. That is why the per-partner rate differs: $300 per partner when you run it, $500 per partner when we do.
What do we need in place before we begin?
A CRM, someone who will own partnerships day to day even part time, and a willingness to run the plays. That is it. Most of our Path A customers start founder-led.
Will we have pipeline in the first 90 days?
Often, yes, but we will not promise it, because it depends on something we cannot see until we start: whether you already have partner relationships to build on. Programs that do frequently source pipeline inside the first 90 days. Programs recruiting partners from scratch spend those 90 days building the foundation, and usually see pipeline shortly after it is in place. What we commit to in 90 days is a real partner program, a plan you are executing against, and knowing exactly what to do next.
The market does not wait for your partner program.
Every quarter without a working partner program is pipeline your competitors’ partners are sourcing instead. Start with the system, build the program, and make your first partnerships hire when there is already something working to scale.