Co-selling with an adoption partner

Partnership is the most loosely used word in enterprise go-to-market. Three quite different arrangements share the label, and the difference between them is simply who carries delivery.

The three shapes

• Referral. The partner makes an introduction and stops. You carry the sale and the delivery. Lowest friction, lowest leverage, typically a percentage of first-year value.
• Co-sell. Both parties are in the room. The partner carries context and credibility; you carry the product and the delivery. Highest leverage in AI, because the credibility is the scarce input.
• Reseller. The partner carries the commercial relationship and often delivery. You lose margin and the customer relationship; you gain reach you could not build.

Commercial terms in plain language

Referral fees are usually a percentage of year-one contract value. Co-sell arrangements often combine a listing or programme fee with a closure percentage. Reseller margins are larger and come with delivery obligations. None of these is inherently better; what matters is whether the fee is buying access to buyers who are actually in market, or simply buying a logo on a page.

What to require before signing

• Audience proof. Not registration numbers — the composition. How many attendees own a budget line?
• Room ownership. Does the partner control the audience, or are they reselling someone else's?
• A written definition of an originated deal, including what happens when a name was already in your CRM.
• An exit that does not strand accounts mid-deployment.

Running the first programme so both sides can measure it

Agree on one metric before anything runs, and make it a second conversation with an operator present — not a registration count. Run three sessions, not one, because the first is always the worst. Then review honestly: if the composition of the room was wrong, that is a targeting problem worth fixing; if the composition was right and nothing converted, the problem is your demonstration, not the channel.