Partnered

The Partners and Channels Playbook

What this build is for

Partners and channels reach the buyers who already trust someone else, through that someone.

Some buyers are hard to reach directly, and harder to persuade. An investor's operating partner doesn't search for consultants; they ask the transaction adviser who did the deal, or the lender who financed it, or a portfolio COO they trust. An owner asks their accountant. Procurement checks the panel the government programme approved. In each case, the buyer's question goes to someone who already has their trust, and that person names a firm, or doesn't.

This is the Partnered category: someone else's voice or audience, by agreement. It differs from PR and reviews in one word: agreement. A reference is freely given. A partner has a reason to recommend you that both sides understand, and the buyer should be able to understand it too.

For Kestrel, this build is small in moments and large in value: it leads the investor's path, where one relationship can bring a portfolio.

The Partnered category's four nods live here: affiliates (paid referral arrangements, rarely right for professional services), marketplaces (directories where buyers compare and book), associations (industry bodies whose member lists and events reach the category) and employee advocacy (Kestrel's own people, speaking in their own names).

The footprint, and what it reads from the chain

Partners and channels lead 3 cells and 3 moments, the investor's whole path outside the deal:

It supports four more: the COO's options (where an automation integrator or equipment supplier can say "fix the line first"), procurement's comparing (where approved-supplier panels decide who can be compared at all), and the investor's comparing and checking.

Three moments led and ten supported, out of 149. But the investor moments carry an outsized prize. One operating partner with a portfolio of eight manufacturers is eight potential clients, each with a COO who'll take the call because their investor made it.

What it reads, and never rewrites:

Its slice of the Score, and its own audit

This build's slice of the Selectability Score is the gate at the investor's moments: Known and Found, through someone the investor already trusts.

The single point of Found comes from one adviser's list, which names Kestrel among a dozen firms. Investors don't find Kestrel because nobody they trust is pointing at it.

The audit.

None of these relationships has an owner, a reason for the partner, or a record of what it produced.

Step 1: the shape, the partner tiers the category runs on

The shape is the partner types the category already uses, sorted into tiers by how closely the partner works with you.

Every partnership is an exchange. The partner gets something they value: a better outcome for their own client, a reason to stay in touch, their own reputation enhanced. If you can't say what the partner gets, there is no partnership, only a list of people you hope will mention you.

Affiliates, as a nod. For professional services, paying per referral turns a trusted recommendation into a commission the buyer may never be told about. If you pay, say so to the buyer. Kestrel doesn't pay.

Step 2: coverage, one partner per audience you can't reach yourself

The coverage unit is an audience you can't reach well on your own, and the partner who already has its trust. For each of the seven cells this build leads or supports, name the chooser, who they ask, and what that person would need to recommend Kestrel.

Four partner types cover all seven: operating partners and their funds, transaction advisers and lenders, automation integrators, and approved-supplier panels. Accountants and associations add reach to owners, in support of Events.

Step 3: gaps, biases and jobs

One rule follows from the exchange: refer back. Kestrel finds plants that do need new equipment, or a finance review, or a new hire. A partner who receives good work from Kestrel sends good work back.

Step 4: reconcile, the partner plan

Six partner groups, about a dozen relationships. Each has an owner at Kestrel, an agreement in writing (even if it's a one-page letter), and a review twice a year.

Rejected, with reasons:

• Referral fees. See the affiliates nod. Buyers trust a recommendation less when they learn it was paid, and they usually learn.
• White-label work for large consultancies. It earns fees and builds someone else's name at Kestrel's moments.
• A listing on every consultant marketplace (nod). Marketplaces aren't where Kestrel's buyers choose. One correct listing on the two that assistants cite is enough, and that's Being named's job.
• Partnerships with equipment makers who'd want Kestrel to recommend their machines. It breaks the reason to choose Kestrel: an independent view of the line.

The anatomy library

Three rules hold for every partnership:

• The buyer always knows the relationship. "We work with Kestrel" is said out loud.
• The partner repeats only signed claims. The one-pager is the only thing they need, and it comes from Credentials.
• It runs both ways, or it ends. A partnership with introductions in one direction only is a favour, and favours run out.

Briefs

PARTNER Northgate Capital, operating team (invented)
TIER Strategic
OWNER Jo Brady, partner
WHO THEY REACH 8 portfolio manufacturers, 120 to 450 staff; COOs and boards
THEIR QUESTION "Which firms deliver operations value quickly?"
WHAT THEY GET Margin found inside the hold period; reporting in value-
creation
               terms; one framework instead of eight procurements
WHAT WE GET Introductions to portfolio COOs; an operating partner
reference
CLAIMS THEY MAY USE Fixed price; six weeks; the way out; start inside 100
days;
               Brennock and Calloway cases
NEVER Fees; exclusivity; Kestrel recommending their other suppliers
REVIEW March and September
MEASURE Introductions, reviews started, portfolio companies served

The finished example: the investor channel, written in full

Three assets for one strategic partner: the one-pager the operating team keeps, the note they forward to a portfolio COO, and the framework that lets the portfolio buy without eight procurements. Northgate, its portfolio and its people are invented; so is Kestrel.

1. The partner one-pager, for Northgate's operating team.

• Kestrel Advisory: margin from the lines you already own, inside the hold period
• Who we help. Manufacturers with 100 to 500 staff in food and drink, packaging, metal and engineering, and plastics and rubber, where output is flat or costs are rising. Who we don't: businesses whose problem is demand, not capacity. We'll say so on the first call.
• When to introduce us. When a portfolio company's value-creation plan needs operating margin within 18 months, and the first instinct is new equipment or a large programme.
• What your company gets. A fixed-price, six-week review on the floor, starting inside your first 100 days. If it doesn't find more than it costs, they don't go ahead. Calloway Foods, an investor-owned business of 310 staff, cut scrap on its main filling line from 4.1% to 2.6%, confirmed by its finance director.
• What you get. Findings reported in value-creation terms, monthly, for your board pack; one framework for the whole portfolio.
• Call: Jo Brady, partner, Kestrel Advisory.

2. The introduction note, written by Kestrel, forwarded by Northgate's operating partner to the COO of a portfolio company.

• Subject: An operations review for Ridgeway, before the line decision
• Alex, as we discussed at the board, Ridgeway's output on the extrusion lines is flat and the capex request is on the table. Before it goes further, I'd like Kestrel Advisory to look at the lines. They do a fixed-price, six-week review on the floor, and if it doesn't find more than it costs, you don't go ahead. They're independent of the equipment makers. Jo Brady will call you this week, unless you'd rather not. — Claire

3. The portfolio framework, in summary.

• One agreement, eight companies. Each review at a fixed price per plant, set by the number of lines, with the same way-out clause. A start within 100 days of a portfolio company's request. Monthly reporting to the operating team in their format. Either side can end the framework with 30 days' notice; any review under way finishes.

What to notice. The one-pager tells the partner when not to introduce Kestrel, which is why they trust it enough to use it. The introduction note is in the operating partner's voice, written for them, and names the decision it should change. The framework removes the procurement step that would otherwise stall every introduction. Three documents, one partner. Kestrel's plan has about a dozen.

Templates

The partner map (one row per partner)

The partner brief

PARTNER [name] TIER [referral / strategic / panel /
association]
OWNER [Kestrel person]
WHO THEY REACH [audience, size, roles]
THEIR QUESTION [what their clients ask them]
WHAT THEY GET [the exchange, from their side]
WHAT WE GET [the exchange, from ours]
CLAIMS THEY MAY USE [signed claims only]
NEVER [fees, exclusivity, product recommendations, ...]
REVIEW [dates] MEASURE [introductions, both ways, and
outcomes]

The introduction log (one row per introduction, either direction)

In the campaign plan

Partners carry campaigns to audiences Kestrel can't reach, but only campaigns that help their own clients. The rule: a campaign goes to a partner with a version made for their clients, and nothing they'd be embarrassed to forward.

Running it, with the nods

Who owns what. At Kestrel, each partner has one owner among the partners; the managing partner owns the partner map. Introductions in either direction go in the log the day they happen.

Associations, as a nod. Join the four sector associations as an active member: speak at one event a year each, give members the benchmark's sector cut, and keep the member-list entry identical to the fact sheet. That's the whole programme.

Marketplaces, as a nod. One correct listing on the directories assistants cite, maintained by Being named. Not a channel to sell through.

Employee advocacy, as a nod. Kestrel's engineers know more about plant floors than anyone in marketing. Encourage them to answer practitioner questions and write under their own names, with no scripts, no required posting and no approval beyond the claims rule: nothing said that Credentials can't sign.

Common mistakes

The bias to watch in the team: reciprocity, misread. Partners don't introduce because they were asked nicely; they introduce because it was good for their client last time. The first introduction is a test. Make it go well.

The business check and the measures

• Revenue: investor-owned manufacturers are the second segment; one strategic partner can reach a portfolio. Start with operating teams.
• One truth: partners use only the one-pager's claims. If a partner says something Credentials hasn't signed, correct it with them the same week.
• Independence: no partnership may compromise Kestrel's independent view of the line. That rules out equipment makers and paid placements.
• Capacity: a portfolio framework could bring several reviews at once. Agree a maximum number of concurrent starts before signing one.

The Loop for this build

Each half-year the Loop (step 11) reads the introduction log beside the investor moments in the Score, and asks: which partners are bringing the right buyers, and which exchanges have stopped running?

What Kestrel's first year would look for. One strategic partner with a signed framework and two portfolio reviews by the end of the year; two referral partners introducing at least once a quarter; a place on the government panel. Small numbers, but each one reaches buyers Kestrel's other builds can't.

Shapes by business type

Feeling a bit overwhelmed?

You should be, a little. One firm: six partner groups, about a dozen relationships, each with an exchange both sides can name, a one-pager, an introduction note, an agreement, a log in both directions and a review twice a year, plus a portfolio framework so introductions don't die in procurement. Most firms call everyone they've ever had lunch with a partner, and wonder why nobody introduces them.

RocMode does part of the heavy lifting:

• A channel training kit, if you sell through partners. When your sales motion is partner-led, RocMode's sales kit includes a channel training kit, built from your strategy and the claims it can back up.
• Who you win, and where they ask. Your choosers and their moments, mapped from what's known about your brand, so you can see which buyers you'll only reach through someone else.

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