THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

Finding Partners
5 Hyper-Practical Steps to Finding, Contacting, and Closing
the Best Partners for your SMB

1
 Introduction
More often than not, when you are trying to figure out how to look for the right partners for your business, you
find many theoretical ways to build a partner program…not today! In this guide, you will discover the best (and
actually practical) methods in the industry to grow your partner base.

The key here is to automate as many steps as possible to be able to scale your partner program—from
searching to contacting and closing partners. Not only will this automated process increase your efficiency in
finding partners, but it will also free up your time to be able to focus on developing strong partner relationships.
The question is, how do you find and contact partners in the most efficient way possible?

Today, we will share some of the methods and tools you can use to expedite the recruitment process and start
working with new partners right away. Here’s a snapshot:

• First, create an Ideal Partner Persona so that you know the kind of partners to look for in the vast
pool of options out there.
• Secondly, search for partner companies that fit the Partner Persona you have created. You can
do this through Google and LinkedIn or by looking for partners with whom your competitors are
working.
• The next step is to use LinkedIn to find the specific Point of Contact (POC) for the potential partner.
• After that, upload this data to Lemlist, an outbound campaign tool, and create a multi-channel
campaign, which will optimize your response rate.
• Finally, start working with your partners in the best way possible.

Let’s take a look at each of these steps in detail.

List of Tools You Need

• LinkedIn (Free) or LinkedIn Sales Navigator ($99)

• Lemlist ($99)

• Dropcontact ($24 for 1000 emails)

• Kiflo PRM Software (starting at $299)

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 Step 1: Create Your Ideal Partner Persona
Before you can start looking for partners, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of what kind of partners would
be ideal for your program. In other words, the first step is to define and create an Ideal Partner Persona (IPP).

While figuring out and creating the IPP, you must consider four key factors: company type/industry, company size,
point of contact, and location.

The first time you create an IPP, it may not be perfect and that’s ok. It can be your best estimated guess, but
over time your IPP should be measured. Be sure to regularly reevaluate your IPP based on data to ensure you’re
working with the highest performing partners.

1. Company Type/Industry
Remember that the primary objective of partnerships is to increase your reach, find new customers, and
increase sales. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What kind of company is in close contact with your target audience?

2. Who could sell or add complementary value to your product or service?

3. Where will your audience get help, advice, or support around what your product does?

The first question helps identify partners that will let you reach your target customers, while the second
question will throw some light on whether the partners you choose have the motivation to refer or sell your
products or solutions. The third question is critical in determining whether they have the technical know-how to
promote and sell your offerings.

The response to these questions could lead you to agencies, consultancy companies, resellers or MSPs.

Here are some examples:

If You Sell: Then Look For:

Business Consultants, Digital Transformation
A CRM or Marketing Software
Agencies, and Accelerators

Architecture Software Architecture and Design Consultants

Business Management Service Providers, IT

A Field Service Management (FSM) Solution
Consultants, and ERP Consultants
Accounting Consultants, Financial Advisors, and
Accounting Software
Bookkeepers
Digital Agencies, eCommerce Consultancies, and
A Customer Service Platform
Marketing/Web Development Firms

These questions will help you gather the information required to create your IPP—the kind of partners you
should be targeting. Creating the IPP allows you to:

• Put yourself in your partner’s shoes and understand their motivations.

• Create communication strategies that appeal to their goals and requirements.
• Measure the effectiveness of your partner acquisition campaigns and see whether your efforts are
reaching the right partner audience.

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 2. Company Size
The size of your partner company can be instrumental in determining what kind of partners you should look
for, and it will also help you narrow down your search. Your target company size for partners can be based on
various factors: your credibility on the market and the size of your target customer.

For example, if you are new to the market, it may be difficult to win a partnership with a fortune 500 company.
On the other hand, if your customers are enterprise-level companies, they might have a tendency to work with
other large companies rather than a startup so you might want to target a larger-sized partner. The key here is
to shoot for the best possible partner, while remaining realistic.

3. Decision Maker
Defining the decision maker will help you know the person you should contact within the partner organization,
or the Point of Contact (POC).

Here are some questions you could ask yourself to help you determine the decision maker:

• Who oversees the strategy and will make the decision about my product or service?
• Who in this company is responsible for partnerships?
• Who in this company deals with customers your product could help or who deals with the problem
your product could fix?

The position of the decision maker is often dependent on the size of the company as well. If, for example, the
company is small, you might want to contact the CEO. If the company is larger, you might contact the VP of
Partnerships.

4. Location
Location is another critical ingredient in the IPP in what geographical
location to target partners. Ideally, you should look for partners in the
location as your target customers. The closer your potential partner is to
your target customer, the more likely the partner will be in touch with them.

Defining the location also gives a definite direction to your search for
partners. Instead of doing random searches, you can do location-specific
searches and filter out partners that are not relevant to your target
audience.

Once you have these identified and the IPP created, it’s time to enter the
next step: finding and contacting partners.

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 Step 2: Find Partners
Next, you need to search for partners that fit the Partner Persona you have created. The question is, how do
you identify and zero down on the right partners when there are hundreds of thousands of them out there?
You can do it in three main ways:

1. Google search

2. Through your competitors

3. LinkedIn

Let’s check out the benefits of each of these methods.

1. Searching for Partners Via Google 2. Searching for Partners Through

Doing a Google search is the simplest and the easiest
method to look for partners. That said, it comes with
a challenge—you must use the right keywords to land
on the right partners, and it can be trickier than you
think.
Your Competitors
Looking for partners through competitors is a strategy
that helps save time and energy. It can also give you
insights into how to build your IPP. Your competitors
have already vetted partners that are good to work

Here’s where your IPP comes in handy. You can fall with and active. Their websites often have “Partner

back on it to create the right keywords and search for Directory”, “Partners”, or “Partner Marketplace” pages

a consultancy company that is right for you. It could where you can find information on potential partner

be a combination of company type, size, location, and companies.

the like. You can add these companies to your list of

prospective partners, or again, you can use a scraping
tool to create the list for you.
Examples:
• Top digital marketing companies in
Singapore
• IT consultant startups in New York
• Best business consultants in London

Added Tip: When gathering data from websites found

through Google search, you may come across results
like, “Top 50 digital marketing agencies in New York.”
Instead of copying and pasting all the data from such
websites, you may want to investigate using a website
scraping tool that will extract the data for you in an
Excel sheet.

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 3. Searching for Partner Companies Through LinkedIn
When you want to find partners for your affiliate or reseller program, what better place to search than the
world’s largest professional network?

LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator saves you time when searching for possible leads.

Yes, we are talking about LinkedIn. You can use the criteria you set in your IPP to search for potential partner
companies by:

• Typing in a keyword
• Adding the location
• Selecting the industry
• Choosing the company size

Once you launch the search, you will find thousands of results that match your search criterion. Here, you can
extract the data using a LinkedIn automation tool, like ProspectIn for example.

You can use these three methods to shortlist companies/partners that best fit your IPP. Once you have the list
ready, it’s time to identify the POC in these companies.

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 Step 3: Find the Best POC
LinkedIn is a great platform to identify POCs in your potential partner organizations and start communicating
with them. You can do it in a few simple steps:

• Step 1: Type in the company name in the search bar of LinkedIn.

• Step 2: Click on “All employees”.
• Step 3: Look for the best point of contact in that company.

Once you have your best POC open on your browser, it’s time to import the details to a tool where you will
launch your contact campaign. We have found Lemlist to be the most effective tool in this regard. It has the
highest response rate because it lets you use a multi-channel approach.

A multi-channel approach involves using multiple marketing channels simultaneously, such as emails and
messages, to communicate with prospects. For starters, it maximizes your exposure and increases the number
of engagement points, which contributes to better response rates. It also helps you reach your prospects on a
platform that best works for them.

Lemlist lets you launch an email campaign and a LinkedIn messaging campaign through one single tool. We
will talk more about how to do this in the next section, but for now, let us see how to import the contact from
LinkedIn into the Lemlist tool.

Find the best POC easily with Lemlist’s intuitive tool.

This strategy first requires you to set up your Lemlist account. Given below is a step-by-step guide:

• Step 1: Go to Lemlist.com to create your account. We suggest you select the Sales Engagement
package of $99/month. It will allow you to use multi-channel functionalities.
• Step 2: Create a campaign in Lemlist (Call it Partner Recruitment, if you’d like).
• Step 3: After creating your sequence campaign, go to your setting and select the Scanners tab to
enable scanners to enrich the data for your campaign. Enable both LinkedIn and Dropcontact

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 • Step 4: Go to the Google Chrome Store and download the Lemlist chrome extension.
• Step 5: From the extension, sign in to your Lemlist account.
• Step 6: It will guide you towards connecting the extension to your LinkedIn account.
• Step 7: Click the campaign you created in Lemlist (Partner Recruitment) >> Click “Create” to add the
lead to Lemlist.

One of the cardinal rules of contacting your POCs is to start conversations that are likely to get a response.
That leads us to the next step: launching the contact campaign.

Step 4: Start Your Contact Campaign

We have already seen how to add your POCs or leads to Lemlist. Now, you must do one more thing before
launching the campaign—get their email addresses. You can do this easily by integrating Dropcontact in
Lemlist.

How to Integrate Dropcontact in Lemlist

Dropcontact will automatically find you the correct email addresses that are GDPR compliant for your contacts.
The integration is simple and easy, and you can complete the whole process in just three steps. And the best
part? No coding is required.

• Step 1: Create a Dropcontact account here. (Pricing starts at €24 per month for 1000 emails. To
learn more about the pricing, click here.)
• Step 2: In Lemlist, click “Settings” >> Go to the “Integrations” tab.
• Step 3: Enter your API key found in your Dropcontact account >> Your integration is now complete.

Now that you have information from LinkedIn and Dropcontact, you are ready to start your campaign!

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 How to Start Your Contact Campaign in Lemlist
You can start your contact campaign using Lemlist in three simple steps:

• Step 1: Click on the campaign you have created. (Ex: Partner Recruitment)
• Step 2: Under the “Review” tab, you will find all the leads you created from LinkedIn. Their email
addresses are filled in from Dropcontact. This is where you can check if the variables to your
personalized fields are correct. Once it has been checked, you can mark the leads as “reviewed” so
the sequence can start.
• Step 3: Go to the “Sequences” tab, where you can start building the campaign with a series of
messages that will be sent by email and LinkedIn. Here, you must create the timing and message of
each action.
We, for example, create a sequence with two LinkedIn Messages and three emails. Given below is a sample
sequence:

• Send LinkedIn Invitation Request (must be under 300 characters)

• Wait two days
• Send a LinkedIn Message
• Wait two days
• Send Email #1
• Wait one day
• Send Email #2
• Wait three days

Lemlist campaigns help automate nurturing sequences.

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 How to Write Effective Messages
While tools like Lemlist help you start conversations with leads through emails and messages, it is crucial to
draft compelling emails/messages to get their potential partners’ attention. Here are a few tips on how to write
messages and emails that get a response:

• Personalize your message

Rotageek has multiple different kinds of partners: referring partners, resellers, and an informal group
of partners that recommend their solution. With Kiflo, Rotageek is able to keep each partner properly
organized in their program, track the leads and deals that each partner registers, and ensure that
the partner will be paid the correct amount.

• Keep it short
When making a partnership pitch, people tend to write wordy messages. This, however, is a common
mistake. Your leads do not read long messages; it feels spammy to them. Here’s the recommended
word length:

TYPE CHARACTER/WORD LIMIT

LinkedIn Invitation Request Under 300 characters

LinkedIn Message 50 to 100 words

Email Message 50 to 125 words

Consider these messages as a conversation starter rather than going into the conversation itself. Keeping your
word count under these limits will also help you increase your response rate.

• Structure your emails and messages

Structure your conversation so that it elicits a response from leads. For instance, it is crucial to use
a catchy subject line. You must also structure the conversation around their needs and requirements
rather than talking about your company at length. Likewise, make sure to ask questions that will
move the conversation forward.

• Results
The results of your contact campaign might vary depending on many factors, such as how effective
your pitch is, how relevant your product/solution is, how well did you target your partners, etc.
However, if you use the right tools the right way, you will get optimal results.

For instance, when we set up our campaigns, we typically see:

• An email open rate of 70-90% (we made good subject lines!)

• An email reply rate of 30-50% (we targeted our partners well!)

• A 60-80% of LinkedIn invitation acceptance rate

• A 15-40% of LinkedIn reply rate

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 Track the effectiveness of your messaging in Lemlist.

After contacting partners and receiving a positive response, the next step is to start the onboarding process.

Step 5: Get Started with Your Partners

Partner onboarding is, perhaps, the most challenging part of any partner program. It involves many things, from
ensuring compatibility on multiple fronts, to communicating the expectations and benefits, to offering a fruitful
onboarding experience, and more.

Let’s take a quick look at how to get started with your partner program.

1. Ensure Compatibility
Onboarding partners only to find they don’t match your requirements, culture, goals, and values is
the last thing you want. Dig deeper and speak with your partners to make sure they are a good fit for
your program. Get on a call with them and check whether they are aligned on the following points:

• Commercial Compatibility
Even the most established partner can fail to generate leads and revenue if they don’t
share your value propositions or have the same target market. Check whether your
partner’s business goals can be compatible with yours. Ask yourself this question:what is
the joint value proposition you could offer? Then, ensure they have the know-how to pitch
and promote your solution.

• Operational Compatibility
It is equally important to check whether your partners are in alignment with your business
plans and goals. Moreover, verify that they have enough time and resources to dedicate to
selling your solution. They should be able to show the committed actions they will devote
to your partnership.

• Cultural Compatibility
Your partners represent your brand identity, so choose companies and consultants that
share the same values and culture as yours. Ensuring cultural compatibility will help foster
lasting and friction-free collaborations, and help display a united front to the market.

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 • Strategic Compatibility
Is there a strong alignment between the objectives, vision, and goals of your organization
and your partners? If not, it might affect the success and longevity of partnerships. While
your partner doesn’t necessarily need to have the exact same vision as yours, it should be
synergetic.

• Technical Compatibility
If you plan on integrating solutions with your partner, it is essential that you are technically
compatible and that the company can meet your technical requirements. Often, partners
will share their API documents with you to see if integration could be possible.

2. Be Clear About Expectations and Benefits

Every partnership comes with two things: a set of expectations, roles, and responsibilities and a set
of benefits and perks. Make sure that you are clear on both counts before onboarding partners. Here
are a few tips to follow to make sure you are on the same page:

• Share your commission structure with partners. They should fully understand the exact
commission and benefits they will get when joining the program.

• Different partners perform different responsibilities in the sales cycle—while some

partners only bring leads, others convert leads and stay with customers through the
entire sales cycle. It is essential to set the responsibilities of each type of partner and your
expectations from them without ambiguities.

• Agree on the shared value proposition that you and your partner can offer together.
Prepare your marketing efforts to display a united front to your customers.

• If possible, have a non-binding agreement that stipulates the roles and responsibilities of
both parties. It will help you get back on track if either of the parties gets sidetracked.

3. Offer Your Partners an Excellent Partner Experience

Once you have partners joining your program, ensure you are getting the most out of your
partnerships by effectively onboarding and engaging them. Here’s a snapshot of a few of the ways
you can enhance the onboarding process and improve partner engagement:

• Provide a Partner Portal

Making a Partner Portal available to your partners will allow them to access all the support
materials they need, track their leads and deals, and easily collaborate with you.

• Offer an Excellent Training and Onboarding Experience

It’s crucial to invest in training—it is the only way to keep your partners updated and 100%
committed to the program. Use your Partner Portal to provide sales and solutions training;
easily set up a certification process if needed.

• Extend Updated Materials

Your partners need the right materials to pitch and promote your solution. To provide them
with what they need, add all useful resources to their Partner Portal, including marketing
documents, product demos, videos, case studies, customer persona, etc.

Copyright © 2022 Kiflo All rights reserved. 12

 To Wrap Up
Finding the right partners may seem like an intimidating task. However, with the aid of the right tools and
methods, such as Kiflo, LinkedIn and Lemlist, you can create a plan to identify, contact, and onboard partners
that fit your requirements. While some of these tools are free, others require some budget, but the ROI is
definitely worth it.

Now that you know the best practical steps to find and contact partners, why wait? Make a plan and start
building/scaling up your partner program today.

Learn More

If you’re looking to take the leap and

scale your partner program, we’re here to
support you. There’s no need to wonder if
Kiflo is right for you — book a demo and
see our software in action.

Book Your 1-on-1 Demo

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