Partnership sales

What is partnership sales?

Partnership sales means other companies sell your product to their customers, through their own salespeople, and are paid from the revenue they bring in. You get a sales force without fixed salaries, and customers who already trust someone. The trade-off is control: you depend on how much attention your partners give you.

Partner, reseller, franchise: what is the difference?

• Sales partner: sells your product under an agreement and earns a commission. Ours were study abroad agencies, private companies and schools.
• Reseller: buys your product and sells it on under its own terms and margins.
• Franchise: runs your proven concept under your brand and pays you a royalty, so your brand travels with every sale.

The sequence that worked for us

1. The founder sells first. Our first seven deals, with Finnish cities, took about six months. How, in founder-led sales.
2. Then partners. A partner network took us into more than 15 countries without a single salesperson on the payroll.
3. Then your own team. When partners' attention drifted, our own sales team in Vietnam out-sold our biggest partner within five months.
4. Then franchising. Franchises and branded partnerships kept our own name in front of the customer.

Where to start reading

1. Grow sales without salespeople: how to choose, approach and run your first ten partners.
2. When to build your own sales team: the signs, the setup, and what happens to the partners.
3. Doing business in Vietnam as a foreigner: why partnerships there are made CEO to CEO.
4. How to get event sponsors with no budget: combining partners to create something from nothing.