---
name: "design-the-partner-program"
description: "Use when the portfolio needs program-level design: tiers, incentives, the MDF loop end to end, certifications, and enforced partner-system rules."
triggers: ["design a partner program", "tier framework", "MDF program rules", "partner incentives", "graduation and demotion bars", "partner portal rules", "rebate and SPIF design"]
version: "1"
---
# Design the partner program
Use this when the portfolio needs program-level design rather than one
partner's plan. Start from the partner portfolio, the current tiers, the
incentive and market development fund (MDF) spend, the partner
relationship management (PRM) system in use, and the certification state.
## Set the tier framework
Three tiers by default, four at most. Each tier gets a name, a weighted
earn scorecard — partner-sourced revenue, joint deals, certifications,
joint business plan participation, co-marketing engagement — with partial
credit rather than a revenue cliff, and what the tier unlocks: exposure,
MDF access, registration queue priority, margin deltas.
Graduation and demotion bars need teeth: tiers recomputed quarterly and
losable. If nobody has been demoted in twelve months, the bar is a
ratchet, and you say so.
As a rule of thumb the middle tier should be reachable by 60 to 70
percent of partners within eighteen months, or the bar is too high.
Pilot before you publish: shadow-score fifteen to twenty-five partners on
trailing twelve-month data, and communicate 60 to 90 days before the
first real review. Publish a partner-facing tier sheet draft with
progress indicators toward the next tier.
## Set the incentive portfolio
MDF, sales performance incentive funds (SPIFs), rebates, and co-sell
funds, each with a guardrail band. Fund initiatives against outcomes,
never as per-partner entitlements.
## Run the MDF loop end to end
- Size the pool at roughly 1 to 2 percent of top line as the usual
starting point, then adjust to what the results justify.
- Pick accrual funding or business-case funding, and say which.
- Score intake in favour of demand generation with sales and lead goals
over branding, and proven campaigns first — test new plays with direct
teams and promote only the winners into the channel.
- 50/50 co-funding by default.
- An approval SLA, with requests due 60 or more days before the activity.
- Execution check-ins, with a concierge path for small partners rather
than a do-it-yourself-only program.
- Proof-of-performance rules, and claims inside the program cycle with no
roll-forward.
- A claim and payout SLA.
- Return reported back each cycle as (MDF-driven growth minus MDF cost)
divided by MDF cost, with leads, conversion, and influenced revenue
behind it, shared with partners.
Check fiscal-year expiry and reallocate unspent or underperforming funds
quarterly on documented results.
## Encode it in the partner system
Tier rules, registration operations, claim workflows, and certification
tracking as enforced rules — plus automation triggers for a new
registration, a stale claim, a lapsed certification, and a tier change —
and the admin checklist that keeps them honest.
The registration block: BANT-qualified opportunities only (budget,
authority, need, timeline); eligibility on new-logo against upsell plus
deal size and type; a two-business-day approval SLA; a 90-day protection
window renewable on activity; documented overlap and escalation rules
with a fair dispute audit; and decline reasons limited to named causes —
house account, already registered, partner not in good standing.
Certification tracking sends renewal reminders 60 and 30 days before
expiry, then fires the lapse trigger.
## What you hand back
The tier sheet draft, the incentive portfolio with its bands, the MDF
loop with its SLAs, and the enforced rule list.
## Fallbacks
No partner system means the same rules as a tracked sheet with owners,
and you say what breaks at scale. No MDF pool means an organic-only
program, and you say so.
Tier changes, fund approvals, and anything partner-facing wait for your
yes.