A Lightweight Agency Partnerships Program That Actually Works

Sei-Wook Kim (00:02.898) On today's episode, we'll be talking about agency partnerships and how a lightweight approach can still yield impactful results. Peter Kang (00:10.78) All right, Sei-Wook. So we talk about partnerships a lot within the agency context. Maybe before we dive in, what are partnerships? What are we talking about when we say partnerships? Sei-Wook Kim (00:23.687) From an agency's perspective, there are a number of different ways that you can define what partners are. For example, some partners might be other agencies that have other services that you may not provide — as a partner that may refer you business or you might work on a project together. There are other consultants, for example, fractional marketing or CMO-type consultants who could be a good referral partner as well. And then if you work in a technology platform like Shopify or Webflow, there are platform technology partners — either the big partner itself, or there are many other third-party tools that could be partners to your agency as well. Peter Kang (01:22.739) Yeah, and the reason partnerships are so important and why we think every agency should have some kind of partnership motion is that, beyond the inbound leads or any outbound leads that you might generate from various efforts, the leads that come from partners could be quite valuable. Sei-Wook Kim (01:42.429) Yeah, the stronger the relationship — and we'll talk more about how you develop the partnerships — but the stronger the relationship, the leads and opportunities that come in could be more warmly vetted, or other people could be vouching for you as an agency. So you may have a higher chance of winning the engagements that come through your door. Peter Kang (02:05.066) Yeah, so today we want to talk specifically about how agencies can set up a lightweight partnerships motion. The reason for this obviously is a lot of agencies are resource constrained. They're not necessarily going to be able to afford a partnerships lead within the agency. And maybe the founder or leadership are busy with many other things, and so they're going to try to fit some kind of partnership activity on top of a lot of the other things they're doing, whether it's new business or dealing with clients and employees. So let's dive in. Maybe we can talk about what is the first step an agency should take to establish a partnership motion in a lightweight sort of way. Sei-Wook Kim (02:51.909) Let's start with defining who the partners could be. It doesn't need to be a huge list. You don't have to have 100 partners that you're trying to manage. Just think about what are the few — maybe five to 10 partners — that are in your ecosystem. They may be there already and you may not be defining them as a partner. But really defining it first and understanding what their services are, how they're complementary to you, and then how you can help each other. Peter Kang (03:24.832) Yeah, that reminds me — especially at Barrel, we were in the Shopify ecosystem. Within that, there are literally hundreds of different partners that you can engage with. But what was helpful for us was really narrowing down on a handful that we were going to really spend time on. At the time it was basically Shopify — we really had to prioritize our partnership with them, get to know their partnership managers, the AEs, the sales folks within the org that we could be supportive of and then also have them send us opportunities. And then there were others — Rebuy, Recharge, Klaviyo, a few other tech partners as well. We really had to prioritize and define those. Otherwise we just couldn't be present for all of them. Sei-Wook Kim (04:22.456) And in terms of keeping it lightweight, just one at a time. You don't have to tackle all of them at once. Go deep. Really understand the people at these partners. Spend time so that they understand what you do and how you can help them and how they can help you. Just go deeper into that relationship and build relationships with the specific people at those different partners. Peter Kang (04:47.893) Yeah, you're right on there. It's all about building a real relationship with the people at these companies and agencies. One of the ways this happens is setting a clear cadence for checking in. We always talk about how important it is to have multiple touch points with partners. Especially in the tech platform space, there are definitely conferences throughout the year. You make it a point to be present there, meet up with them, catch up, check in, deepen that relationship. And from there you can be more top of mind for these folks. Sei-Wook Kim (05:35.205) Yeah, and especially for the tech partners, they're always releasing updates to their platform. Part of this partnership is your team being aware of all the changes that are happening with your partners. Sometimes we would set up lunch and learns where they'd do a 30-minute session with a bunch of the team members on a Zoom call or in person, just to familiarize the partner with other people in your team as well. So it's not just that one-to-one relationship. Peter Kang (06:06.046) Yeah, and that goes to this idea of how do you make sure your team is aware that you have some kind of partnership motion going. That education is super important so that whether it's folks working on a project, the AMs, PMs, or new business folks, they're able to bring in knowledge about partners — whether it's tech, other complementary agencies, or even fractional folks who might be super helpful in a project context. This takes a bit of effort on the part of an agency leader. Beyond lunch and learns, what are some ways that we've been able to keep our team in the know about the presence of a partnership relationship? Sei-Wook Kim (06:59.042) Yeah, talking about it at varying stages. Let's say you're in a business conversation and you say, we may not do SEO, for example, but hey, we have a great SEO partner that we want to bring in, or a great paid partner that we want to bring in on this engagement — talking about who they are, that they exist, what the relationship is, what work they've done. Just educating your team through all of the day-to-day touch points. And then for broader team meetings, when you're presenting what the team did, talking about, hey, we did this but we brought on this partner and we worked on it together. Being more visible with all the partners so it doesn't feel like a siloed activity. Peter Kang (07:51.714) Yeah, let's dive into a little bit more about partner selection. With tech platforms, it's pretty straightforward in the sense that you're committed to using something like Shopify or Recharge or whatever. But with agency partners, it's a little more fluid, right? Because by recommending another agency or another service provider to a client, in some ways we're putting our reputation on the line. So when that happens, how should we be thinking about properly vetting, and what should be prioritized in these decision-making moments? Sei-Wook Kim (08:40.185) Ideally you've worked with a partner already. Let's say the client had brought someone in and you got a really good working relationship and you can see how they've interacted with your team — that's the ideal scenario, to actually see things on the ground. In other cases, it's taking on a smaller engagement, a lower-stakes project, and just testing it out to see how it goes. And also getting feedback from the client — how did it go, any feedback for the partner that we referred? Because ultimately you could meet someone and talk to them, but you don't really know their work or their team until you're actually on the ground working on something together. Peter Kang (09:32.548) Yeah, you can't stress enough that you are putting your reputation on the line by recommending somebody, so it's not something to take lightly. Obviously you might hit it off well with somebody, take a flyer on it, and it works out — that's great. But we've been in situations where we recommended somebody and it did not go well. It's a poor reflection of us. The client loses trust not only in the agency that we referred, but also in us as the referrer. And in those cases it just goes back to being like, all right — and we haven't even gotten to referral agreements and commissions — no amount of money makes it worthwhile to jeopardize your reputation in this way. Sei-Wook Kim (10:21.205) Yeah, definitely. Having that clear communication with your partner, understanding what the dynamic is. You don't want to be in a position — and we've seen this in the past — where a partner might throw your team under the bus for something that just wasn't clear. If you have a situation like that, that's the last time you work with that person. So it's also having a regular checkpoint: you might have meetings with your client, but also having a meeting with your partner on a regular cadence just to line up what's going on. Peter Kang (10:52.678) Yeah, and like with a lot of things, it's all about the long game. We could talk a little bit about referral agreements and the monetary side of things and how we think about it. A lot of these relationships — whether it's tech partners, agency partners, whoever else — come with some kind of commission structure, and we might offer it to others as well: hey, we'll provide a commission. In our case, the standard is 10% for the first 12 months, something along those lines — we offer that to somebody for whatever business or leads they bring our way. But that's more of an incentive that materializes after there's clear trust and things are going to be solid. Because if you get swept away by, hey, we need to generate commissions by sending leads to others and having them pay for the leads we sent them, it's not going to bode well for the long-term viability of a partnerships program. Sei-Wook Kim (12:10.244) Yeah, and there are a lot of partners where money is not the reason why they refer us work or we refer them work. It's not about the calculation. But in some instances, like you mentioned, it does help incentivize behavior and keep us top of mind — and in some ways it's compensating people for the introduction they've made for us. Peter Kang (12:40.443) Yeah, 100%. I'd rather pay out a lot of commissions and reward those that sent leads. And on the other side of it, I want to feel good about, hey, we sent this client to the right team that's going to do a great job and make us look good. For that, I'd almost rather not have to take money. Sure, if the commission comes in and this team is great, that's cool. But in terms of how we prioritize things, that reputation piece is just huge. There are cases where I've sent a lot of business to folks we don't have any commission agreement with at all, but they do such a great job I would continue sending them business ahead of others who might be offering a hefty commission payout. It goes to show how reputation and trust are so important in running these kinds of programs. Sei-Wook Kim (13:48.846) Yeah, ultimately it's about the quality of your referral to the people that you're making it to. And the byproduct of all this is building relationships with many people in the industry across services that you may not provide — and who knows what those opportunities will yield in the future. But you being top of mind for them and them being top of mind for you goes well for fostering that community. Peter Kang (14:17.638) Yeah, okay, cool. Let's quickly reel off some of the things we talked about for establishing a lightweight partnerships motion. First, in terms of the commission structure — if you're going to have a partnerships program and want to have some kind of incentive — keeping it simple and straightforward is super important. 10% collected. Maybe you could speak to how you should think about when these should be paid out. Sei-Wook Kim (14:58.198) Typically the way that we do it is 10% of collected revenue for the first 12 months, paid out monthly or quarterly — looking at the past quarter, what was received, and paying that out net 30. Ultimately you want to be in a position where the client pays you and then you pay your partners. That distinction is important. And in terms of keeping things simple, having the same agreement for all your partners where possible — not having this agreement for this partner and that agreement for that partner. The second it gets really complicated, it just becomes a headache to manage. Peter Kang (15:42.641) Yeah, definitely keep that administration cost down. Okay, the other piece to running something lightweight — we talked about being visible to partners through checkups and meeting up with them at events. A few other things we can do include sending a monthly update. Anything else we can do to stay visible? Sei-Wook Kim (16:05.142) Yeah, we do a monthly email for a bunch of our companies where it's just sharing who the partners are that helped us out, here are some key project launches or relationships, and any news that would be helpful to stay top of mind with the partners. Peter Kang (16:25.571) Yeah. And how do we think about tracking? You can get very complex with this. There is software for it. But like we said, this is lightweight. How do we typically like to go about it? Sei-Wook Kim (16:37.201) Honestly, just spreadsheets. We've looked at a bunch of tools, but for the volume we're talking about, just simple spreadsheets. Track the deals, the amounts received, and the amounts paid out. Simple tracking. Peter Kang (16:56.974) Yeah, those who are comfortable with it — a CRM can support this if you customize some fields and have some reporting baked in. But spreadsheets are just fine. Okay, and then the importance of generating leads for others, because the whole point with partnerships is that it's a two-way street. And this is a huge mistake, by the way — you can't just go around saying I'll pay you 10%, 15% if you give us a lead, sign a bunch of those agreements, and then expect the leads to flow in. It never quite works that way. Why is it so important to give first, or give before you ask? Sei-Wook Kim (17:41.789) It's a mysterious way to stay top of mind — give opportunities to others and they'll definitely remember who you are. It's showing partners that you're serious and you want to help them, and that it's a mutually beneficial thing to be partners. Whenever you have an opportunity, just be quick about saying, hey, we have this deal, is it a good fit for you — and let them make the decision whether or not they want it. Peter Kang (18:15.244) Yeah, that's great. And then — this is more for consultants and agencies — the importance of understanding a partner's capacity. Tech partners are pretty scalable, they're going to be fine, the more you feed them the better. But for some of these agencies, they do have capacity constraints. What are some ways we can mitigate that? Sei-Wook Kim (18:40.532) Like I mentioned, when a lead or opportunity comes in, a quick email or quick note to the person just to see if they have the capacity. This is where you may want to have multiple partners in certain areas — if one partner is busy, you don't want to go back to your client and say, sorry, that partner's busy and we have no options for you. Having a backup or multiple people that could be a good solution. Peter Kang (19:07.14) Yeah, and sometimes we've done this with SEO firms — we might have a few that are very strong in certain areas or certain verticals, and that helps as well. The capacity issue can be mitigated that way. Okay, and then from a metrics standpoint, how do we track success with a partnership program? Keeping it lightweight — what are some of the things we might want to track on a regular basis? Sei-Wook Kim (19:36.371) At a baseline, tracking all your deal sources — knowing how much of your pipeline is partner-sourced. And then of that, how many turn to a proposal and then an actual win, so you can track the quality of partner-sourced leads. And then beyond that, how much are you paying out in commissions? If you're paying out a lot in commissions, that means your partnership program is successfully driving quality leads that end up signing. Both of those metrics — the number and the fee amount you're paying out — are important. Peter Kang (20:21.766) Yeah, definitely. Nothing complicated, but it gives us an indication of how well things are going and the velocity you're seeing. Sei-Wook Kim (20:29.385) Yeah. The other thing is the opposite — how many leads have you shared with partners? That's an important metric to track as well. Peter Kang (20:39.235) Yeah, that's so true. You could argue there's even a little lag on that, because if you give a lot of leads out, that's building relationship capital — something that can pay dividends much further into the future. So that makes a lot of sense. Okay, so we've covered a lot of stuff. Like we said, this is the basic 101 lightweight version. As you level up, if an agency gets comfortable establishing the cadence for this, there are other things that might be unlocked. What are some of those? Sei-Wook Kim (21:21.562) From an agency perspective, unlocking a dedicated resource that manages partnerships. And then from there, thinking about what are the different tiers — software companies typically do this, where for a certain tier you're doing events together, you have co-marketing budgets, and you're spending money against your partnership. Others might be a quarterly check-in, others a weekly check-in. The cadence of communication may change based on the tiers, but it's essentially building more depth into the partnerships program. Peter Kang (22:07.085) Yeah, there are levels to this, and if you can get that foundation set up and you see results from it, it might be worth investing more. Okay, cool. I think we covered a lot today. Maybe in closing, something we could recommend folks do is start with a targeted list of five to 10 partners they might want to go after — where are they, whether it's tech, agency, consultants, investor types, people in the community, whoever might be valuable partners. And then beyond that, we talk about a one-pager that could be helpful to describe what the agency does, who your clients are, what your case studies are — a nice little PDF handout you can give to a potential partner so they have a quick way to access who you are. And then from there, it's all about building good habits. The regular check-ins, writing that email. Keep it simple, and over time things will compound and build up. Anything else to add? Sei-Wook Kim (23:18.458) No, I think that's it. One thing to add on that list: think about who you could send to that partner. The initial gift to get things going — whenever you're building that list, think about how you can give and support them first. Peter Kang (23:38.047) Awesome. All right, well, thanks, Sei-Wook, and thank you everyone for tuning in. Take care. Sei-Wook Kim (23:43.185) Thanks.