FINDING TRACTION IN PARTNERSHIPS
The operating system for partnerships that compound
Print & Ebook
The operating system for partnerships leaders who want compounding revenue, not slideware.
An operating system for partnerships — not another theory of them.
Most partnerships books explain why ecosystems matter. This one explains how to build a program that actually produces pipeline and revenue week after week, quarter after quarter without collapsing the moment a sales leader pushes back or a co-sell motion meets the comp plan.
Written for VP-level partnerships leaders, C-level executives, and founders building a partner motion, Finding Traction is a field manual. It covers ecosystem design, co-sell mechanics, attribution, executive alignment, and the operational cadence that turns "partnerships" from a line item into a multiplier.
The book is built around the friction that quietly kills programs: ambiguous ownership, partner-sourced credit fights, the gap between recruitment and activation, the slow erosion of executive sponsorship, and governance that doesn't survive the next reorg.
Every chapter ends with the operating mechanics. What to put in place, what to measure, and what to stop doing. The output is a program that compounds, not one that constantly has to be re-justified.
What readers say
Partnerships have long been one of the most important — and least documented — disciplines in business. Bart changes that. This book distills years of hard-earned experience into a practical playbook for building partnership organizations that create measurable business value. Essential reading for executives, partnership leaders, and anyone serious about making ecosystems work.
Three readers. One operating problem.
Partnerships leaders
Building or rebuilding a program and tired of frameworks that don't survive contact with sales, product, or the board.
C-Suite
Evaluating whether the partner motion is real or whether it's a line item dressed up as a strategy.
Founders
Deciding when, how, and how much to invest in ecosystem before it becomes a tax instead of a multiplier.
Operating mechanics, not aspirations.
A clear operating model for partnerships not a slide, an actual system.
A framework for activating partners vs. recruiting them.
A model for partner-sourced vs. partner-influenced revenue you can defend in a QBR.
A co-sell motion that survives sales comp and account ownership disputes.
Governance that doesn't collapse under headcount or org changes.
Executive alignment patterns that keep partnerships out of the org-chart graveyard.
Attribution mechanics that make pipeline credit defensible.
A diagnostic for the friction that quietly kills programs in the field.
Bart Dirksen
Bart Dirksen is a partnerships leader and consultant, who has worked inside B2B SaaS companies through the critical years between early traction and operational scale. His work focuses on the operating mechanics that turn a partner program into compounding revenue.
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