An ecosystem is shaped by who leaves — PartnerImpact ==================================================== Source: https://www.partnerimpact.net/insights/partner-ecosystem-exit-criteria Text version: https://www.partnerimpact.net/text/insights/partner-ecosystem-exit-criteria.txt Site: PartnerImpact — B2B SaaS partnerships advisory by Bart Dirksen Published: 2026-04-28 Category: Ecosystem Strategy Every partner program tracks who joins. Almost none decide who should leave. Exit criteria are what keep an ecosystem from carrying dead weight. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Most partner programs track who joins. Almost none decide who should leave. You have exit rules for deals. You have exit rules for employees. For partners, there is usually nothing. Just a growing list of signed agreements, with less and less activity per partner. The result is a portfolio that looks big and works like clutter. Partner managers are spread across a hundred names when fifteen of them do most of the work. And because there is no label for a dormant partner, every signed partner still counts as active. The money and attention go into recruiting new partners, while the ones already signed are managed, at best, from a spreadsheet. A few things are worth putting in writing in any program. What does dormant actually mean, in numbers? How long do you wait before you downgrade or remove a partner? Who makes that call? What happens to their tools, incentives, and access when the relationship pauses or ends? None of these questions are hard to answer. Most programs simply avoid them, and that is a big reason partner ecosystems carry so much dead weight while the top of the list does most of the work. Deciding who leaves is part of ecosystem design. For most programs, it is the part that is missing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Navigation: - Home: https://www.partnerimpact.net/ - Insights: https://www.partnerimpact.net/insights - Partner Program Maturity Assessment: https://www.partnerimpact.net/partner-maturity-assessment - Finding Traction in Partnerships (book): https://www.partnerimpact.net/book - Free book sample: https://www.partnerimpact.net/book/sample - Contact: https://www.partnerimpact.net/#contact - Privacy policy: https://www.partnerimpact.net/privacy All plain-text pages: https://www.partnerimpact.net/text/ Contact: partnerimpact@outlook.com © PartnerImpact — Kweldam 1, 6678DK Oosterhout, NL — VAT NL005331357B74