Fractional
The partner program, run by someone who has run one.
You have the product, the team, and the motion. What is missing is the operator. NVG8 embeds as a fractional CRO, COO, or Chief Partner Officer and runs the program alongside you, on your stack, for the quarter it matters.
Why fractional
A full-time executive is the right answer eventually. Usually it is the wrong answer right now.
A CRO or a Head of Alliances costs a six-figure salary before they have shipped anything, and takes six to nine months to ramp. Most partner programs do not survive that wait.
Fractional flips the order. You get the operating experience first, on the quarter you are in, at a fraction of the cost. And when the program does need a permanent owner, you already know what that role does, and what good looks like.
Three stages
Where is your program today?
Partner programs move through the same three stages. The stage decides the work, the duration, and the days a week. We start by naming the stage.
Establish
3 to 6 months · up to 2 days a week
The program does not exist yet. Build the foundation.
Early-stage companies with a working product and a known market. Usually a founder who has built the product and is now doing go-to-market alongside everything else.
- A partner strategy with a named target list, not a wish list
- AppExchange listing that is technically compliant and positioned to your buyer
- The first co-sell and co-marketing relationships that produce named deals
- The operating framework the program runs on: cadence, metrics, decision rights
Grow
3 to 12 months · up to 2 days a week
The program works. Now it has to scale without you.
Companies with an active partner program where the founder, or a generalist, is still doing the operator’s job. The motion is real; the system is not.
- People, process, and technology integrated into one operating blueprint
- AI accelerators that stretch a small team: partner updates, pipeline analysis, enablement content
- A revenue blueprint per partner tier, with the metrics the board asks about
- The performance loop: what partners are doing, what is shipping, what happens next
Scale
3 to 12 months · up to 2 days a week
Multiple partners, multiple markets. The constraint is coordination.
Ecosystems that have become a real revenue line and now need to be managed like one, with the discipline that requires.
- Resource optimization: which partners, markets, and motions earn the next dollar
- Market expansion and tier decisions backed by pipeline data, not tenure
- Leadership bandwidth: strategy, key relationships, and the calls that need a senior operator
- The board story: a partner program that reports itself
What the engagement is
Operator time, not a deck.
Options
Fractional Chief Partner Officer (CPO) or Head of Alliances, and tech optimization consulting where the program needs systems, not just direction.
Availability
Up to 2 dedicated days per week of operator time, adjustable as the program moves.
Duration
3 to 6 months for Establish. 3 to 12 months for Grow and Scale. Priced on duration and days per week; you know the number before we start.
Who it is for
If partner-sourced revenue is a real line on your board.
ISVs and SIs in the Salesforce ecosystem. B2B companies where partner-sourced revenue is a real number, not a hope. Founders running partnerships themselves, alongside everything else.
And if you are hiring a permanent executive, this is how you find out what that person has to do, and what good looks like, before you sign.
From the work
What this has looked like.
What it actually takes to launch a net-new ISV on the Salesforce AppExchange
Embedded as fractional ecosystem lead and built the go-to-market from scratch: AppExchange listing, Salesforce field activation, a strategic ISV reseller partnership, and an SI partner program. About 28 months at $3,000/month.
Eleven partners, 815 opportunities, and a scorecard the board could read
A partnership assessment, a sourced versus influenced partner taxonomy, a scorecard across 11 named partners, and the enablement layer. $47.5M partner-influenced active pipeline at delivery.
Start here
Which stage is your program in?
Thirty minutes on where the partner program is today, and what the next stage needs. No deck, no obligation.