The Partnership Flywheel

Most people in BD start the same way: chasing deals. The rush of closing one, getting the logo, seeing the announcement go live. But after a while you realize something. The biggest outcomes don’t come from individual wins. They come from motion.

Partnerships start to scale when they act like systems. And systems, when built right, create momentum. That’s the flywheel. Every good partnership turns into fuel for the next one.

The Transaction Trap

Every successful organization begins with one-off deals. An integration here, a co-marketing agreement there, maybe a joint referral setup. They all look great on paper, but individually they don't create momentum.

When everything’s bespoke, you're constantly starting from zero. That’s fine early on, but it’s not sustainable long term. The real shift happens when you stop running BD like sales and start incubating your partner program like its a product.

The System Shift

Discover -> Co-Build -> Launch -> Expand -> Repeat

• Discover: Find partners who actually win when you win. Not just “who has reach,” but “who grows because of us and with us”.

• Co-Build: Making something together that improves the customer experience. It could be an integration, a data flow, a combined story that shows how complementary your platforms are

• Launch: Going to market in sync. Volume is important, but it's not indicative of momentum. That comes from an aligned launch.

• Expand: Using what you’ve learned to scale the partnership. Adding things like new features, audiences, regions, and growing from there.

Each turn makes the next one easier. Over time, the ecosystem starts feeding itself. Trust builds. Results compound.

Compounding Returns

The first few loops are slow. You’ll question whether it’s working. Partners hesitate. Alignment feels messy. Then you hit a point where success stories replace decks.

That’s when the flywheel takes over. New partners reach out because they’ve seen the motion. You go from pitching value to being pulled into new opportunities.

Amazon did it with its marketplace. Salesforce did it with ISVs. You can do it with your ecosystem.

Leadership in the Loop

The hardest part of building a flywheel isn’t execution. It’s belief. You have to get your company to see partnerships as a growth engine, not an experiment.

Good BD leaders don’t just close deals. They build systems where collaboration happens naturally. They align incentives, processes, and goals so the wheel keeps spinning without them pushing every turn.

The Takeaway

Deals matter, but momentum wins. If every quarter depends on starting from scratch, you’re running, not building.

The real skill in partnerships isn’t chasing opportunities. It’s designing a motion that keeps building on itself. That’s the partnership flywheel; a system that compounds trust, results, and growth long after the first deal is done.