Planning on launching agentic AI? Here’s a step-by-step playbook for launching agentic AI offers, ready to hand to your teams at a startup or a large organization. It gives partner-program leaders a 90-day, do-this-now plan to modernize their program for AI: make partner offers transactable, set a simple governance for agentic AI, and add outcome-based incentives that pay for activation, and fast time-to-value, so partners can build once and sell often (repeatable offerings).
TLDR: Make it easy to buy (Marketplace + co-sell), safe to deploy (governance), and worth it to sell (outcome incentives).
The Playbook
There’s plenty of talk about AI agents, but the real growth unlock in the enterprise is partner-led amplification and distribution. But how do you and your partners get ready? Let’s dive in and get it done before your competitors do it.
Table of Contents
Creating an end-to-end plan that removes friction and includes key success factors in partner adoption is key in gaining traction. That’s why this playbook is action-forward, with tables, clear owners, and metrics. I’ve added short TLDRs per section.
Important: Your partners will launch faster and sell more if you hard-wire three things into your program: transactability (marketplace + co-sell), AI governance (agentic-ready standards), and outcome-based incentives. Treat them as products with SLAs, telemetry, and clear economics.
This playbook takes into consideration the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC), just replace or remove as needed if not relevant in your case.
Make it easy to buy, safe to deploy, and worth it to sell.
1) 90-day program sprint plan
Horizon | Program move | What to ship | Owner | Success metric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Now (0–30 days) | Transactable-first rule | Require new partner offers to be marketplace-transactable; publish a 1-page checklist | Partner Ops | % of new offers transactable (target >80%) |
AI governance v1 | Baseline standards for agentic AI: audit logs, HITL1, rollback, eval pack | Office of the CTO + Compliance | % of AI offers passing governance gate | |
Outcome incentives pilot | Add 10–20% kicker for “activated licenses,” “MACC2 pull,” or “time-to-value <90d” | Channel Finance | # of partners earning outcome kicker | |
Next (30–90 days) | Co-sell alignment | Publish seller attach rules + qualification; auto-credit sellers for partner-sourced | Field Ops | # of co-sell deals; attach rate |
Reference factory | 10 lighthouse cases with before/after metrics per vertical | Partner Marketing | # new references with quantified impact | |
Data telemetry | Standard events: activation, usage, incidents, savings/ROI | Product + Data | % of offers emitting required events | |
Later (90–180 days) | MPO3 / Bundle program /Bundle program | Templates for ISV + SI bundles, rev-share boilerplates | Legal + Alliances | # of multiparty offers live |
Fund model v2 | Co-build/co-market fund with clear ROI gates | Channel Finance | ROI on funds; pipeline influence | |
Regionaliza-tion (this can be done in phase 2) | UK/EU public-sector variants; language + compliance | Geo PMO | Time to list regionalized offers |
TLDR: In 90 days, enforce transactable offers, minimal AI standards, and outcome incentives; by 180 days, scale co-sell, references, telemetry, and multiparty bundles.
2) Incentives that drive the right behavior
Lever | Why it matters | How to structure | Guardrails | Metric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Outcome kicker | Pays for business results, not hours | Bonus for activation, MACC2 burn, cycle-time cut | Require telemetry + proof | # payouts; ROI per $ |
Marketplace rebate | Pulls offers on your marketplace | Extra % for transactable + private offer | Sunset services-only | % revenue via marketplace |
Co-sell credit | Aligns field + partners | Auto ACR/seller credit when partner attached | No manual carve-outs | Seller attach rate |
Specializationboost | Focus on industries | 2–3 vertical badges with playbooks | Cap # to avoid diluting | Win rate by vertical |
Funded references | Speeds trust | Pay for 10 quantified case studies | Must include before/after | # references with metrics |
TLDR: Pay partners for outcomes, transactability, and attach, and require data to prove it.
3) Marketplace + co-sell readiness (make buying easy)
Requirement | Program deliverable | Owner | SLA |
|---|---|---|---|
Transactable listing types | Catalog of allowed SKUs + “how to” | Partner Ops | Published in 2 weeks |
Private offer templates | Standard terms for enterprise, public sector | Legal | 1-day turnaround |
Co-sell checklist | Eligibility, fields, proof assets, seller credit rules | Field Ops | Live + linked in PRM |
MPO /bundle enablement/bundle enablement | Guide for ISV + SI bundling, rev-share calculator | Alliances | Training monthly |
MACC2 playbook | Step-by-step to MACC2 eligibility | Marketplace Team | Updated quarterly |
TLDR: Treat marketplace and co-sell like product features with docs, templates, and SLAs.
4) AI/agent governance (approve in days, not months)
Governance is a key aspect to look at early on. Set simple, non-negotiable guardrails so AI/agent offers can be approved quickly with low risk:
Control | Minimum standard (v1) | Evidence required |
|---|---|---|
Observability | Structured logs for prompts, actions, outcomes | Log schema sample + daily export |
Human-in-the-loop | Approval gates on risky actions | Config screenshot + flowchart |
Rollback | One-click revert for data or actions | Test plan + demo |
Eval harness | Benchmark accuracy, bias, cost, latency | Eval scripts + report |
Data handling | PII policy, retention, residency | DPA4 signed + region map |
TLDR: Publish a one-pager with these five gates; partners self-cert, you spot-audit.
5) Enablement that drives offers, not slides
Let’s start with end goal and create a simple workback plan:
Track | Outcome | Asset |
|---|---|---|
Build | Partner packages a repeatable offer | Offer canvas + SKU template |
Sell | AE can explain value in 90 seconds | 9-slide pitch + 1 pager |
Deliver | Services playbooks exist | Runbooks, checklists, KPIs |
Prove | Metrics collected by default | Telemetry SDK + case-study kit |
TLDR: Certification programs should end with a published, transactable offer and a ready proof pack.
6) Telemetry & attribution: measure what you pay for
This will be key as it provides additional data for leaders to bring to the boardroom to justify the value of partnerships and program investment:
Event | Definition | Used for |
|---|---|---|
Activation | Deployed + first successful run | Incentive eligibility |
Usage | Weekly active workflows/agents | Renewal triggers |
Outcome | Time/cost saved, accuracy uplift | Outcome kicker |
Attach | Seller + partner on opp | Co-sell credit |
Support | MTTR5, escalations | Quality gates |
TLDR: Ship a lightweight event spec and a small SDK; tie dollars to events.
7) Partner experience (reduce friction)
This section is about making partners’ lives easier: approve listings fast (48-hour SLA), put all rules in one place (PRM), use pre-approved legal templates, pay on time (Net-30), and give them a named manager with a shared Slack. If we do that, we cut friction and hit clear targets: 90% on-time approvals, 80% template use, <1% payment disputes, and CSAT over 90%, which will make the C-Suite happy. Seriously, I;ve seen unnecessary hurdles or lack of support become a barrier to adoption to many times.
Friction today | Fix | Target |
|---|---|---|
Slow approvals | 48-hour SLA on listings/offers | 90% within SLA |
Random rules | Single source of truth in PRM | NPS + task success |
Legal bottlenecks | Pre-approved templates | 80% template usage |
Payments lag | Net-30 automated payouts | <1% payment disputes |
Support maze | Named TSM + shared Slack | CSAT > 90% |
TLDR: Publish SLAs and hit them; partner NPS will track with revenue.
8) Risk heatmap (what bites programs later)
A few things to consider as you build:
Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
Agentic AI incident | Med | High | Governance gates + kill-switch |
Incentive gaming | Med | Med | Telemetry + audits |
Marketplace policy drift | Med | Med | Quarterly policy reviews |
Regional compliance gap | Low–Med | High | Geo variants + legal review |
One-off custom work | High | Med | Incentives tied to repeatability |
TLDR: Most issues come from weak governance and bespoke deals. Close those gaps first.
9) Example OKRs (drop straight into your quarter planning)
Objective: Make partner offers easy to buy, safe to deploy, and worth it to sell.
What OKRs should you aim for? Here are some recommendations, and as usual they will depend on the context. Work cross-functionally to align:
KR1: Increase transactable partner offers from 35% → 75%.
KR2: Launch 10 lighthouse references with quantified outcomes.
KR3: Reduce listing approval time from 12 business days → 2 days.
KR4: 60% of partner revenue via Marketplace/private offers.
KR5: 90% of AI offers pass governance v1 at first review.
10) One-page partner brief (you can email this)
Speed adoption by making it easy for partners to execute:
What we changed: Transactable-first, outcome incentives, AI governance, faster approvals.
What you get: Clear rules, better economics, quicker listings, co-sell alignment.
What we need: Publish a transactable offer, wire up telemetry, bring one reference logo.
Where to start: Use our templates; your TSM will turn around reviews in 48 hours.
TLDR: We removed friction and pay for outcomes; build once, sell often is the mantra here.
Final TLDR: for Partner Program Leaders
This playbook helps you: make every offer transactable, ship governance v1 for agentic AI (logs, approvals, rollback, basic evals), and pay for outcomes (activation,MACC2, time-to-value). It includes templates, SLAs, and light telemetry so teams move fast. Result: partners ship faster, sellers attach more, and Marketplace becomes your quickest path to revenue.
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Questions? Contact me or schedule a call here.
1 HITL = Human-in-the-Loop.
2 MACC = Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment.
3 MPO/bundle enablement” is the guidance and templates that help an ISV + services partner (SI/channel) package their software and services into one private offer, so procurement, pricing, and payouts happen in a single, streamlined deal.MTTR = Mean Time to Repair/Restore/Resolve.
4 DPA = Data Processing Addendum (sometimes “Agreement”).
5 MTTR = Mean Time to Repair/Restore/Resolve.