Most 'partners' are logos. This scorecard is the eight questions that decide whether a company is worth a real motion: overlap, a shared job, a human owner, and a way both sides get paid.
A technology partnership is two software companies whose customers overlap, building or distributing together, usually around a working integration. This tool does not replace that definition. It stops you treating a friendly email as a channel.
Score before the first call, then again after it. The number that usually drops is champion or commercial. That is useful: it tells you the relationship is not staffed, even if the products fit.
Walk-away scores are not rude. They are how you keep engineering and founder time on partners who can produce sourced pipeline. If a customer keeps asking for the same logo, build a thin integration without a partner program.
Read how to define a partner ICP, then pick the GTM model for anyone who scores prioritize or bet.
25 to 32 out of 40 is a prioritize. Above 32 is rare and worth staffing. Below 17 is a walk: you are collecting a logo.
You need a path to one this quarter, not a shipped connector on day one. A partnership with no workflow to connect is a marketing arrangement.
The person who would own the relationship. If nobody can answer champion or commercial, that is the score.
It is how you apply an ICP to one named company. The ICP is the pattern. This is the instance. See our partner ICP guide.
The tools tell you what to do. A Partner Audit tells you who to approach, how to get paid, and how to run the relationship.
Book a Partner Audit