How This Began — The Story Behind the Signature

• What's the one-sentence story of why you signed this partnership agreement?
• What were the top three outcomes the deal was meant to deliver for your company? Options: Joint pipeline generation, Product integration to fill a capability gap, Co-selling to new accounts, Channel expansion, Shared R&D or roadmap alignment, Co-marketing and demand gen, Other
• Which roles signed off or sponsored the deal on your side and who still influences it today? Options: CEO/Founder, VP/SVP Alliances, SVP Business Development, Head of Product, Field Sales Leader, CFO/Finance, Legal/Procurement, Other
• What timeline was communicated for first measurable joint pipeline or a pilot outcome? Options: <30 days, 30–60 days, 61–90 days, 3–6 months, 6+ months, No timeline specified
• How confident are you today that the original business case still reflects the market and customer need? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Neutral, Somewhat doubtful, No longer valid
• What internal feelings or reactions (excitement, skepticism, indifference) surfaced when the agreement was signed?

If We Stop Pretending — The Real Reason It's Stalled

• What's the internal story people tell when this partnership 'doesn't fit' — and who benefits from that story?
• At which point in the sales cycle do partner-influenced opportunities most often die? Options: Lead qualification, Demo/POC handoff, Proposal/pricing stage, Contract/legal, Post-sale onboarding, Integration blocking, Other
• How often do your field sales reps explicitly push back on co-selling with this partner? Options: Almost always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely, Never
• When sales resist, which reasons do they give most often? Options: Partner competes with our product, Commission/credit ambiguity, Too complex to present, Lack of enablement or collateral, Customer prefers our native solution, Integration concerns, Other
• Tell me about one specific stalled deal: what broke down, who disengaged first, and why?
• How long have you been tolerating the current level of partner performance before taking action? Options: Under 1 month, 1–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–12 months, 12+ months

Who's Holding the Keys — Visibility, Sponsorship, and Influence

• Which executive on your side would quietly deprioritize or kill this alliance if their objectives shifted?
• Who are the active executive sponsors on both sides today (name + role)?
• How often do sponsors meet today and what usually happens in those meetings? Options: Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Ad hoc/as-needed, They don't meet
• How are field leaders measured for partner-sourced pipeline in your organization? Options: Directly credited on quota, Indirectly recognized, No credit but qualitative recognition, Penalized/ignored, Not defined/unknown
• What subtle signals have you seen that indicate sponsor disengagement (missed meetings, lack of prep, delayed approvals)?
• Who on your side is the day-to-day owner for partner relationships and who has veto power on escalations?

Where the Product Tension Lives — Integration Risks & Fragilities

• If the integration failed after the next product update, what would break first and who would be blamed?
• Which technical components feel most fragile today? Options: Public/private APIs, Auth/SSO, Data schema compatibility, Event/webhook reliability, Latency or performance, Versioning and backward compatibility, Monitoring/observability
• Do you have a documented ownership matrix for integration incidents and releases? Options: Yes — clear owners and SLAs, Partially defined — some gaps, No — not documented, Not sure
• Who on each side approves releases that touch the integration (names/roles)?
• How many production-impacting incidents attributable to the partner integration have there been in the last 12 months? Options: None, 1, 2–3, 4–6, 7+
• Describe the last incident: impact on customers, time to resolution, and lessons learned.

Beyond Promises — What 'Good' Actually Looks Like

• If success were undeniable in six months, what would your CFO see in the numbers and what would your sales leader say in the hallway?
• Which three KPIs would you lock to demonstrate momentum? Options: Number of joint opportunities created, Partner-influenced pipeline $, Closed-won partner-sourced revenue $, Co-sell adoption rate (reps using joint plays), Conversion rate of partner leads, Integration uptime/availability, Customer NPS for the joint solution, Other
• What partner-sourced pipeline target feels ambitious but achievable in 6 months? Options: <$250k, $250k–$1M, $1M–$5M, $5M–$20M, >$20M, Unsure
• How should credit and attribution be recorded in CRM for joint deals? Options: Primary/secondary revenue credit fields, Custom partner attribution object, Campaign-based tracking, Manual spreadsheets + reconciliation, Not decided
• What cadence and format (dashboard/scorecard) would make the executives comfortable that the partnership is on track? Options: Weekly ops dashboard, Monthly executive scorecard, Quarterly reviews only, Ad-hoc deep-dives on issues, Real-time alerts + monthly summary
• What evidence would convince you to increase co-investment or expand the alliance?

What Would Make You Pull the Plug?

• What's the earliest, smallest sign you'd interpret as proof this alliance isn't worth continuing?
• Which of these scenarios would be a deal-stopper for you? Options: No measurable pipeline after X months, Executive sponsor leaves and no replacement, Repeated integration outages, Field sales refuse to co-sell, Regulatory/compliance blocker, Clear negative customer feedback, ROI never materializes
• How comfortable are you with building explicit exit criteria into the joint business plan? Options: Very comfortable, Somewhat comfortable, Neutral, Reluctant, Not comfortable
• If we created a governance scorecard, which three negative signals should trigger an immediate executive call?
• What tolerance do you have for early operational costs or co-investment before seeing return? Options: Minimal (0–5% of expected returns), Moderate (5–15%), Substantial (15–30%), High (>30%), Undecided

The 60-Day 'No-Excuses' Plan — What We Must Lock

• If we have exactly 60 days to prove this alliance matters, what single outcome must be non-negotiable to avoid shutting it down?
• Which operational items must be finished in week 1 to keep momentum (select all that clearly apply)? Options: Confirm executive sponsors (names), Map CRM pipeline fields and attribution, Agree integration ownership matrix, Kick off field enablement plan, Enable data access for tracking, Draft joint business plan skeleton, Schedule governance cadence
• Who will be the day-to-day accountable lead on your side (name and role)?
• What CRM objects and fields do you currently use that must be mapped for joint pipeline tracking? Options: Opportunity stages, Lead source, Partner role/relationship field, Campaign attribution, Custom partner object, Lifecycle status, Other
• How quickly can your field teams be trained and enabled to run a co-sell play? Options: Within 1 week, 2–4 weeks, 1–2 months, 3+ months, Unsure
• What would success look like at the 60-day check-in (specific, measurable sign)?

What Would It Take to Trust an External Partner?

• What's the single non-negotiable proof point you'd need from an outside alliance consultancy to feel safe handing them this partnership?
• Which evidences matter most when you evaluate consultants? Options: Track record in our vertical, References from alliance directors, Pilot assessment results on a comparable partnership, Clear 60-day plan with deliverables, Transparent pricing and commercial terms, Team members with field/sales experience, Other
• How quickly do you need to decide about engaging external help? Options: Immediately, Within 2 weeks, Within 30 days, This quarter, Undecided
• What pilot scope would best convince you the consultancy can fix your core issues? Options: Governance design and scorecard, CRM mapping & attribution, Executive sponsor alignment + cadence, Field enablement pilot and playbook, Integration risk assessment and mitigation plan, Joint GTM pilot with 1–2 accounts, Other
• Which commercial model for a pilot would make you most likely to say yes? Options: Fixed-fee pilot, Milestone-based payments, Retainer, Success-fee/at-risk, Hybrid (base + success), Undecided
• What questions or concerns should we anticipate from your procurement or legal teams if we proceed?

A Short History: How We Got Here

• Briefly describe how this partnership started and what the original promise or mutual goal was.
• Which best describes how the agreement originated? Options: Strategic platform integration, Referral or reseller agreement, Co-sell/go-to-market initiative, Pilot or POC, Acquisition-related transition, Other
• When was the agreement signed? Options: Within the last 3 months, 3–6 months ago, 6–12 months ago, More than 12 months ago
• What key milestones or deliverables were completed or missed since signing? Please list concrete examples and outcomes.
• Has either side produced formal progress reports, post-mortems, or retrospective notes about partnership progress? Options: Regular written reports, Occasional updates, A single post-mortem, No formal reporting
• Which of these internal teams on your side have been actively involved (select all that apply)? Options: Alliances/Business Development, Field sales, Product / Engineering, Customer Success, Marketing, Legal / Compliance, Finance, Other
• Who is the executive sponsor on your side and how would you describe their current level of engagement? Options: Highly engaged (weekly), Moderately engaged (monthly), Sporadic engagement, Assigned but inactive, No executive sponsor identified

Where Deals Go to Die

• Why do signed partnership agreements routinely produce little to no pipeline—what's the blunt reason from your perspective?
• At which stages do joint opportunities most commonly stall or slip (select all that apply)? Options: Lead identification / sourcing, Qualification / value alignment, Proposal / commercial approval, Legal / contracting, Integration / POC, Sales enablement / positioning, Customer objections, Attribution / reporting disputes, Other
• Approximately what percentage of expected joint leads have actually materialized into tracked pipeline? Options: 0%, 1–10%, 11–25%, 26–50%, 51–100%
• Describe two specific deals that stalled: what happened, who pushed back, and what was the proximate cause?
• How is joint pipeline recorded and attributed today in your systems? Options: Shared opportunity with partner tags in CRM, Separate partner pipeline in CRM, Manual tracking in spreadsheets, Not tracked in CRM, Other
• Who on your team is responsible for routing, tagging, and owning joint opportunities?
• How often do field sellers actively surface the partner solution in customer conversations? Options: Regularly (>50% of opportunities), Occasionally (10–50%), Rarely (<10%), Never
• If field sellers rarely or never surface the partner, what are the main reasons they've told you (answers: real quotes preferred)?

People, Politics, and Where Feelings Matter

• If your field team treated the partner like a competitor, how would that show up—and how close are we to that reality today?
• Which incentive or quota structures create direct competition or friction between your sales teams and the partner (select all that apply)? Options: Overlapping product quotas, Deal credit conflicts, Territory overlaps, Comp plans that favor internal products, No partner-specific incentives, Other
• Describe a recent cross-company conflict tied to a deal or customer—what triggered it and how did each side respond?
• How stable are the partner-side sponsors and account leads you interact with? Options: Very stable (long-tenured), Some turnover but manageable, Frequent sponsor churn, No clear counterparts identified
• What formal escalation path exists when disputes arise, and who typically steps in to resolve them? Options: Named executive sponsors, Alliance steering committee, Sales leadership, Legal / contracts, No formal escalation path
• On a day-to-day basis, how does this partnership make you feel—frustrated, hopeful, resigned, energized, or something else? Options: Frustrated, Hopeful, Resigned, Cautious, Energized, Other
• What unspoken rules, political sensitivities, or cultural norms should we be aware of to avoid making missteps with your team or the partner?

Is the Tech Married or on Shaky Ground?

• If a single product update from either side could break the integration, how confident are you that it wouldn't? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Not confident, Unsure
• What is the current integration architecture and delivery pattern between products? Options: APIs / webhooks, SDKs / embedded components, Batch files / SFTP, Managed integration service, Manual handoffs / templates, Other
• Who owns the integration roadmap and cross-company release coordination on your side (role or names)?
• Have there been production incidents caused by the partner integration? If yes, describe the most recent incident and time to recover. Options: No incidents, Yes — minor incident, Yes — major incident, Unsure / don't have details
• Are compatibility tests, regression checks, and pre-release integration gates defined and enforced between teams? Options: Yes — formal automated tests and gates, Partially — some manual checkpoints, No formal testing or gates, Other
• How do you currently monitor integration health and who is alerted when we see failures?
• What would be the smallest technical change (a hotfix, a rollback plan, a monitoring dashboard) that would meaningfully increase your confidence?

Governance That Actually Keeps Two Companies Aligned

• Is your current governance setup a calendar checkbox or a decision-making engine that actually clears blockers?
• Which governance forums currently exist for this partnership (select all that apply)? Options: Executive sponsor meetings, Steering committee, Quarterly business reviews (QBRs), Technical ops / SRE calls, Sales enablement / GTM syncs, No regular governance
• What artifacts are produced and shared between you and the partner (select all that apply)? Options: Joint business plan, Pipeline reports, Health scorecards, Integration roadmap, Joint marketing calendar, Contracts / SLAs, None of the above
• Who has final authority to approve co-investment, pause initiatives, or reallocate joint resources? Options: Executive sponsor, Alliance steering committee, Finance / budget owner, Product leadership, No clear authority
• How often are joint KPIs reviewed and by which roles? Options: Weekly operations (Ops/Sales Ops), Monthly leadership review, Quarterly exec QBR, Ad hoc when issues arise, Never
• Describe a recent decision that stalled due to governance gaps—what was postponed and what impact did it have?

Money Talks: Commercial Reality vs. Aspirations

• Are the financial commitments in the partnership real and budgeted, or are they aspirational targets that disappear under pressure?
• Is there committed co-investment from either side for GTM, engineering, or pilots? Options: Yes — formally committed and budgeted, Yes — discussed but not budgeted, No co-investment committed, Not discussed
• How are joint deals typically priced and who approves any partner-related discounts? Options: Standard pricing with partner discount approved centrally, Field-level discount approvals, Custom co-priced deals approved by finance, Partner-directed pricing, Other
• How is partner-sourced revenue attributed and reconciled today? Options: Tagged in CRM and reconciled monthly, Revenue share via finance invoices, Estimated and reconciled quarterly, Not tracked / ad hoc
• Which financial KPIs would convince you to keep investing in this alliance (select up to three)? Options: Partner-sourced pipeline growth, Closed joint revenue, Deal win rate uplift, Customer retention / expansion, CAC payback improvement, Other
• Give an example where commercial misalignment (pricing, discounting, margins) directly caused a lost deal or delayed close.

Signals That Tell Us It's Working (or Not)

• Are you tracking surface-level metrics or the deeper signals that predict whether this partnership will scale?
• Which of these partnership health signals do you currently track (select all that apply)? Options: Number of joint opportunities, Opportunity conversion rate, Time-to-first-pipeline, Co-sell adoption by field sellers, Integration uptime / incidents, Customer renewal or expansion impact, Partner engagement frequency, Other
• What numeric thresholds would you set for 'healthy', 'at-risk', and 'unhealthy' for two of the KPIs you care about most?
• Who in your organization is accountable for the partnership health scorecard? Options: Head of Alliances / VP Partnerships, Director of Business Development, Sales Operations, Product Manager, Customer Success Lead, No single owner
• How often should low-level operational issues trigger an escalated governance review vs. being handled in normal ops? Options: Immediate executive review, Within 30 days, Next quarterly governance meeting, Handled in ops unless repeated
• What has been the most reliable early-warning sign for you that a partnership was about to go off track?

If We Could Fix One Thing Tomorrow, What Would It Be?

• Imagine you could snap your fingers and change one thing that would revive this alliance—what would you change and why?
• Which of the following fixes are realistically achievable within the next 60 days (select all that apply)? Options: Define and map joint pipeline in CRM, Establish executive sponsor cadence, Launch a co-sell play and enablement session, Stabilize integration or deploy a hotfix, Set up shared scorecard and reporting, Agree on short-term co-investment, Other
• Which stakeholders absolutely must be engaged for that 60-day fix to succeed (select all that apply)? Options: Your executive sponsor, Partner executive sponsor, Field sales leadership, Product / engineering leads, Sales ops / CRM owner, Finance / legal, Other
• Describe a minimally viable pilot we could run to prove momentum—what does success look like at 30, 60, and 180 days?
• How much internal bandwidth could you realistically commit to a focused 90-day remediation (select the closest option)? Options: Dedicated FTE or role, 25–50% of a senior role, 10–25% of a role, Less than 10%, No capacity available
• Realistically, when could your team begin a focused remediation or pilot to revive the partnership? Options: Immediately, Within 2 weeks, Within 30–60 days, Next quarter, Unsure
• Anything else we should know right now that would change how we prioritize fixes or shape a 60–180 day plan?

Start Here: A One-Minute Read on Where We Stand

• How ready does your team feel to run a pilot launch in the next 60 days? Options: Completely ready, Mostly ready with minor gaps, Partially ready — several known gaps, Not ready
• Which CRM(s) will record joint opportunities for this pilot? Options: Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Custom/In-house CRM, Other (please specify)
• Who will be the single point of contact we can rely on for day-to-day launch coordination on your side? Options: VP Alliances, Head of Partner Ops, Field Sales Leader, Product Owner/Manager, Other — please name role
• Describe, in a few sentences, how a joint opportunity currently appears in your CRM (stages, owner fields, partner attribution).
• How confident are you that the pipeline data for partner-sourced deals is accurate today? Options: Very confident (audited recently), Moderately confident, Low confidence, Unknown / no visibility

If the Field Sees the Partner as a Competitor, What Happens Next?

• When you imagine a seller pushing back against co-selling, what’s the most common objection they give? Options: Concern about quota credit, Fear of losing control of the account, Distrust of partner delivery, No incentive to collaborate, Other (please specify)
• Tell us about a recent situation where a field rep resisted partnering — what exactly happened and who intervened?
• Which incentives or compensation levers exist today to encourage co-sell behavior? Options: Deal registration bonus, Co-sell credit in quota, Shared commission split, No formal incentives, Other
• Who below is empowered to resolve a field-level co-sell dispute quickly (select all that apply)? Options: Territory Manager, Field Sales Leader, Partner Account Manager, Alliances Director, Legal/Contracting, No clear owner
• If we had to create a one-paragraph message to the field explaining why co-selling this offering helps them hit quota, what would you want it to say?

Who's Actually Owning Launch Day (and the Day After)?

• If launch day goes sideways, which role on your side has the authority to pause or pivot the pilot immediately? Options: VP Alliances, Head of Sales Ops, Field Sales Leader, Product Owner, CEO/GM, No single authority
• Map the RACI for pilot activities: who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for CRM updates, sales enablement, integration fixes, and customer communication?
• Which stakeholders must sign off on pilot readiness before a launch date is locked? Options: Executive sponsor (host), Executive sponsor (guest), Field sales leader, Product/Engineering lead, Partner ops, Customer success
• How will we document and escalate issues that surface during the pilot (channel, cadence, and owners)?
• What internal reporting or dashboards do you expect to see in week 1, week 3, and week 6 of the pilot?

If the Integration Breaks Tomorrow, Who Notices and How Fast?

• What are the critical integration checkpoints we must validate before pilot launch? Options: Auth and SSO, Data sync timing, API rate limits, Error handling/rollback, End-to-end test cases, Other
• Describe your current monitoring and alerting for the integration—who receives alerts, and what’s the escalation SLA?
• Which data elements must be available to both sides for pipeline attribution and health scoring? Options: Opportunity owner, Opportunity stage, Close date, Partner attribution field, Customer success health, Integration status flags
• If an API change from either side could break the joint offering, what change-control process exists to prevent that? Options: Formal API versioning and changelog, Manual review by integration team, No formal process, Other (please describe)
• How long does it typically take your engineering team to triage and fix a production integration bug? Options: < 24 hours, 24–72 hours, 3–7 days, > 7 days, Unknown

Are We Sure the Pipeline Will Be Mapped the Way We Intend?

• If a partner-influenced opportunity is created, which CRM field will flag it as partner-originated? Options: Partner Account field, Lead Source, Custom Partner Attribution, No consistent field today, Other
• Walk us through the exact CRM stage progression for a co-sell opportunity from initial contact to closed — where does partner activity appear?
• Who will be responsible for maintaining accurate partner attribution data (role, not name)? Options: Partner Ops, Sales Ops, AE / Rep, Partner Account Manager, Other
• What automated checks or validation rules exist to prevent users from overwriting partner attribution fields? Options: Field-level permissions, Validation rules/workflows, Automated sync from partner system, None today, Other
• How will we differentiate pipeline influenced by co-marketing versus co-selling in reports?

What Would a Small, Safe, and Measurable Pilot Look Like?

• If we designed a pilot to minimize risk and maximize learning, what’s the smallest viable scope you’d accept? Options: Single region / segment, Specific product line, Limited set of 3–5 accounts, Proof-of-concept integration only, Other
• Which three success metrics would make this pilot unmistakably a win for your leadership (pick up to three)? Options: Net-new partner-sourced pipeline, Number of co-sell engagements, Conversion rate of joint opportunities, Integration uptime, Customer satisfaction / NPS, Revenue closed
• What are hard acceptance criteria that would make the pilot pass or fail (specific thresholds or conditions)?
• Who are the target customers/accounts for the pilot and why are they a good fit?
• What is the ideal pilot duration for you to both test and get meaningful pipeline signals? Options: 4 weeks, 6–8 weeks, Quarter (12 weeks), Longer than a quarter

What Keeps You Up at Night About This Launch?

• If this pilot underdelivers, what are the real consequences you expect (political, financial, roadmap impact)?
• Which executive sponsor on your side is most likely to intervene if early signals go negative? Options: VP Alliances, SVP Business Development, Head of Strategy, CRO / Head of Sales, Other
• How resilient is the co-investment or budget commitment if initial results are delayed? Options: Fully resilient (budget protected), Partially resilient (re-evaluated), At risk (likely pulled), Unknown
• What are the non-negotiable guardrails or red lines you want included in the pilot agreement?
• When you imagine the ideal outcome at the end of the pilot, what feeling do you want your executive sponsor to walk away with? Options: Relieved and optimistic, Cautiously interested, Unimpressed / skeptical, Ready to scale immediately

Make Launch Inevitable: Dates, Decisions, and Who Signs

• If we set a firm launch date today, what is the earliest realistic date your team can commit to with sign-off from all required stakeholders? Options: Within 2 weeks, 2–4 weeks, 4–8 weeks, More than 8 weeks
• What are the three gating items that must be closed before we move to 'go' (e.g., CRM mapping complete, integration tests passed, field training scheduled)?
• Which recurring meeting cadence do you prefer for launch governance during the pilot? Options: Daily stand-up, Twice-weekly operational review, Weekly leadership sync, Bi-weekly steering committee
• Which artifacts will you require from us before launch (select all that apply)? Options: CRM mapping document, Integration runbook, Sales enablement playbook, Pilot success criteria and dashboard, Escalation and RACI matrix
• Who will provide the final sign-off that the pilot met acceptance criteria—specify role and what signal from the dashboard they must see?

Getting Comfortable — Tell Us Who You Are

• What's your title and the single metric your boss will ask about when they hear 'partnership'? Options: VP of Alliances, SVP Business Development, Head of Corporate Strategy, Partnership Ops Director, Other
• Which of these scenarios best describes why you brought this partnership to life? Options: Signed agreement but no pipeline in 6+ months, Need to fill a product capability gap, Competitive threat requiring combined offering, Expand market reach/vertical, Other
• Briefly, what would you say keeps you awake about this alliance in one sentence?
• Who on your team will own day-to-day execution versus who is the executive sponsor (list names and roles if possible)
• Which outcome would feel like a clear early win in the first 60 days? Options: First joint pipeline tracked in CRM, Executive sponsorship cadence established, Pilot scope and owners confirmed, Field enablement kickoff, Other

If This Partnership Fails, Who Feels It Most?

• Imagine we don't fix anything — whose career or budget is most at risk and why?
• Which stakeholders would publicly defend the alliance even if pipeline stalls, and which would quietly deprioritize it? Options: Executive sponsor(s), Field sales leadership, Product/engineering, Finance, Legal/compliance, Other
• How would a six‑month failure show up in your quarterly reporting—what line items or OKRs would change?
• Has any leader already suggested winding down or pausing the partnership? If so, who and what was their rationale?
• On a scale from 1–10, how politically safe is it to escalate customer-facing issues that cross company boundaries? Options: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Where Momentum Sputters — Tell the Untold Story

• When prospect conversations have stalled, what was the most common reason sales gave? Options: No joint value proposition, Competitive conflicts, Integration immaturity, Compensation not aligned, Other
• Walk us through a specific deal that looked promising but went cold—what were the key turning points and who said no?
• Where in the pipeline lifecycle do you see the greatest drop-off for partner-sourced opportunities? Options: Lead generation, Qualification, Solutioning/POC, Contracting, Post-sale handoff
• How often are pipeline attribution rules (who gets credit) contested between teams? Options: Always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely, Never
• Which three words would your field reps use to describe working with your partner today?

What Would 'Good' Actually Feel Like for Each Sponsor?

• If each executive sponsor had to sign a one‑line success definition, what would theirs be? (list sponsor → one-line success statement)
• What absolute numbers or percentages define success at 3, 6, and 12 months? (e.g., $ joint pipeline, co-sell adoption %, revenue)
• Which health signals would make you green, yellow, or red for continuing investment? Options: Pipeline growth trend, Win rate on joint opps, Integration uptime/SLO, Field adoption rate, Executive cadence participation
• How soon do sponsors expect to see measurable ROI before they reconsider continued funding? Options: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 180 days, Longer/depends
• Are there minimum acceptance criteria for the pilot (e.g., transaction volume, SLA, customer references)? Please list them.

Who's Blocking the Deal in the Field?

• Why would a field rep choose NOT to co-sell with this partner even if corporate tells them to?
• Which of these most influences field behavior today? Options: Quota and comp plans, Sales playbooks/enablement, Territory conflicts, Product roadmap priorities, Customer relationships
• What objections do field teams raise most frequently when presented with the joint solution? Options: Pricing complexity, Unclear handoffs, Fear of losing credit, Technical risk, Other
• Who are the field champions (names/roles) and what resistance do they encounter internally?
• How much enablement has the field received specifically for this partnership (none / slide deck / live training / joint shadowing)? Options: None, Slide deck only, Recorded training, Live enablement session, Joint ride-alongs/shadowing

How Fragile Is the Tech Glue?

• If one release from either side breaks the joint offering, what’s the most likely failure mode and why?
• Which integration model applies to your joint solution today? Options: API-based point integrations, Embedded/SDK, Data sync/integration platform, Manual/hand-off processes, Other
• Who owns integration stability and who’s on call when issues surface (list teams/roles)?
• What monitoring or SLOs exist today for the joint integration, and how often are they reviewed? Options: No monitoring, Basic logs only, Automated alerts/SLOs, Daily/weekly review, Monthly/quarterly review
• Describe the typical time-to-fix for integration incidents affecting customers and any recent examples.

Money, Time, and Escalation — What's Really Committed?

• You can be brutally honest: which committed resources are real, and which are ‘paper’ commitments? Options: Budgets allocated and available, People assigned but overloaded, Executive time pledged, No formal commitments
• What is the agreed co-investment (financial or people) for the pilot, and where is that documented?
• How does an unresolved cross-company conflict get escalated today—who is the final decision-maker?
• How frequently do you currently meet to review partnership health and who attends? Options: Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Ad-hoc
• What legal, compliance, or market restrictions could limit pilot scope or go-to-market actions?

If We Fixed One Thing, What Would Move the Needle?

• If you had to pick one root cause that, when fixed, would most likely create measurable pipeline within 90 days, what is it? Options: No joint value proposition, Field incentive misalignment, Integration immaturity, Lack of executive governance, Other
• Why do you believe that single change would have outsized impact—what would the chain reaction look like?
• What quick wins (low effort, high impact) are realistic in the next 30–60 days?
• Who must be actively engaged now to enable that change, and how will we get their attention?
• What would it take for you to commit to a 60-day focused pilot (time, people, and approval)?

Validation Readiness — Are You Ready to Measure?

• How confident are you that CRM and reporting capture partner-sourced opps accurately today? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Not confident, Unknown
• Which attribution mechanisms do you currently use or prefer for partner pipeline? Options: Partner-linked opportunity record, UTM/lead source tags, Joint opportunity ownership field, Manual attribution by sales ops, Other
• Who owns the data and reporting for partner-sourced revenue and who will be the day-to-day reporter?
• What acceptance criteria must be met in the pilot to consider the technology and motion validated? Options: Stable integration under load, 3 referenceable wins, Repeatable sales play, Clear CRM attribution, Other
• Are there sample reports or dashboards you can share that currently attempt to show partner impact? Options: Yes—shareable, Yes—not shareable yet, No

Tell Us Your Hard Constraints

• What immovable deadlines (product launches, contract renewals, fiscal close) constrain our timeline?
• Are there markets, customers, or product SKUs that are out-of-bounds for pilot activity? Options: Specific countries/regions, Certain enterprise accounts, Regulated industries, None/fully open
• What procurement, legal, or security approvals must be in place before pilot customers can be engaged?
• If unexpected issues emerge during the pilot, what is the shortest and longest timeframe sponsors will tolerate before re-evaluating? Options: 2 weeks, 30 days, 60 days, 90+ days
• Finally, what would make you hesitate to proceed with a structured alliance program right now?