Four ways to sell software you did not write
An accountant who keeps being asked what to replace a bookkeeping stack with and a country distributor running a whole territory want different things from a vendor. So the partner programme has four tracks, not one with tiers.
· 3 min read
Most partner programmes are one programme with tiers: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, each asking for a bigger target in exchange for a bigger discount. That structure assumes every partner wants the same thing in larger or smaller amounts.
They do not. An accountancy practice whose clients keep asking what to replace their bookkeeping with does not want to hold a software contract at all. A distributor running a country wants to hold every contract in it. Those are not two levels of one relationship; they are two different businesses. So the Rutba partner programme has four tracks.
Referral: introduce the deal, we do the rest
For consultants, accountants and agencies. You make the introduction — an email or a call with both of us on it — and discovery, demo, quote, contract, provisioning and support are ours. You are paid a referral fee on what the customer actually pays, which means it keeps paying while they keep paying rather than stopping at signature. No target, no minimum: introduce nothing this year and nothing happens.
Reseller: your price, your customer
You buy at partner pricing and sell at your own. You own the quote, the invoice, the renewal and the customer relationship; we license the software and stand behind it with second-line support. This track asks for an agreed annual target — set with you rather than handed to you.
Implementation: keep every penny of the services
For business software, most of the value a customer receives is the work around it: configuration, data migration, integration and training. On this track you keep all of that services revenue, on top of partner pricing for the licences. We ask for at least two certified people on your team — certification is free and remote — because a customer’s go-live depends on them.
Country distributor: run the territory
The most demanding track and the most rewarding. An exclusive territory, distributor pricing, the right to appoint and support sub-partners beneath you, local billing in local currency and first-line support in the local language. It asks for a territory plan and an agreed target. Eleven territories are open, and none is spoken for yet.
| Track | You do | You earn | Commitment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral | Introduce and qualify | A fee on invoiced revenue | None |
| Reseller | Sell, quote, invoice, own the customer | The difference between partner and your price | An agreed annual target |
| Implementation | Sell, configure, migrate, integrate, train | Partner pricing, plus all your services revenue | Two certified people |
| Distributor | Run the territory and its sub-partners | Distributor pricing, plus margin on sub-partners | A territory plan and target |
An accountant and a country distributor are not two levels of one relationship. They are two different businesses.
What is the same on every track
- No joining fee, nothing to stock, no minimum order. You carry software, not inventory.
- A sandbox of your own — your own instance with your own data, so a proof of concept survives to become the customer’s live system.
- Engineers on your calls — presales questions go to the people who wrote the code.
- One line is enough to start. Most partners lead with a single product they already have buyers for.
What none of the tracks publishes is a margin percentage. That is deliberate, and the reason is its own post.
The four tracks, in full
Who each one is for, what the work looks like, and the first ninety days — on the partners site.
partners.rutba.io
