Services / Growth Partnership
Retainer + success fee
A partner with something at stake.
A lower ongoing retainer combined with a success fee tied to business that actually closes. Structured for companies who want a long-horizon relationship rather than a vendor invoicing for activity.
What a Growth Partnership actually is
The retainer covers the operating cost of running your business development properly — research, outreach, qualification, management. The success fee is earned on closed business, against criteria agreed in writing before the engagement starts.
The point of the structure is alignment. When part of our compensation depends on deals closing rather than meetings being counted, the incentive to push weak prospects onto your calendar disappears. We would rather book you four meetings that can close than twelve that can’t.
This model asks more of both sides. It needs a longer commitment, a sales process on your side that can convert what we send, and honest visibility into what happens to deals after the first meeting.
How it works
What you get
- Commercial structureA reduced monthly retainer plus an agreed success fee on qualified closed business. Both defined in writing before we start.
- Qualification criteriaWhat counts as a qualified opportunity is agreed jointly and documented. No retrospective arguments.
- AttributionHow a deal is attributed to the partnership is written down at the outset — source, timing window and what happens on a re-engaged account.
- Full BD operationResearch, messaging, multi-channel outreach, reply handling, qualification and booking — the complete motion, run continuously.
- Pipeline reviewsA recurring working session on live opportunities, not just a report. What’s stuck, what’s real, what to change.
- Feedback loopWe need to know what happened after the meeting. That information changes who we target next.
- Longer horizonStructured over a period long enough for a full sales cycle to play out more than once.
Best for
This is the right model if…
- You want a partner whose upside depends on your results, not your activity
- Your sales process can convert qualified meetings once they land
- You can give visibility into deal progression after the first conversation
- Your deal values justify a success-fee structure
- You are thinking in quarters and years rather than weeks
Questions
Before you ask us
How is the success fee calculated?
As an agreed share of qualifying closed business, defined in the contract. The definition covers what qualifies, the attribution window and how renewals or expansions are treated. We put all of it in writing before starting, because ambiguity here is what makes success-fee arrangements go wrong.
What if a deal closes long after the meeting?
The attribution window is agreed upfront and reflects your actual sales cycle. A six-month cycle gets a window that matches it.
Why is there a retainer at all?
Research, outreach and qualification cost money to run whether or not a deal closes this quarter. A pure success-fee model would force us to chase the fastest-closing prospects rather than the best ones — which is the behaviour this model is designed to avoid.
What do you need visibility into?
What happened to the meetings we book: whether they progressed, stalled or were disqualified, and why. Without that, we’re targeting blind.
Can we start here?
Usually not. Most partnerships begin after a Pilot Sprint or a period of pod work, because both sides need a realistic view of conversion before agreeing a success-fee structure.
Build something with a longer horizon.
If you want a BD partner carrying real commercial risk alongside you, let’s talk about what that structure should look like.