Consultant partnerships
A named consultant who already has trust in a plant in. An introduction or a joint working session out — only if the work is ours and they remain the advisor. This is a partnership program, not a referral bounty dressed as friendship.
Positioning says "adaptation without consultant dependency." That means the software does not require a two-year SI to change a rule. It does not mean their lean coach is waste. Punch at SI lock-in, never at the person who taught the plant standard work.
This page does not mint partners as a sales persona. It does not set commission percentages (those are a company decision). It does not authorize pitching their client without them.
Who this is (and is not)
In — business improvement for manufacturers:
| Kind | What they do in the plant | Why they fit |
|---|---|---|
| Lean / TPS / CI | Flow, standard work, visual management | The Friday is already their scene. A system that holds the standard is useful to them. |
| TOC / 80-20 / QRM | Constraint, queue, lead time | Job cost and schedule lies are their language. |
| Family-business / ops advisors | Ownership, succession, "the numbers are mush" | Often closer to P1 than we are. |
| State MEP-affiliated practitioners | Productivity projects at 50–500 plants | They are already in the room we cannot buy. |
Out — different motion:
| Kind | Why not this program |
|---|---|
| ERP selection firms (Panorama, Ultra, Third Stage, TEC) | They run bake-offs. See Project bidding. Relationship, not this partner motion. Their conferences (e.g. Stratosphere) use Conference-city Google Ads, not this program. |
| Implementation SIs / VARs for SAP, Oracle, Epicor | They sell a stack we would be displacing or serving. Conflict. |
| CPA firms as bookkeepers | Teach-first is the Accounting AI course, not a software referral contract. |
| Generic "fractional CEO" mills with no plant physics | No scene. Do not recruit them to spray us. |
Niche is required. A consultant who "does operational excellence for all mid-market" is as wide as "manufacturing ERP." Prefer people whose calendar is this micro-vertical.
What they get / what we get
| They get | We get | They never have to |
|---|---|---|
| A system that can hold the standard work they already taught | A scene we did not invent, and a warm introduction | Become an SDR or quote our prices |
| Us treating their client as their client | Context we would not earn cold | Say we are the only platform |
| Credit in the room. They are not replaced by a login | Permission to look at an artifact | Lie about fit to make a fee |
Love of client: if the plant should not change systems, we say so with the consultant. A partnership that needs a bad project to pay is not a partnership.
Program rules (the contract in plain language)
- Named partner. One person (or firm) in Salesforce as partner, not as a disguised account we will later steal.
- No silent outbound to their active clients. If we discover the same plant through ERP signal research, we tell the partner before we send.
- They open, or we open together. We do not "just mention we know you" in a cold email.
- The plant can say no. No-oriented. Delete is valid. The partner does not owe us a meeting.
- Fit first. If the process is not ours, we help them find a better instrument or we walk. We do not stretch Naologic into Munis or a 5,000-person SAP program.
- Economics. Referral or joint-delivery terms are decided by the company and written. This page does not invent a percentage from legacy GTM drafts. Until terms exist, the program still runs on trust rules above — or it does not run.
- Language. They never have to use our deck. We never use their name as social proof without written consent.
1. Find them
Public, then ZoomInfo for identity. No LinkedIn login scrape.
| Where | What we look for |
|---|---|
| AME, SME, Shingo, local lean networks | Speakers and facilitators who name plants or processes |
| State MEP "success stories" and event agendas | Independent consultants attached to a project (not the MEP brand as a reseller) |
| SPE, NTMA, PMA, AMBA, PLASTICS | Advisors who already sit in the micro-vertical room |
| Plant sites / PR | "facilitated by," "lean assessment with" — a name |
Cap: a handful of real relationships per quarter, not a "partner portal" with 200 logos.
2. First conversation (advice, not a pitch)
Same spine as communication instructions. Accusation audit on us.
Beat: "This is going to look like we want your Rolodex. If that is all this is, you should say no."
Reality: their work (flow, constraint, family numbers). We may be wrong about how a system could hold it.
Choice: "Would it be a bad idea to look at one plant Friday together — or would you rather I left this alone?"
Do not: "We have a generous referral program." Do not send a co-branded one-pager before they have corrected our picture of their work.
3. How an introduction actually happens
- Partner names a plant or brings a scene ("the board won't believe job cost").
- We confirm process and size. If it is not ours, we say so.
- Partner asks the owner if a conversation is a bad idea. We do not skip that.
- Meeting: partner stays in the room unless the owner asks otherwise. Discovery question stays "Where does the current system stop matching physical reality?"
- We do not replay a product tour to impress the consultant.
If they never introduce: the relationship can still be a teacher relationship (we learn the slice). That is not failure. Pressuring intros is how the program dies.
4. Joint working session
After they said it is not a bad time. Artifact on the table. Proof ladder. The consultant's standard work is input to Builder (configured or native — classify). Roadmap items stay labeled.
Never: "now you don't need them anymore" in front of their client.
What this is not
- A VAR channel or an implementation marketplace.
- License to harvest their client list.
- ERP-selector capture (different page).
- "Consultant-free" as an insult to people who improve plants.
- Authority to publish partner logos or fees from this document.
Related knowledge
- Micro vertical — partners should match the slice
- Project bidding — selection consultants
- Accounting AI course — CPAs as teachers, not this program
- ERP signal research
- Conference-city Google Ads — selection-firm conferences; not this partner motion
- Communication instructions
- Persona list
Change log
- 2026-09-05 — Point Stratosphere-class selection conferences to conference-city Google Ads.
- 2026-08-31 — Partnership program for niche manufacturing business- improvement consultants. Trust rules first. Economics not invented here.