Channel Partner Scoring Table: I Use These 7 Dimensions to Screen Partners (with Template)

TL;DR • 90% of channel partnerships fail due to wrong partner selection, not execution issues • Use 7-dimension scoring table to quantify partner capability — below 60 points = Pass, above 75 points = enter pilot • North America and Southeast Asia have completely different partner requirements: NA values technical depth, SEA values local network

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Counter-Intuition: More Channels ≠ Faster Growth

Most go-global teams’ misconception: When they see competitors signing 10 channels, they panic and sign a bunch — only to find 6 months later that only 1 of the 10 actually brings orders, the other 9 are either “connecting with customers” or just lying flat.

Truth is:

• 1 high-quality channel > 10 placeholder channels
• Wrong channels not only don’t bring orders, but also:
  • Occupy your Pre-Sales resources (training, demo, technical support)
  • Damage the market (random pricing, over-promising) -拖累了你的SLA (customer complains about channel, comes back to you)

An AI camera team signed 8 channels in North America, spent first 3 months busy training, providing demo equipment, doing POC support — only 1 channel actually closed the deal — because only that channel had its own installation team and after-sales capability, the other 7 were “reseller” mindset, just wanted to get RFQs and flip them.

Value of this article: I’ll give you a 7-dimension scoring table (with Excel template), use quantitative + qualitative methods to screen channel partners, so you can predict before signing whether this channel can really bring orders.

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Fit Boundary | Fits & Not Fits

✅ Fits you, if:

• You’re screening channel partners (SI/Distributor/VAR/Local Service Provider)
• You’ve signed several channels but unsure which one deserves resource investment
• Your product is ToB AIoT/AI hardware, need channels for installation/integration/after-sales
• Your market is North America or Southeast Asia (these two markets have very different channel requirements)

❌ Doesn’t fit you, if:

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