In this featured play, expert Rhima breaks down exactly how to use PartnerStack for her phased approach to starting with affiliates — then expanding to agencies — for her and her team's partner programs.

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Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how Apollo uses PartnerStack to manage its affiliate and agency programs:

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Building the Foundation and laying the groundwork for your partner program

One of the first things Rhima did for her partner programs was integrate PartnerStack with Salesforce. This ensures that partnerships receive proper attribution for the customers they refer for Apollo. This step involved working with her RevOps team to connect the two systems. Next, create groups in PartnerStack: Start by setting up a "referrers" group for the affiliate program. This helps organize and manage different types of partners. Once the groups are set up, develop a partner application: Create an application to vet partners before they join the program. The application should ask for details such as the partner's company, website, familiarity with Apollo and audience size.

If partners are a fit, next you’ll determine commission structure. Decide on a commission structure, keeping in mind the need for long-term sustainability. For affiliates, Apollo initially used a 90-day drip but shortened it because partners wanted to be paid quicker. The final structure was 15% commission on monthly plans and 20% commission on annual plans for the first year.

Work with your finance team to ensure the commission structure is viable for your program. Focus on internal alignment — ensure you build internal documentation and communication channels so your sales team and all employees understand the partner program. Rhima was especially clear about communications and education because she wanted everyone within the org to know how to talk about partnerships — to support this, she created a partnerships wiki for internal use. At Apollo, they also set up a dedicated partnerships Slack channel for internal questions.

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Partner enablement to set partnerships up for success

To set new partners up for success, Rhima made sure partners had the necessary resources to sell Apollo. For Apollo, strong partner enablement included these key steps:

• Create an official partner badge
• Provide partner success series, sales training, demo decks and one-pagers
• Set up sales and product training within PartnerStack’s LMS
• Automate communications: set up automated emails for various stages of the partner journey
• Welcome new partners and provide onboarding details
• Share referral links
• Send activation emails if there is no activity after 14 days
• Congratulate partners when they close their first customer
• Create landing pages: build dedicated landing pages for each partner program to explain the benefits and application process. Make sure the landing page has a clear call to action
• Onboard partners: begin onboarding partners after building the foundation and have a landing page ready 

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Differentiating between affiliate and agency programs for your partner program

Rhima is meticulous and watches her partner program closely. She noticed a lot of agencies were part of her affiliate program. Recognize the difference as it’s an important strategic effort to distinguish between affiliates (one-to-many) and agencies (one-to-one). Agencies often have a more direct relationship with customers:

• Make a strategic split by creating a separate agency program if there is a high interest from agencies — this may be a lucrative move to split the programs.
• Develop a dedicated application for agencies asking specific questions about their services and location. For Apollo, it made sense to offer a 20% lifetime commission to agencies. This is because agencies help customers stay with Apollo long-term and are less likely to churn.
• The next thing to consider is to implement lead submission. For agencies, use a lead submission process within PartnerStack, rather than referral links. Agency partners send leads to Apollo's sales team to close. Agencies generate fewer deals, but with larger contract values.

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Partner activation matters — here’s how Rhima and her partnerships team does it

Now that your partner programs are clear, let’s focus on activation — it’s time to shift focus from new partner acquisition to partner activation of existing partners. Here are some ways Apollo does this:

• Launch a partner newsletter: send a monthly newsletter to keep partners informed about product launches and highlight partner successes.
• Host a partner success series: conduct monthly webinars to discuss product functionality with partners.
• Offer training and certifications: create training and certifications for all new product launches within the platform.
• Provide partner hours: hold weekly sessions for new partners to ask questions and connect with partner managers.

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By following these steps within PartnerStack, Apollo has scaled its partner program to 8,000 partners, with affiliates driving 80% of referral revenue and agencies driving 20%.
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Meet PartnerStack Power User Jennifer Rhima:
This partnerships expert has actionable advice on how to launch your affiliate and agency partner programs on PartnerStack. Currently, Rhima is the Director of Partnerships at Apollo.io and has more than 4 years in B2B SaaS — in addition to five years in B2C. Her and her team's partner program brings 10% of Apollo’s overall revenue. 

“People often assume partnerships are simple, but there’s a lot more to it. We’re constantly working with both external partners and internal teams, balancing different priorities, personalities, and expectations. Signing an agreement is just the beginning — real impact comes from ongoing enablement, co-marketing, sales alignment and tracking performance. A big part of the job is internal, making sure teams are aligned and see the value in the partnership strategy.” — Jennifer Rhima

In 2025, this partner leader will be leaning toward more co-marketing and the PLG (Product-Led Growth) motion to drive the most revenue. 

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