# First referral partner manager: role map | SourceX

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/guides/the-first-partner-manager-hire-what-work-should-they-own
Last updated: 2026-11-05

The first partner manager should own the work that falls between people: activating introducers, running a metadata screen and a duplicate check before anyone contacts a CEO, keeping one dated record per company, routing company questions to SourceX and closing intake when hours run out. The ask stays with the relationship owner, the decision with the company's CEO, and rights review, attribution and payment with SourceX. The role never touches client records and never forecasts anyone's income.

Write that map before the job description. A manager hired to "grow the channel" will end up counting sign-ups. A manager hired to own handoffs will count companies that arrive at SourceX clean, which is the only part of the result the firm controls.

## What activation and referral quality mean in this role

Four terms, defined before the hire so the manager is measured on the same words the firm uses.

| Term | Definition used on this page | What it can be used for |
|---|---|---|
| Registered introducer | Signed up and briefed, nothing more | Reach only; never a target |
| Activated introducer | Made at least one ask in the last 90 days that passed the pre-check: fit facts known, CEO aware, no earlier SourceX contact found | The manager's activation measure |
| Clean submission | A company whose CEO wanted the conversation, with every known fit fact passing and no duplicate found before the link was shared | The manager's quality measure, checkable on the day |
| Accepted for licensing | Decided by SourceX and the company in review and agreement | Reported, never set as a target |

Vendor benchmarks describe where most first hires start. PartnerStack's maturity framework says teams at its first, exploring stage are typically one or two people, often running partnerships alongside other duties, and lists KPIs such as clicks and signups, partner onboarding time and first deals sourced. Clicks and signups measure interest. In a program where the CEO decides and the company applies itself, the manager's own output is the clean submission, so that is what the first scorecard should count.

The same vendor's research page for The State of Partnerships in GTM 2026, a survey of 100 senior leaders at B2B SaaS companies with $50M+ revenue, charts alignment between teams (37%) and the lack of a clear partner program (20%) as the most-cited blockers to partner-driven revenue. It is a vendor survey of software companies, not of referral networks like yours, but a written handoff map is a cheap answer to both complaints.

## The role and handoff responsibility map

Twelve pieces of work across four parties. "Owns" means accountable for the result, "supports" means supplies an input, and the last column names the record that passes to the next owner, so nothing depends on anyone's memory.

| Work | Partner manager | Introducer | Company CEO | SourceX | Handoff record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Recruit and brief introducers | Owns | Attends the briefing | No role | Publishes the terms and criteria | Briefing note stamped with terms version 2026-10-22.2, since replaced by version 2026-11-04 |
| 2. Metadata screen | Owns the checklist | Answers from what they already know | No role | No role | One row: record types, years, system, owner, peak full-time headcount |
| 3. Duplicate pre-check | Owns the internal register | Declares anyone else at the firm who knows the company | Says whether the company ever applied, held an account or wrote to SourceX | Decides in its duplicate review | Register entry with the date and source of each answer |
| 4. The ask | Supplies a script with an easy no | Owns | Decides | No role | Permission note: who agreed, when, and what may be shared |
| 5. Submission | Confirms the Channel Partner Agreement is signed and the link is right | Shares the link | The company applies itself | Verifies the application | Link record and application date |
| 6. Questions during review | Routes them | Kept informed | Answers about its own records | Owns the review | Question log with dates |
| 7. Rights questions | Never answers | Never answers | Owns its records and contracts | Rights review | A pointer to the question, never the documents |
| 8. Attribution disputes | Assembles the dated evidence | Supplies emails and dates | No role | Decides | Dispute packet sent to SourceX |
| 9. Reward status | Tracks Estimated, Eligible, Approved, Processing and Paid | Informed | No role | Approves and pays | Status log with no forecasts |
| 10. Sharing a reward inside the firm | Applies the firm's written policy | Agrees to it before asking | No role | Credits one partner per company | Internal policy, signed |
| 11. Intake cap | Owns | Waits when the cap is full | No role | No role | Dated queue |
| 12. Corrections | Owns | Re-contacts the company if needed | Receives the correction | Publishes new versions | Recall note and new briefing |

**Method note.** SourceX's lane follows its published terms and how-it-works page, checked 2026-10-26: one partner credited per company, attribution decided from dated records, duplicates and disputes decided by SourceX, and the company controlling whether to proceed, what scope to offer and the terms it accepts. The other lanes are a recommended split, not a SourceX requirement. The map measures no demand, acceptance rate or reward.

Row 7 covers questions such as whether a customer contract allows reuse, or whether documents employees wrote belong to the company; the background to the second is in [who owns documents employees create](/questions/work-made-for-hire-employee-documents), and the answer for any given company comes from SourceX's rights review. Row 10 depends on a choice the firm makes once: whether the firm or an individual is the registered partner, weighed in [who gets referral credit, the firm or the individual](/questions/who-gets-referral-credit-firm-or-individual).

## Work the first hire should refuse

A clear refusal list protects the manager as much as the clients.

- **Income forecasts.** SourceX publishes no income projections, and estimates in its portal are projections, not promises. A manager who forecasts per-introducer earnings is inventing a number the firm will be held to.
- **Records, in any form.** Samples, exports, screenshots and logins stay with the company even when offered. Discovery stays at metadata level: what exists, how much, how many years, which system, who owns it.
- **Eligibility verdicts.** "May be a fit; SourceX decides after review" is the most the manager can say to a company.
- **Duplicate rulings.** The register flags likely doubles; the decision belongs to SourceX and its dated records.
- **Pressure on introducers.** An introducer who would rather not ask a contact is not underperforming. The relationship is theirs.
- **The company's negotiation.** Scope and terms are the company's call, agreed with SourceX.

## Three stress cases for the map (Illustrative)

Illustrative. The firm, its introducers and the companies are made up, and so are the hours.

**An underperforming cohort.** A 40-person advisory firm briefs 14 introducers in the manager's first month. After 90 days only two are activated. The register shows that nine of the other twelve each named a company and then stalled at the same point: they had asked the manager how to put the earlier-contact question to a CEO, and waited an average of nine working days for an answer. The bottleneck was the manager's own response time, not the introducers. The fix is a two-day reply rule, a weekly half-hour drop-in and the standard question written into the briefing note, and the cohort is re-measured at 180 days rather than written off as inactive.

**A duplicate risk.** Two introducers at the firm both know the CFO of a 310-person logistics company and each plans to raise it. The register catches the double before either call. The earlier-contact question then shows that the company's operations director emailed SourceX about a dataset in the spring. Under the terms, that correspondence is an existing relationship, so the company is a duplicate and no later partner is credited, however good the introduction. The manager closes the row and tells both introducers why. The company's sister business in the same group has never contacted SourceX, and the published terms do not say whether an introduction of it would be credited in these circumstances; SourceX resolves that in duplicate review, so the manager logs the question and promises nothing. The register itself is described in [preventing duplicate claims before they reach SourceX](/guides/how-to-prevent-duplicate-claims-before-they-reach-sourcex).

**A capacity limit.** After briefings and admin, the manager has about 12 hours a week for active companies. A company in the ask-and-application stage takes about 2 hours a week; one waiting in SourceX's review takes about half an hour. Four companies in the ask stage and six in review come to 4 × 2 + 6 × 0.5 = 11 hours. A fifth ask-stage company would push the week past 12, so it goes into the dated queue instead. The hour figures are placeholders for your own six-week time log; [how many active referrals one operator can manage](/guides/how-many-active-referrals-can-one-operator-manage) sets out a fuller stage-weighted method.

## Capacity, support load, concentration and overlap

Four pressures build up quietly once introducers are active. Set a threshold for each before the hire starts; the thresholds below are examples, not SourceX figures.

| Pressure | What to watch | Example threshold | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Hours on active companies per week | Above available hours two weeks running | Close intake and keep a dated queue |
| Support load | Introducer questions per week and how long each waits | Any question waiting more than five working days | Write the answer into the briefing note |
| Concentration | Share of clean submissions from one introducer | More than half for a quarter | Recruit in a second practice area |
| Overlap | Companies claimed by two introducers in the register | Any unresolved double | Resolve it before either contacts the company |

Concentration deserves the most attention in year one. When one senior partner supplies most clean submissions, the program depends on one person's network and goodwill, and the manager's activation numbers hide it.

## The first 90 days: evidence gates and a correction path

Widen the role, by adding introducers or a second practice area, only when five gates hold for the period.

1. Every submission had a register entry and a permission note dated before the ask.
2. At least three introducers were activated, from at least two practice areas.
3. The register holds no unresolved doubles.
4. An audit of briefing material found no sentence promising income or eligibility.
5. Active-company hours stayed within capacity for the last four weeks.

Corrections need an owner as much as growth does. When SourceX publishes a new terms version, the manager re-briefs within two weeks, stamps material with the version and withdraws the old slides; the terms say signed agreements are never silently replaced, so a signed Schedule A keeps its own terms. When an introducer has told a company something the program does not offer, the correction goes to that company in writing the same week. Departures need a plan too. The published terms keep rewards already earned payable once their conditions are met, unless they arose from fraud or a breach, but they do not describe what becomes of an introduction still under review when the partner who made it leaves. Put that question to SourceX in writing before any exit rather than after.

If the firm has not yet decided whether it needs a dedicated manager at all, run the [13-week review before hiring a dedicated manager](/guides/the-referral-partnership-review-before-hiring-a-dedicated-manager) first. Other playbooks for running a partner channel are collected in the [guides library](/guides).

## Next step

> **Refer a company. No cap on rewards.** Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

Once the map is agreed and the register exists, [register for a partner link](/register), brief introducers from [who qualifies](/who-qualifies) and the [program terms](/terms), and let the manager's first clean submission be the test of the role.

## Sources

- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms
- https://refer.sourcex.si/rewards
- https://refer.sourcex.si/how-it-works
- https://partnerstack.com/articles/four-stages-of-partnership-maturity-benchmarking-framework-for-program-leaders
- https://partnerstack.com/resources/research-lab/the-state-of-partnerships-in-gtm-2026