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The Traps Killing Your Partnering Success for Global Sales
by Donagh Kiernan
Published: 2026
Recommended by Donagh Kiernan
Categories: partnerships
Why should you read it?
Most partnering advice assumes you already know which mistakes to avoid. This book exposes them instead. Donagh Kiernan draws on nearly twenty years of building partner programs for B2B software and SaaS companies to map out where reasonable-sounding assumptions quietly derail global sales strategies, before those assumptions turn into wasted budget, the wrong partners, or a partner program that looks busy but produces nothing.
What is the book about?
Drawing on nearly twenty years of hands-on work with hundreds of technology companies and partner programs, Donagh Kiernan maps out eight traps that quietly kill partnering success for B2B software and SaaS leaders scaling globally through partners: copying a global leader's program without its context, mistaking direct sales momentum for partnering readiness, superficial partner selection, relationship-based recruiting ("I know a guy"), unexamined revenue share models, the enablement illusion, organizational flux from a single "superhero" hire, and over-reliance on execution plans that were never grounded in evidence. Each chapter centers on one trap, the cost of falling into it, and the hard questions to bring into the next leadership meeting.
Best takeaway
Copying a global leader's partner program without understanding the context behind it isn't a shortcut, it's the fastest way to burn a year and a budget on the wrong partners.
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