For companies: three questions
Does your product need meaningful setup before it delivers value? If yes, agencies and implementation partners will outperform every other type, because the buyer is already paying someone to do that work.
Can a buyer sign up and get value without talking to anyone? If yes, affiliates and referral partners will scale further than resellers, because there is no sales cycle to protect.
Does another vendor's product have to be in place for yours to work? If yes, start with co-sell, and expect pipeline rather than commission.
Build the channel your buyer already uses to make this decision. You are not creating a habit, you are paying for one that exists.
For companies: what each costs you
| Type | Setup effort | Time to first deal | Ongoing cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral | Low | Weeks | Low |
| Affiliate | Low–medium | Weeks | Medium — assets and payouts |
| Agency | Medium | 1–2 quarters | Medium — enablement |
| Reseller | High | 2–3 quarters | High — margin, support, conflict management |
| Co-sell | Medium | Varies | High — sales time, not money |
For partners: what kind should you be?
If you own the customer relationship and the product deepens what you sell them, be a reseller or an agency partner. It is the most work and by far the most margin.
If you have an audience rather than clients, be an affiliate or a creator partner. Volume is the model, and attribution is the thing to get right.
If you just know people who need this, be a referral partner. Twenty seconds per introduction, and the commission is genuinely passive.
You can be more than one
Most established partners are. An agency refers deals it does not want to deliver, and resells the ones it does. What matters is that each relationship states which arrangement applies, because the rate and the protection differ.