Welcome. This is the Partnership Operating System, a practical, self-paced system for closing partnerships that grow your business and make it more resilient. It is free, it is nine short lessons, and each one comes with a video, a written guide, and in most cases a free tool to put it to work.

The system is built around five outcomes:

• Building partnerships that drive real, measurable success.

• Streamlining the partnership process so you and your team can run it.

• Pitching and closing deals with confidence, with the infrastructure to do it more than once.

• Securing the all-important first win, the milestone that shows a partner their bet on you was worth it, and builds credibility and momentum.

• Creating a scalable system, so partnerships become repeatable rather than a one-off.

At its heart, the operating system has four moving parts: a development program to attract and reach out to new partners, a way to define your ideal partner profile, a method for growing with those partners, and a review rhythm to keep partnerships healthy, including how to wind one up respectfully when its time has passed.

ABOUT ME

I'm CEO coach, Phil Hayes-St Clair. I've built and invested in eight companies, each with its own growth story, and partnerships were the common thread: growing through distribution to reach new customers, securing supply chains, and developing products with real customers, often alongside organisations far larger than ours. Today I work with leaders across industries around the world, building this system inside their organisations so they can close high-value partnerships. The feedback I hear most is that I make partnerships compelling and practical.

HOW I TEACH

Half principles, half instructions. Context matters, so you get principles you can adapt to your business alongside the rules worth following to get lasting value from your partnerships. It stays practical throughout, built on case studies and lived experience so you can move quickly and replicate success, rather than only understand it.

THE CURRICULUM

Three parts, nine lessons, short and action-oriented.

Part 1: the Foundation:

1. Why most partnerships fail? The realities and the myths.

2. Are you ready for partnerships? A day-one diagnostic.

3. Defining value exchange. What do you offer and ask for?

Part 2: Building Your Operating System:

4. Choosing the right partner using the IDEAL+ framework

5. Building a partnership development program

6. Pitching, closing and onboarding new partners

Part 3 Repeatable Results:

7. Landing the all important first win

8. How to scale partnerships

9. How to end partnerships with dignity

Start with the first lesson below.

NEED HELP WITH YOUR DEALS?

When you want to work a live deal together, book a Deal Sprint.