Every partner can have a Kind. It does two jobs: it lets you narrow the list, and it lets the report compare one kind of partner with another, so you can see whether architects or builders send the customers you actually win.
The kinds it starts with
- Architect: specifies materials for the projects they design.
- Interior designer: chooses finishes and fittings for a client’s home or office.
- Builder: develops a site and can send every buyer in it.
- Contractor: carries out the work and often buys or recommends.
- Consultant and Other: anybody else who refers business.
Add or rename a kind
- Go to Settings, Fields and rules, and choose Channel partners.
- Open the Lists tab and find Partner kinds.
- Add a kind (Carpenter, Plumber, Electrician), rename one, or switch one off.
Renaming a kind changes what everybody reads; partners already filed under it move with it. Switching a kind off stops it being offered, and partners that have it keep it.
See partners by kind
- In the list, press the board button at the top: partners are laid out in a column per kind.
- Filter the list on Kind to see, say, only architects.
- Reports, Channel partners by kind totals referrals, customers, won value and money collected for each kind. See Reports: what each partner brought in.
A partner with no kind is shown as Not set in the report, so the totals still add up. Filling it in is what makes the comparison worth reading.
Choosing kinds that are worth comparing
Keep the list short. The report by kind is only useful if each kind has enough partners to compare: five kinds with ten partners each tell you something, twenty kinds with two each do not. Split a kind only when you would treat its partners differently, for example a different commission or a different person looking after them.
A kind is a description, not a rule. It does not change how referrals are credited, how long they count or who may see the partner; Counts for and Looked after by do that, partner by partner.
Where the kind shows
- In the list, in its own column, and under the partner’s name on their page: Kapoor Design Studio, Architect, Jaipur.
- As the columns of the board, when the list is shown as a board.
- As the rows of the report Channel partners by kind.
It is not shown on the leads, customers or documents a partner referred. Those show the partner’s name; open the partner to see what kind they are.
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