Prospection vs. onboarding
Prospection and onboarding are two separate stages in the partner lifecycle, and it’s important not to conflate them.
Think of prospection as closing the partnership deal, and onboarding as starting the partnership engagement.
The prospection pipeline and the onboarding pipeline are completely separate tools in Kiflo. A partner moves from one to the other only when you explicitly activate them.
How the prospection pipeline works
The prospection pipeline is a customisable Kanban board. Each column represents a stage in your recruitment process, and each card represents a potential partner you are pursuing. A typical pipeline might look like this:- New — potential partners you’ve identified and want to pursue
- Connecting — you’ve reached out and are waiting for a response
- Connected — the prospect has replied to your message or email
- Good fit — after a discovery call, you’ve confirmed there’s potential for partnership
- Won — both sides agree to formalise the relationship
- Not qualified — the prospect was not a good fit and the conversation is closed
Manage prospection stages
1
Open the stage editor
You have two ways to reach the stage editor:
- Go to Account Settings → Partners and scroll down to Prospection Pipeline, or
- Open the Prospection board from the main menu and click the Edit pipeline link at the top.
2
Customise your stages
On the stage editor you can:
- Add a new stage — click the add button and enter a stage name
- Edit — rename an existing stage
- Re-order — drag stages into the sequence that matches your process
- Delete — remove stages you no longer use
3
Set Closed Won and Closed Lost stages
When adding or editing a stage, assign a Corresponding stage if appropriate:
- Closed Won — marks a prospect as successfully recruited. Moving a prospect here triggers a pop-up where you can activate them as a partner.
- Closed Lost — marks a prospect as a dead end (poor fit, no response, etc.).
Convert a prospect to an active partner
When you move a prospect card into your Closed Won stage, Kiflo opens a guided activation flow.1
Choose the partner program
Select the program the new partner will join — for example, Referral Bronze or Reseller Gold. Optionally, enable Has access to Kiflo to grant portal access immediately.
2
Fill in main contact information
Provide the partner’s main contact details. Decide whether to send an invitation email now or manually share the activation link later.
3
Send the invitation (optional)
If you enabled portal access, select the email template to use for the invitation. Kiflo sends the email automatically.
4
Start onboarding (optional)
Choose whether to enrol the partner in an onboarding pipeline:
- Click Start onboarding to place the partner at the first stage of the chosen onboarding pipeline.
- Click Skip onboarding if no onboarding process applies. The partner is activated and receives their invitation without being enrolled in any pipeline.
Accept partner applications into prospection
When a prospect applies through your website sign-up form, their record appears in Kiflo with an Applicant status. You can route them into the prospection pipeline instead of activating them immediately.1
Open the application
Go to Programs, select the program, and click the Applications tab — or go to Partners and use the Pending applications view.
2
Accept as Prospect
Click Accept as Prospect. Kiflo creates a prospect record and places it at the first stage of your prospection pipeline.From there, follow your normal prospection process to qualify the applicant before deciding whether to activate them as a full partner.
