> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs-vnext.kiflo.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Partner Prospection: Building Your Partner Pipeline
> Use Kiflo's prospection pipeline to track, qualify, and convert potential partners into active relationships before onboarding begins.
Partner prospection is the structured process of finding, reaching out to, and qualifying potential partners before they become active members of your program. Kiflo gives you a dedicated prospection pipeline — a visual Kanban board — so no promising lead falls through the cracks.
## Prospection vs. onboarding
Prospection and onboarding are two separate stages in the partner lifecycle, and it's important not to conflate them.
| Stage | When it happens | What you're doing |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Prospection** | Before a partnership is formalised | Finding, contacting, and qualifying potential partners |
| **Onboarding** | After a prospect becomes an active partner | Training, enablement, and ramping up the new partner |
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:
1. **New** — potential partners you've identified and want to pursue
2. **Connecting** — you've reached out and are waiting for a response
3. **Connected** — the prospect has replied to your message or email
4. **Good fit** — after a discovery call, you've confirmed there's potential for partnership
5. **Won** — both sides agree to formalise the relationship
6. **Not qualified** — the prospect was not a good fit and the conversation is closed
You can rename, reorder, add, or delete stages to match your real-world process.
## Manage prospection stages
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.
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
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.).
Leave the corresponding stage blank for all active working stages where the prospect is still being qualified.
## Convert a prospect to an active partner
When you move a prospect card into your **Closed Won** stage, Kiflo opens a guided activation flow.
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.
Provide the partner's main contact details. Decide whether to send an invitation email now or manually share the activation link later.
If you enabled portal access, select the email template to use for the invitation. Kiflo sends the email automatically.
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.
Go to **Programs**, select the program, and click the **Applications** tab — or go to **Partners** and use the **Pending applications** view.
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.
Use **Accept as Active Partner** when an applicant clearly qualifies and you want to skip prospection altogether — for example, an existing customer who wants to join your referral program.