The Sales Channel & Affiliates Manager will lead new partner acquisition for Wolters Kluwer’s entrepreneur partner strategy. This role is accountable for identifying and recruiting platforms that reach entrepreneurs at critical moments such as starting, funding, operating, and scaling a business, then shaping partnership models that connect those customer journeys to Wolters Kluwer solutions.  

This is not an account-management or inherited-territory role. The successful candidate will have demonstrated experience building a partner program or new ecosystem motion from zero to one: defining the target market, creating the value proposition, prospecting into complex organizations, developing executive relationships, negotiating commercial structures, and driving opportunities through launch and first revenue.  

 Primary Objectives: 

• Build a qualified pipeline of net-new SMB platform partnerships aligned to the entrepreneur growth strategy.  

• Establish Wolters Kluwer as a strategic partner to platforms serving entrepreneurs and small businesses.  

• Create repeatable outbound, qualification, commercial, and launch motions that accelerate the path from first conversation to first revenue.  

• Advance partnerships beyond one-off referral arrangements where customer demand and economics support marketplace, co-sell, embedded/API, or white-label models.  

• Generate measurable partner-sourced pipeline, customer acquisition, and revenue.  

Essential Duties & Responsibilities: 

New partner hunting and pipeline creation  

• Own end-to-end prospecting for priority SMB platforms, including commerce, vertical SaaS, business management, gig/creator, banking, fintech, lending, payroll, accounting, and trusted-advisor ecosystems.  

• Build target-account lists, identify entrepreneur trigger points, map decision-makers, and execute disciplined multi-threaded outreach to business development, partnerships, product, strategy, and executive leaders.  

• Create entry strategies for high-value platform targets and consistently generate new meetings, qualified opportunities, and executive sponsorship without relying on an existing book of business.  

Partner strategy and value proposition development  

• Translate the Wolters Kluwer entrepreneur strategy into compelling partner-specific value propositions and joint customer outcomes.  

• Identify where Wolters Kluwer can add value within a partner’s customer journey, particularly at business formation, registration, compliance, licensing, funding, and ongoing operations.  

• Develop partner hypotheses, business cases, opportunity sizing, and tailored proposals that articulate reciprocal value, economics, integration options, and paths to scale.  

Commercial development and deal leadership  

• Lead discovery, solution shaping, commercial discussions, and negotiations from initial outreach through signed agreement.  

• Evaluate and structure partnership models including referral/lead generation, marketplace, co-sell, reciprocal distribution, embedded/API, and white label.  

• Partner with Finance, Legal, Product, Marketing, Operations, and Sales to secure decisions on economics, attribution, contracting, integration, routing, support, and go-to-market readiness.  

• Maintain urgency and momentum across complex buying groups; identify blockers early and drive clear go, adjust, or pause decisions.  

Launch and initial commercialization  

• Create joint launch plans with named owners, milestones, demand-generation commitments, attribution, success measures, and executive checkpoints.  

• Use early performance data and partner feedback to strengthen the commercial model and determine whether to expand, deepen, or stop the motion.  

Operating discipline and market intelligence  

• Maintain accurate opportunity stages, contacts, next steps, commercial assumptions, risks, and forecasts in Salesforce and relevant partner-management tools.  

• Provide concise executive reporting on pipeline creation, stage progression, partner commitments, launch readiness, first revenue, and key decisions required.  

• Monitor SMB platform, entrepreneur, fintech, SaaS, commerce, and competitive trends to identify emerging distribution opportunities.  

• Perform other duties as assigned. 

Education: Bachelor degree in Business, Marketing or related field from an accredited college/university or equivalent work experience. Master's degree from an accredited college or university preferred.

 Experience: 

• 10+ years in developing alliances and revenue-generating partner relationships, preferably with key market players in the financial services industry 

• 3-5 of these years in customer success, account management, or sales, preferably in a SaaS environment. 

Other Knowledge, Skills, Abilities or Certifications: 

• Experience driving new logos, as well as meeting/exceeding high growth goals 

• Experience with product and software development processes 

• Ability to think strategically, analytically, and work flexibly to interpret data to drive business decisions and achieve results. 

• Strong ability to network, align and work with key players at all levels to building business relationships and drive results 

• Strong presentation, negotiation and business planning skills. 

• Strong communication skills and ability to proactively communicate using APIs and reactively address system issues/escalations. 

• Must be able to prioritize and multi-task with special attention to detail and follow-up, and organizational skills 

• Proactive and reactive problem-solving skills 

• Proficiency in using CRM software (e.g., Salesforce, Partner Portal) 

• Ability to work independently and as part of a team. 

Travel Requirements: Ability to travel up to 25%, including overnight stays 

Location Requirements: This role can be located anywhere in the continental United States, with preference given to those located in Mountain, Central or Eastern time zones.

Our Interview Practices

To maintain a fair and genuine hiring process, we kindly ask that all candidates participate in interviews without the assistance of AI tools or external prompts. Our interview process is designed to assess your individual skills, experiences, and communication style. We value authenticity and want to ensure we’re getting to know you—not a digital assistant. To help maintain this integrity, we ask to remove virtual backgrounds and include in-person interviews in our hiring process. Please note that use of AI-generated responses or third-party support during interviews will be grounds for disqualification from the recruitment process.

Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process.

Compensation:

Compensation range listed is based on primary location of the position.  Actual base salary offer is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience and actual hiring location. Your recruiter can share more information about the specific offer for the job location during the hiring process. 

Additional Information:

Wolters Kluwer offers a wide variety of competitive benefits and programs to help meet your needs and balance your work and personal life, including but not limited to: Medical, Dental, & Vision Plans, 401(k), FSA/HSA, Commuter Benefits, Tuition Assistance Plan, Vacation and Sick Time, and Paid Parental Leave. Full details of our benefits are available upon request.