Seth Godin wrote a profound perspective today.  One that we inherently know but don't acknowledge much:  That people make emotional decisions. On a more basic level, they make decisions based on chemicals in the brain that define emotion, perspective and judgment. Then, AFTER the fact, they justify their decision and apply logical reasons for what they did.

Apply this to your partner program.  You probably focus a lot of your attention on proving the logic of why to join your program:  What's the margin, the membership fee, the stats, the ROI when maybe, just MAYBE, your partners are signing up with you because you're cool, they like your philosophy, your logo, you donated to their cause, a friend talked about your company or maybe they had coffee with one of your most fantastic employees at a seminar.  Maybe, they just LIKE you and they want to be a little piece of your world.

You may not know exactly what it is you did but don't overlook those little things that you do with or around partners that might make a likeable impression. 

Generally those are:  You're not a afraid to lead, you're humble at the right times and confident at the others. You know your competition and know you're not necessarily always going to win, but you have a love of the game.  You talk with your customers, respond to blogs and make positive changes based on what you're told. These are the likeable traits that might just be winning you partners. 

That, and a good ROI.   

PS:  One of our campaigns that ranked high on the "likeability" scale and was talked about for months and many different countries adopted it.   www.wevegottaguy.com where we invited improv troupe to make a point. 

Call us if you need help.