For partner ops or partner marketing who want a self-serve on-ramp that recruits partners and sets them up without manual data entry.A partner application form is how new partners join your program on their own. This guide takes the whole job end to end: build (or open) the application form, add the Partner automation action so a submission creates a fully populated partner in Introw, link company and contact records back to your CRM, assign each applicant a starting tier, phase, manager, and portal experience, and optionally invite them to their portal automatically. Set it up once and every accepted application becomes a real, attributed partner with a linked CRM record, no CRM workflow required.
What you’ll achieve
A published application form that, on each submission, creates the partner in Introw, links a company and contact in your CRM, applies your default tier, phase, manager, and experience, and (optionally) emails the applicant a portal invitation. You can also surface the form on your portal login page and add a human review step before anyone is created.Before you start
Connect your CRM (recommended)
To auto-create linked company and contact records, a CRM must be connected. See Connect HubSpot or Connect Salesforce. The partner is still created in Introw without a CRM, you just skip the CRM linking.
Have an experience to assign (recommended)
Assigning a portal Experience in the automation is what lets you auto-invite applicants. See Build and publish a portal experience.
Watch it
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Steps
Build the application form
Open or create the form
Go to Forms and open an existing partner application form, or create a new one. This form is what applicants fill in, so include the fields you need to qualify and create a partner, such as company name, website, and the applicant’s contact details.
Set up the terms and conditions checkbox (optional)
A partner application form includes a terms and conditions checkbox by default, so applicants explicitly agree before they are created. Two things make it work for you:
- Link to your terms - in the field label, replace the placeholder URL with the link to your own terms and conditions page so applicants can read them before agreeing.
- Record acceptance in your CRM (optional) - map the checkbox to a CRM property in the automation later, so you keep a clean compliance record of who accepted and when. Map it to a boolean property to record acceptance and, if you like, a date/time property to capture the moment.
Add the Partner automation
Open the Automation tab and add Partner automation
Open the form’s Automation tab (the second tab of the form editor), select Add automation, and choose Partner automation. This is the action that turns a submission into a real partner, everything below is configured inside it.
Review Enrich Partner
At the top of the Partner automation block, Enrich Partner matches each submission against existing partners using the form fields provided and enriches the match instead of creating a duplicate. This keeps partner data accurate and attribution clean. There is nothing to switch on, it is how the action behaves.
Auto-link to CRM
Under Auto-link to CRM, select Add for each record type you want created and linked in your CRM:
- Company automation - creates the partner company in your CRM and enables deal attribution, so you always know which partner sourced each record.
- Contact automation - saves the applicant as a contact in your CRM, linked to the partner company.
Populate and set up the partner
Map form fields to partner properties
Under Form fields, map each form field to the matching partner property. At minimum map Partner name to your company-name field; Partner domain is optional. For each mapping, set a Write Mode:
- Fill in if not known - only writes when the property is empty, so you never overwrite existing data. This is the safe default for enrichment.
- Overwrite - always replaces the current value with the submission.
Set the partner's starting values
Under Partner setup, define fixed values applied to every partner this form creates, so applicants start correctly placed:
- Tier - the tier a new applicant starts in.
- Phase - the lifecycle stage, for example a “Potential partner” phase, so the applicant enters your funnel at the right point.
- Partner manager - the team member made responsible for the partner from the start.
Give access and go live
Assign the portal experience and access
Under Portal settings, choose the Experience every new partner should land in, so their portal is ready on day one. Set Partner portal access to control who can open it: Restricted to invited users (only the people you invite) or Restricted to partner domain (anyone on the partner’s email domain).
Auto-invite the applicant (optional)
Turn on Auto-invite submitter to email the applicant a portal invitation once their application is processed. Add an optional Welcome message that appears in the invitation email, and use Preview email to see exactly what the partner will receive before going live. Auto-invite requires an assigned experience.
Save and publish
Save your changes and publish the form. From now on, every accepted application instantly creates a fully populated partner in Introw and the linked records in your CRM.
Add the form to your portal login page (optional)
To let people apply straight from your portal login page, go to Portal settings and open the Become a partner tab. Select the form you just set up, customize the link text and message visitors see (for example “Not a partner yet? Apply to join our program”), and save. The form then appears on your portal login page automatically. You can also embed the form on your website or a landing page.
Require review before creation (optional)
By default every application is processed automatically. If your program has a vetting step, enable approval on the form so submissions land in your approval queue first: no partner and no CRM records are created until you approve. See Run a submission approval workflow.
Verify it worked
Submit a test application. A new partner appears in Introw enriched with the mapped fields and your default tier, phase, and manager; the linked company and contact show up in your CRM; and, if you enabled it, the applicant receives the portal invitation email for the experience you assigned. With approval enabled, the submission instead waits in your approval queue and nothing is created until you approve it.Related
Build and publish a form
Create the form and its fields before wiring the automation.
Connect a form to your CRM
Map form fields to CRM properties and attribute submissions.
Run a submission approval workflow
Add a human review step before partners are created.
Implementation reference
Full configuration options.