How to choose a Claude partner.

What to ask, and what a good answer sounds like.

Ask all seven before you sign anything. You can check the first one yourself, without the firm's help.

1. Is the firm in the Claude Partner Network directory, and at what tier?Search Anthropic's Partner Hub directory before the first call. Our page on the network explains the tiers, how to read a listing and how many partners each tier holds. A good answer names the tier or, if the firm isn't listed yet, says so and tells you where it stands.
2. How many certified people does it actually have?Ask how many people hold one of Anthropic's Claude certifications, and for the Credly link of each person who'll work on your engagement. A good answer is names with Credly links, not a summary.
3. Does it serve businesses your size?Ask what its typical client looks like: the size of the business, the team that will use Claude, and the engagement. Firms built for large enterprises do good work at that scale. The question is whether that's your scale. A good answer describes a client that looks like you and what was built for them.
4. Who does the delivery work?The person who sells the engagement often isn't the person who does it. Ask who'll be on your project, what they've shipped, and whether the people you met in the sale stay involved after signing. A good answer names the people, their credentials, and how much of their time you're getting.
5. What do you hold when the work goes live?Ask what's yours once the system is live: prompt and skill libraries, user guides, accounts, any code, and whether your team is trained on it. A good answer says what's yours outright and what, if anything, the firm keeps operating for you, and puts both in the proposal.
6. What does it cost, and when?Ask for a fixed price against a written scope, with a timeline and a go-live date, so the price doesn't depend on how long the work takes. A good answer is a proposal you can read in ten minutes: scope, price, what's not included, and when payment is due.
7. Can it name a client of your size, with real numbers?Ask for a client you can read about, with figures the client stands behind: hours returned, a procedure retired, an afternoon's task done in minutes. A good answer is a published case study with the client's name on it, or a reference you can call. Testimonials without numbers, and numbers without a name, are weaker.