The Nearbound Daily is now officially the ELG Insider Daily! 

Welcome to the ELG Insider Daily—the #1 newsletter in the world keeping thousands of GTM professionals on top of the latest Ecosystem-Led principles, tactics, and trends. Join the movement here.

PRINCIPLES

Time is the greatest gift you can give your prospects

Chances are, if a potential customer is considering your product, their hope is to save time and effort by using it.

Therefore, any interaction you have or time you spend with them should also be for their benefit, helping them decide if you can address their needs and pain points. 

When prospects bristle at cold outreach, it more likely than not comes down to time — they don’t have much of it, and they don’t know why you’re wasting it out of the blue. And they certainly don’t want to spend their time answering basic questions to help you validate them as a lead.

But if you approach the right person at the right time, you may actually be helping them address a challenge that’s been hanging over their head. So where can you get the intel you need to approach them armed with the best solutions to their problems? Your partners.

Ecosystem-Led Growth speeds up the time to close by 31% because a partner that is familiar with your prospect can help you skip over multiple steps of discovery before digging into the deal.

Unlike when you ask a new prospect basic questions to assess their needs and consideration level, asking partners for intel is a good use of their time because they know you’ll return the favor, saving them and their prospects time down the road.

TACTICS

How to qualify prospects faster with partners

When you have quota to hit and an end-of-quarter looming, there’s nothing more frustrating than finding out too late that you wasted time pursuing the wrong leads.

But it doesn’t have to be a game of chance, and you don’t have to figure it out alone. By working with partners to qualify prospects, you could improve your close rate and stand out as a top performer on your sales team. And it all starts in the discovery phase. Target the right prospects with help from partners, and you’re more likely to win the deal. 

Below, we’ll share how and why you should approach partners with help in your BANT (“budget”, “authority”, “need”, “timeline”) qualification process. Chances are excellent that there’s a partner in your ecosystem who knows the answer to all of these.       

#1: Budget

The question you should ask: “Do they have the budget to purchase my product?”

If your prospect is a customer of your partner, they could have insight into what tools your prospect has budget for over the course of the next year. They have direct access to knowledge about your prospect’s tech stack, which tools they’re looking to adopt, and the goals they’re trying to achieve. If your prospect has budget allocated to modernizing their martech stack and you’re selling a martech solution, now’s a good time to start the sales conversation and to sell additional features and integrations your prospect might be interested in. By knowing your prospect has budget allocation, you can not only sell to your prospect but also increase the deal size. 

Your partners may also have knowledge about budget restrictions, hiring freezes, layoffs, and more that could impact the deal. Knowing this intel ahead of time can help you hold off on the sales conversation and revisit it at a better time. It’ll also help you approach the conversation thoughtfully and protect your reputation as a seller. 

#2: Authority

The question you should ask: “Am I speaking with the right person?” 

Some of your partners have already sold to your prospect, and others are in ongoing sales conversations. They’ll know if you should take a top-down approach, a middle-out approach, or a bottom-up approach. 

If you’re speaking with a practitioner, but they don’t have direct access to get buy-in from an executive with buying power, your partner can help you identify who you should speak with to make the deal happen. They can even help you map your prospect’s org chart. 

#3: Need

The question you should ask: “Could they use [your software] right now?” 

Have an integration with your tech partner? Your tech partner’s customers can use your integration to improve their day-to-day work and the value they get from your partner’s product. Your partner knows how your prospect is using their own product and can inform you about how they would adopt and use your product as well. They can also help educate your prospect about your product’s value. 

Maybe your prospect isn’t ready to buy right now. This intel can be just as valuable. Focus on the prospects who are ready to buy rather than the ones who aren’t. 

Your partner can also inform you about when your prospect might be ready to buy in the future. Perhaps your prospect is planning to grow their team, onboard more specialized roles, or make improvements to their tech stack — and your product may be just the right fit. 

#4: Timeline

The question you should ask: “What’s their timeline?”

If your prospect’s a customer of your partner, then it’s likely your partner has a plan for increasing value for their customer over time. In onboarding, your partner’s customer success reps developed a plan for helping their customer hit their first milestone. They may have developed  a detailed customer journey that includes adopting specific integrations over time as their product usage becomes more advanced. 

Knowing how your prospect is using your tech partner’s product can help you develop a plan for selling. For example: If you have a direct mail marketing tool, your partner can inform you about when and how your prospect is looking to incorporate direct mail in their larger marketing strategy. If it’s not on their radar right now, your partner can help educate them about the value of incorporating direct mail into their strategy and how they can use your product and integration when they’re ready. If they’re planning to expand to using direct mail in six months, you’ll want to be ready to sell to them in six months. 

Your partner may also have intel about when your prospect is looking to expand or simplify their tech stack. If your prospect is currently using your competitor’s product but the contract is up in June, you should be ready to speak to your prospect just prior to June about alternative solutions.

Armed with this key information about your prospect, you’ll give yourself a head start, and your potential new customer the confidence that you understand what they do — and don’t — need.

Learn more here. 

MEME OF THE DAY

Use time wisely!

UPCOMING EVENT

Partner Sourced Summit ’24

Partner-sourced revenue is a crucial metric for any successful partnership program.

It’s the revenue directly attributed to the efforts of your partners through referrals, co-selling, or co-marketing initiatives.

On July 31st at 9am PT / 6pm CET, join us at the Partner Sourced Summit '24 to learn how top GTM leaders track partner-sourced revenue and leverage their ecosystem to build tech and co-selling programs. 

This event, orchestrated by Justin Zimmerman, will provide you with insights, practical tips, and networking opportunities with industry leaders.

Save your spot here.

Stuff you don't want to miss!

• TODAY at 1pm ET — Capital-Efficient Growth: Join Richard Lin (Managing Director at Metropolitan Partners Group), George Alifragis (Senior VP at Metropolitan Partners Group), Lindsay Cordell (Senior GTM Analyst at GTM Partners), and Sangram Vajre (CEO & Co-Founder of GTM Partners) as they share insights on achieving sustainable and profitable growth. Register here. 
• August 1st — Designing the Right Incentives for Partners: Karlyn Bentley (Senior Vice President, Client Partnership at Ansira), Kathleen Meeza (Senior Director, Global Partner Program at Dell), and Tai Rattigan (Co-Founder and COO of Partnership Leaders) will share key tactics for designing incentives which accelerate partner value and impact. Register here.
• August 14th — From Data to Dollars: Strategies for Nurturing Event Leads to Drive Success: Benito Aguila (Events Marketing Manager from Google) and Airmeet’s CEO, Lalit Mangal will share how to capture valuable data at events to implement targeted follow-up strategies. Register here. 
• August 20th — Exploring the Power of the Benefits Broker Channel: Leveraging HR’s Most Trusted Consultants: Ryan Taguding (Founder and Principal at Temio Consulting) will share where to begin, how to identify your ICP and distinguish sales blockers from champions. Register here.

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