October 9, 2024

Issue #674

What is partnerships? How do you use your partner ecosystem? What is the Future of Revenue report? Why is it important? How can you be involved? What should you have for lunch today? We contemplate these questions and more in today’s issue.

PRINCIPLES

The world as we know it will never be the same again...

We all know the cliche that every tech company’s mission is to change the world. And many are doing just that, but real talk — most of them aren’t doing it in the way it’s often described on conference stages. With very few exceptions, real change isn’t in a single company’s success, but rather the result of a vast number of tools that are incrementally evolving the way we think and work.

Not that there’s anything wrong with big thinking and visionary talk — it’s what motivates many of us to do what we do. But if we lose sight of the everyday, sometimes mundane benefits of technological progress, we won’t be able to make the most of it or help others use it in a way that yields real results.

So when thinking and talking about the benefits of what you do, don’t shy away from the “boring” stuff if it saves someone time or money. Maybe a lot of what you do is transactional instead of what you think of as transformational — but without those transactions, bigger transformation can’t occur.

TACTICS

Writing the new GTM playbook 

Pavilion is a network of 10,000+ go-to-market pros in B2B tech that hosts a wide variety of tactical learning programs and industry-defining live events. They’re also a Crossbeam partner that we’re honored to work with on programs including the 2024 Future of Revenue report, a critical piece of research that will help shape the next generation of GTM.

Pavilion’s CEO Sam Jacobs recently published a post and video on LinkedIn about the importance of participating in the Future of Revenue survey if you’re a GTM executive, as well as the difficulty of defining the partnerships function and its role in GTM — partly because people are hesitant to describe partnerships by concrete activities and benefits that sound dull or  transactional. There’s enormous power in partner ecosystems, but it sometimes goes unrealized because it’s hard to plan without clarity.

Read Sam’s full post below, and visit LinkedIn to watch the video and add your thoughts.

Partnerships has a problem. Everyone in GTM thinks it’s valuable, but there is still no agreed upon playbook for what partnerships even means.

I have trouble getting a clear answer from virtually everyone in the space. 

I think people are nervous to say:

- "We do events together and share the list"
- "We pay them a referral fee for new customers"
- "We built an app on their app store"

There is still too much hand waving.

That's what makes Partnerships so hard to plan around. 

Yes, with Partnerships, you can get lower customer acquisition costs, higher close rates, and shorter deal cycles. But how do you *actually* do that? What's the playbook?

Pavilion is going to solve that problem in 2025.

(Hopefully with the help of great folks like Greg Portnoy, Kent Henderson, Asher Mathew, and others.)

But first, we need data...

That's why we're partnering with Crossbeam on The Future of Revenue survey to collect data from 500+ GTM leaders to better understand the strategies and tactics teams are using to drive revenue TODAY.

If you're a GTM executive, do me a favor and fill out this short survey.

We'll share the early results at GTM 2024 in Austin next week.

(If you fill it out, I'll get you 15% off a ticket.)

And stay tuned for a series of educational programs we're developing to provide the actual playbooks for Partnerships that unite the GTM org as we pursue our 2025 growth plans.

 WHAT SHOULD YOU HAVE FOR LUNCH?

We’re really into acai bowls right now. Try it with peanut butter on top.

STUFF YOU CAN'T MISS

- October 9: The Next Era of Ecosystem Technology — TOMORROW

360Insights and GTM experts like Hannibal Scipio (Forrester), Cody Sunkel (Partner Fleet), Maisa Fernandez (ServiceNow), Bob Moore (Crossbeam) and many more, will dive into how ecosystem orchestration is reshaping go-to-market strategies. Save your spot here.

- October 14-16: GTM2024

Join Pavilion at The Fairmont in Austin, TX to get ahead on your 2025 GTM strategy, learn about market trends, and boost your GTM strategy. Get your ticket here.

- November 11-14: Web Summit
70,000 people will gather in Lisbon, Portugal for one of the biggest tech conferences in the world, featuring speakers from leading companies across nearly every technology vertical. Book your ticket to join them here.

You're all caught up

See you tomorrow

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