Discover the proven playbook for mastering your first year of ELG and driving real results. Learn how Chad Waite turned partnerships into pipeline, aligned his teams for success, and unlocked the full potential of his ecosystem.
Chad Waite has been a Senior Channel Manager at Document Crunch, the construction industry's only Contract compliance platform, since February 2024. His mission? Build an ELG motion from the ground up.
Fortunately, Document Crunch’s C-suite was already aligned with an ELG mindset, so the foundation was solid. The next challenge: teaching and guiding the sales team to leverage ELG effectively — a task any GTM leader knows is easier said than done.
After 10 months of leading the ELG charge at Document Crunch, Chad and his team have achieved 85% of their yearly partner-attached pipeline quota. With a little over a month left in Q4 2024, Chad is confident they’ll hit 100%.
This achievement not only showcases ELG’s transformative power but also establishes a strong foundation for Document Crunch’s GTM motion, setting them up for even greater success.
Read on to learn how Document Crunch’s Channel Partnerships team is leveraging ecosystem data and an Ecosystem-Led Platform to give their sales team "answers to the test" and prioritize top accounts.
Building an ELG vision
“Our CEO, Josh Levy, read Bob Moore’s ELG book, and around the same time, we discovered Crossbeam,” said Chad. “Together, these two elements helped us realize that our path forward was leveraging our ecosystem.”
What sets Document Crunch apart is their fully committed C-suite, which strongly supports ELG.
Building an ELG motion isn’t a solo endeavor. While C-suite buy-in is essential, success also requires full alignment across all teams—sales, marketing, customer success—everyone must play their part and fully embrace ELG.
But an ELG motion can’t be forced on teams out of nowhere. Chad knew that to succeed, he first had to instill his ELG vision across all departments.
“One thing that helped me gain buy-in was positioning our partners as consultants,” said Chad. “Partners help us gather intel, craft narratives, and connect the dots — even before my team gets a chance to talk to the customer.”
3 keys to building an ELG motion with your sales team
1. Always be value-first
Chad’s goals at Document Crunch center on pipeline creation and converting those into closed-won deals — essentially ARR. Knowing he couldn’t hit these targets alone, he turned to his partners.
The key to his success relies on his value-first approach. This mindset not only helps him hit his goals but also fosters strong, win-win partnerships.
“When building an ELG motion, starting with a revenue mindset is a recipe for failure,” Chad emphasized. “It’s not just about what the partner can do for me — it’s about creating a system where the partner, our customers, and we all benefit.”
Treat your partners like royalty, the same way you’d treat your best clients. When a partner provides a referral, introduction, intel, or influence, your team should treat it like gold. Make them feel valued, and they’ll keep sending business your way.
2. Leverage an ELG platform
What better way to power an ELG motion than by leveraging data from an Ecosystem-Led Growth platform?
“ELG is about quality over quantity,” said Chad. “Quantity helps, but only if all your partners are active. Crossbeam is the catalyst that turns ecosystem insights into meaningful relationships. Without the right data, it’s almost impossible to take partner teams from zero to one.”
For Document Crunch, the turning point came at one of their partner’s conferences where they actively invited all of their partners to join their ecosystem and officially share data with them. As soon as they began using Crossbeam to illuminate the "black box" between their customers and their partners’ customers they had access to countless growth opportunities.
“This gave us the foundation for truly meaningful conversations,” Chad explained. “It’s like having the answers to the test — starting with identifying mutual customers and then building a ‘better together’ story with our partners.”
3. Showcase the value of ELG
Building a strong relationship with your sales and marketing team isn’t about sugarcoating what you do. Relationships alone don’t move the needle — it's the results those relationships drive that become the generally accepted markers of success. When your teams understand this, you’re already well on your way to success.
“ELG combined with sales and marketing creates true business development opportunities,” said Chad. “The relationship itself doesn’t move the needle, it’s the referrals and results that come from it.”
To help his sales team unlock ELG’s full potential, Chad established a cadence of data sharing and outreach planning that keeps everyone aligned and focused.
Chad’s day-to-day ELG plays
Getting the answers to the test
What’s better than meeting expectations? Exceeding them. Think of it as going from a “B” to an “A+.” And how do you achieve that? By having the right answers ahead of time.
For Chad, this meant gathering ecosystem data to help his sales team enter prospect calls fully prepared.
By leveraging intel like shared customers, opportunity overlaps, and actionable insights, Chad empowered his team to prioritize accounts strategically.
This intel acted as a green light for his sales team, helping them identify who was qualified to “buy”. But before anyone from his team tried to leverage this intel, Chad advised them to take into consideration the following:
- Respect existing relationships
- Deliver value
- Approach it delicately
There’s no doubt that this intel can be a game changer for any sales team, however they have to remember that partnerships is a two way street — keeping Chad’s principle “always be value first” in mind.
“These plays directly show the incremental value that both can bring to the table,” said Chad. “Having the data can be the catalyst, but that doesn’t mean that you will automatically deliver value and see a profit. Just because we are aware of the overlap, it doesn’t mean that things magically happen.”
Giving the ecosystem data to your sales team is never enough, you have to teach them how to act on it. To help his sales team action this ecosystem intel, he does the following:
Prioritizing top accounts
Once Chad gathers ecosystem data, he strategizes with his sales team to prioritize top accounts. Using Slack, Zoom, and Crossbeam, he shares account mappings, joint value propositions, and tailored messaging to maximize impact.
Here’s the process that Chad follows to maximize the use of ecosystem data and partner relationships:
- Data: Chad enters Crossbeam to identify the particular opportunities his sales team is working on, and how his partners can help accelerate that deal.
- Alignment: whether it’s through Slack or email, Chad schedules 1:1 meetings with his sales team members to make sure his rep, his partner, and Chad are aligned before any type of introduction is made.
- Meetings: Once in the meeting, Chad tries to get his partner’s POV on the account, and build the JVP, and strategize the messaging and next steps to reach the client and deliver more value to them.
“Never treat a partner as just a channel to sell for you,” Chad advised. “Instead, engage them for their insights. When you focus on understanding first, co-selling strategies often emerge naturally.”
- Understanding: After the meeting, he takes time to debrief, understand, and strategize.
“We, in the partnership team, are intentionally looking at the partner opportunities that we feel can be supportive,” said Chad. “We’re like playing traffic control, we’re getting all the stakeholders under one roof to discuss and strategize which should be our best approach to engage with our partners and our teams.”
“Thanks to our ELG motion, which Crossbeam has been at the center of, we’re 85% on our way to fulfill both of our goals, new business and opportunities created,” said Chad.
Leveraging partner events
Another way Chad is leveraging ecosystem data is by preparing before partner events.
This year, one of his major partner motions was centered around two partners who organized in-person events — these events were key to Document Crunch’s revenue strategy. Thanks to Crossbeam they were able to know:
- Who from their partner team was going to help them with the introductions
- Who Document Crunch should prioritize talking to during the event
- Who from Document Crunch’s team should be sent to the event to maximize conversations
“Having this intel in advance helped us exceed expectations during the event,” said Chad. “We were able to coordinate with the team to understand the narratives we had to share with each of our clients and prospects. Crossbeam gives us this visibility that is absolutely essential to be able to properly work with partners.”
Some extra ELG advice
To make your ELG strategy a success:
- Go to market with partners, not through them.
- Be patient — ELG success doesn’t happen overnight.
- Focus your efforts on the right partners at the right time.
First and foremost, you don’t have to treat your partners just as another marketing channel. You have to go to market with them and not through them.
Second of all, ELG success doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a long run, but it’s worth it.
As Chad put it, “The north star of ELG is to make your partner look like an expert to their clients. When you do this, they feel comfortable and confident to keep sending business your way.”
Finally, you have to learn where to focus your efforts, not all partners are worth dedicating 100% of your time. Maybe it’s not the right partner, or maybe it’s just a conversation you can have later in the year.
Chad explained, “We had to postpone working with one partner for six months because the timing wasn’t right. Even so, that decision will still open up new business opportunities for us. What we’ve learned is that we don’t need to invest too much time in partners who aren’t the right fit for our customers or for us at the moment. This valuable perspective comes directly from the rest of our ecosystem.”
If you’re ready to build an ELG motion that drives results, book a free ELG strategy call with our team and they will guide you through it all.
