This week at the amazing Partner Ecosystem Kickoff 2023 event put on by Partner Hacker and Partner Stack, we introduced two playbooks containing proven best practices for scaling referrals to and from Tech Partners. This link will take you to our slides and this link to the live recording of the pitch.

Two playbooks designed for scale

The two playbooks are linked to GoToEco Referral Flywheel model below that we introduced late last year.

The first playbook is designed to deliver leads at scale to your tech partners; the second one creates revenue by generating leads from your tech partners’ CS teams back to you.

These playbooks have had amazing results. A well-known B2B SaaS company case study demonstrates substantive ARR, NRR, NPS, and retention outcomes.

Playbook outcomes

Outcomes included:

• Rapid time to market with a program developed and implemented in 30-60 days requiring minimal resources.
• Improved understanding of customer pain points (client success team better able to assist, leading to improved NPS & LTV)
• Enriched customer profile by collecting “zero party” data (e.g., their GMV range, how much budget they have for tech & services)
• Increased collaboration between partnerships, success, and customer marketing via alignment in OKRs

The metrics achieved are pretty incredible:

• 74% of customers offered intros to certified partners said “yes”
• +230% MoM increase in referrals sent to partners
• 300% YoY increase in revenue from partners whose CS teams reciprocated due to an increased volume of referrals

Playbook best practices

You can achieve the same outcomes, generate net new revenues and do so in a downmarket with minimal investments - just what your CRO and CFO want to hear. How?

Follow these best practices:

1. Begin the Program by Creating Customer Buy-In. Leverage simple, clear, and compelling insight surveys to drive referral interest with customers as added value engine for their business.
2. Leverage a clear and consistent playbook to ensure simplicity, speed, and scale. Playbooks ensure optimal efficiency & productivity (whilst preserving precious bandwidth for PAMs to focus on generating referrals from partners) and delivering on promised value.
3. Track the Right Metrics and Ensure Value is made crystal clear. Tracking the right metrics enables constant improvement and ensures that value can be communicated broadly.
4. Ensure Sales, Customer Success, and PAM Buy-In. As the gate-keepers of your customers, you need the success team (and sales to a lesser extent) to buy into the vision, believe in the impact potential, and support (work with) you when making decisions on partner referrals. PAMs will be critical in offering input on referral situations and deciding which partners are most appropriate.
5. Focus on the right partners. Leverage a complete yet simple-to-navigate master partner directory containing the information needed to make an accurate determination of partner fit for a customer referral.

Chris Lavoie, the playbook author, and I are offering free coaching sessions to anyone who wants to learn how to leverage these assets and get to work to monetize your fantastic tech partnerships. Clients can achieve meaningful results in 90 days by applying these methods, so hit us up for a free coaching session by DMing either of us.

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