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Cody Sunkel, Partner Fleet's Co-Founder and VP of Growth explained, "At Partner Fleet, I have had conversations with hundreds of partnership leaders, and the one struggle I see the most often is getting executive buy-in for partnership projects and proposals."
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PRINCIPLES
Partners = deeper & wider
Cody Sunkel (Co-Founder and VP of Growth) and Kelsey Johnson (Head of Marketing) from Partner Fleet created a guide to help partnership leaders and managers pitch their partner programs and get budget.
Here was one of the graphics they shared.
It’s a powerful, yet simple graphic.
Company A follows a traditional funnel and direct business model—organic marketing, paid ads, and SDRs bringing leads into the sales funnel.
This company is limited by its resources and reach.
Company B, however, follows an ecosystem business model. In an ecosystem business model,
Your partner managers work to grow and activate partners, but each partner has their own marketing and sales efforts, and can send significant number of leads in your funnel.
Company B has its own resources and reach, but also benefits from every other partner’s resources and reach.
The point is this: look at the space Company A versus Company B takes up. Because Company B includes partners, it has the ability to expand deeper and wider.
TACTICS
Get CXO buy-in in 9 steps
Partner Fleet’s Cody Sunkel (Co-Founder and VP of Growth) and Kelsey Johnson (Head of Marketing) outlined 9 major steps to getting CXO buy-in on your partner program.
Cody explained,
At Partner Fleet, I have had conversations with hundreds of partnership leaders, and the one struggle I see the most often is getting executive buy-in for partnership projects and proposals.
Here’s how to use this guide:
- Read this quick snapshot overview
- Go download the guide
- Work from steps 01 to 09 in order
Step one: Tailor the pitch to your company
How does your company actually work? Can you tie your pitch to your company’s strategic initiatives and goals?
Step two: Research your company’s current business model (and rhythm of business)
Do you know how much of your business is coming from each channel? Do you know how your business runs, sells, services, or innovates? How do partners overlay onto existing motions?
Step three: Partner program maturity
Do you know what stage your partner program is at and what proper expectations are for this stage? Do you have a proper timeline and key dates for maturing your program?
Step four: Framing the ecosystem opportunity
Can you explain the story behind the opportunity? Why should they care?
Step five: Crawl, walk, run
Can you paint the picture of what this actually might look like? What big problem is this solving and how can execs get excited about it?
Step six: Build the deck
Check out the pre-built deck here.
Step seven: Get the right people on board
Are the right people involved? Do you have support from key individuals in and across your company’s departments?
Step eight: Make the pitch
Step nine: Execute on the plan
Read the full guide here.
ARTICLE OF THE DAY
The era of ecosystem orchestration is here
How do we make our ecosystem-led future real? James Hodgkinson (SVP of Ecosystems at 360insights) believes the answer is: ecosystem orchestration.
He explains,
For some time, we’ve heard organizations talking about a change in the channel space. The traditional indirect model is alive and well, but the number of stakeholders involved is rapidly growing and the demands of consumers are changing. We are also seeing an ever-growing consensus that nearbound is the future of GTM.
Continue reading the article here.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Stuff you don’t want to miss!
- May 15th—How to Partner with AWS—Join Aaron Verstraete (Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Forethought) and Scott Pollack (CEO at Firneo) where they will share insider insights on navigating the AWS ecosystem, ensuring you leave with actionable knowledge. Register here.
- May 30th—Driving Revenue Through Technology Partners—Learn from Kelly Sarabyn (Head of Product Partnerships Advocacy and Enablement at HubSpot), Asher Matthew (CEO at Partnership Leaders), and Robbie Ptaszynski (Director of Strategic Pursuits and Priority ISV Co-sell at Microsoft) as they discuss the revenue impact partnerships teams can have and evolving from re-selling to co-selling. Register here.
- Nearbound Summit 2023 Recordings—The future of GTM is nearbound. Watch the recordings to hear how B2B leaders across departments unite with Nearbound strategies and tactics. Listen here.
You’re all caught up.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED ON NEARBOUND.COM
- The Elephant in the Ecosystem by Chris Messina
- The Era of Ecosystem Orchestration is Finally Here by James Hodgkinson
- How Fullstory Builds their Tech Partnerships Program with Reveal’s Help to Increase Their Renewal Rate by 14%
- Nearbound and the Rhythm of Business by Jared Fuller
- Rhythm of Business Checklist by Jared Fuller
- How Pigment Increased Win Rates 5-10% with a Nearbound Overlay & Reveal by Shawnie Hamer
- How to use Reveal for Co-marketing Events
- Unleashing the Power of Nearbound: The Stats You Need to Know by Andrea Vallejo
- Howdy Partners #72: Psychology of Team-Wide Buy-In: The Answer to Partner Program Success with Maurits Pieper
- Mastering the Nearbound Rhythm of the Business: Key Takeaways from the Nearbound Book by Andrea Vallejo
- A Deep Dive Into the Nearbound Book, with Mike Midgley, Part 3
- What’s an IPP—and (when) do you need one? by Martin Scholz and Bernhard Friedrichs
- The Future of Sales Enablement: Integrating the Nearbound Strategy in Your Cold Outreach Efforts by Jeremy Chatelaine
See you tomorrow
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