Ecosystem leads are a game changer for B2B companies.

They yield 41% better win rates and can increase the size of deals by 43%.

If you work in marketing, sales, business development, or partnerships, it’s probably a good idea you know what ecosystem leads are and how to find them. 

We’ll list the two types of ecosystem leads, the three key benefits they bring to your business, and how to generate more of them. By the end of this post, you should be ready to start adding them to your strategy. 

"In the era of Outbound, ABC meant Always Be Closing. In the era of Nearbound, ABC means Always Be Connecting. Your network is your net worth."—Jill Rowley, GTM Advisor and LP, Stage 2 Capital 

What are ecosystem leads?

Ecosystem leads are accounts that already live in your ecosystem. They are the customers or prospects of your partners. The aim of using Nearbound leads is to drive revenue together with other companies through data sharing, co-marketing, and co-selling.

Types of ecosystem leads

1. Partner-qualified leads

Partner-qualified leads are net new leads from partners in cases where the business has not introduced the leads in question. In this case, a partner will send contacts to you, but they will not have already made the introduction or recommended your business to the prospective customer or client.

2. Partner-recommended leads

Partner-recommended leads are leads that other companies within the ecosystem send having already made an introduction or a recommendation. For example, the partner may have targeted the leads through an internal or joint marketing campaign. The lead will already be warm, meaning there is a higher chance of a conversion.

What are the benefits of ecosystem leads?

Numbers don’t lie.

• 41% increase in win rates with ecosystem-led growth (ELG) deals.
• 43% increase in deal size with ELG deals.
• Almost 50% of companies surveyed by Hubspot, Partnership Leaders, and Canalys made at least 26% of their revenues through partners in 2022.

The bottom line, you drive more revenue when you tap into the power of ecosystem leads.

"We believe the nearbound channel to be far more powerful than any other channel GTM teams have had access to in the past." —Jo Wright, Global Director Partnerships and Head of Global Solution Partners at 6sense  

But more revenue isn’t the only benefit of ecosystem leads. They also:

1. Accelerate sales processes

By sharing data and leads, partners can benefit from smoother, more efficient, and faster processes while also enhancing the quality of leads to boost conversion rates. It can remove some of the more laborious, and dare we say it, tedious parts of business development like prospecting and outreach. Instead of having to do them yourself, you’ve now got an ecosystem that is helping you to do that.  

And not only are they giving you new leads, but they probably also have relationships with them, so they can make introductions if needed and also vouch for you, which makes the whole sales process less of an uphill struggle.

2. Find the gaps

Partners can help you not only plug gaps in your current market and vertical but also help identify new ones.  

Think about it this way. You’ve only got a CRM that has 500 contacts in it. That CRM is heavily skewed towards you and your sales team’s network. Now add another 500 contacts from your partner’s ecosystem, some of them will be the same, but a lot won’t.  

Then do it again with some of their partners.

And again.

And again.

You’ll start to get a network effect, with the impact being that there will be a whole host of businesses, verticals, and markets you otherwise would have never spotted. 

3. Open up new business development opportunities

Statistics from BCG show that 83% of digital ecosystems include partners from at least three industries. Over 50% of ecosystems involve partners from more than five sectors. 

That means there are some serious business development opportunities within Partnership Ecosystems. 

By sharing data, reselling, and referring customers to partners, businesses can access new markets and customers and explore opportunities to increase sales through schemes or ideas they might have yet to consider. 

How to get ecosystem leads in your pipeline?

There are three main ways to get ecosystem leads into your pipeline, including:

1. Partner referrals: Direct referrals allow you to communicate with and target new contacts passed to you via your partners. An example of a partner referral would be a partner company passing details of a new account to you. 
2. Data sharing: Sharing data with partners is a very popular way to boost lead generation and conversion rates. Companies within the same ecosystem may choose to share data, such as contact lists and customer accounts, through a file or a partner ecosystem management platform, for example.
3. Reseller programs: This is a partnership that involves the partner selling your product or service for you.  

Before you can start benefiting from ecosystem leads, you need to ensure that you have a business ecosystem or a partnership program. 

We won’t go into all the details of setting up a partnerships program, you can find that in our Building a High Impact Partner Program academy course, but there are a few key areas you need to cover:

• Identifying the right partners: Understanding what a good fit for your partner program looks like
• Onboarding: The process of bringing on partners to the program, including things like contracts and product training.
• Training: Supporting them with any training they need to be better able to sell your business.
• Reporting: Reporting on the program’s overall performance internally and analyzing individual partners’ performance.
• Managing the relationship: Making sure the relationship and processes run as smoothly as possible. 

Top Tip: You can use our partner scorecard template for free to analyze partners. 

Then once your network expands, you can submit and share high-quality leads (a.k.a. ecosystem leads). 

How you can use Crossbeam to spot ecosystem leads?

Here are three main ways in which you can use Crossbeam’s account mapping to fuel your pipeline with highly-qualified leads: 

1. Quickly identify your key partners: Once you’ve synced CRMs with your partner, Crossbeam gives you a snapshot of the Account Overlaps and the Contact Overlaps.

The greater the number of overlaps, the more likely it is that they’ll have significant influence within your ecosystem and are someone that you will want to work hard at maintaining a relationship with. 

2. Find the lowest-hanging fruit: You can quickly work with your partners to identify the businesses they’re currently working with where you’ve got a complimentary product/service that they need.

The end result is that you should have a list of prospects that you know your product/service will solve one of their problems and you’ve got someone who is able to make a warm introduction for you.

3. Prioritize leads: You can use the 360° Dashboard in Salesforce (Source Opportunities widget) to identify accounts that exist in your partner’s CRM but don’t exist in yours.

This feature will help you evaluate the size of the lead and the overlap it has with your partners (is an easy way to prioritize leads) because you’ll have a good idea of the potential deal size and that there is some sort of synergy with your product.

Summary

Ecosystem leads are leads that come from partners from within the same business ecosystem or network. By working together, partners can boost lead generation, attract new customers, optimize lead quality, accelerate sales processes, and capitalize on business development and growth opportunities. 

Key takeaways:

• Ecosystem leads are leads passed to partners through a business ecosystem or partner program.
• Benefits of ecosystem leads include shorter, faster sales processes, accessing high-quality leads, reaching new customers, exploring new opportunities, sharing resources, and filling gaps.
• The main ways to get ecosystem leads into your sales pipeline include partner referrals, data sharing, and reseller programs.

Book a demo with the Crossbeam team to learn new avenues for acquiring ecosystem leads!