Partnerships: Your New Growth Engine

It’s a good thing marketers are typically optimists. Because right now, the headwinds in B2B are brutal. Many CMOs have experienced budget cuts across people, programs, and tech. At the same time, digital channels have become less effective. Email open rates are down. Google ad costs are rising. SEO is less reliable as Google tweaks its algorithm and integrates LLM answers, pushing your hard-earned links below the fold.

One bright spot is partnerships, the focus of 4 Huddles in March. During these conversations, CMOs shared how partnerships were working for them. Experts like Chip Rodgers (Head of Partnerships, WorkSpan) and Asher Mathew (Founder, Partnership Leaders) highlighted how partnerships have evolved from hopeful handshakes to sophisticated growth engines—requiring a new level of expertise. 

Here are some of the highlights of our partnership conversations. 

How Have Partnerships Evolved? 

Chip Rodgers noted, “Partnering used to be about reselling, with partners doing the selling, but now it’s all about co-selling or ‘ecosystem partnering’ as some call it.”  

This shift has required new levels of professionalism and expertise from partnership leaders. This new breed of professionals ensure that partners are aligned around the same priorities, work around timing bottlenecks, and anticipate problems before they happen.

Why Partnerships Right Now? 

Let’s start with one big issue: New customer acquisition in an era of privacy and cookieless interactions. Cold outreach is next to impossible. But chances are there’s a partner out there who is already working with your top prospects. 

Partners, who have already earned customer trust, can provide warm introductions. Importantly, these partners aren’t shilling for you; they’re delivering added value to their customers.

What’s in it for the Customer?

As much as every company would like to think of their solutions as stand-alone, must-have, best-of-breed (add your cliche here), chances are your solution is just a component of what a customer needs. 

Just as a flashlight is useless without batteries, many products could be bundled to deliver a more satisfying offering. Most likely, your customer isn’t even looking for a flashlight, they want the “light” it produces. Great partnerships deliver that light.

Where Do You Start?

Start small. Asher Mathew advises, “Don’t go in with greedy eyes, start with small bites.” Then set clear goals, adds Asher, “The end goal isn’t one campaign or activity - you want to build a go-to-market program with your partners.” 

Then show commitment, he explains. “They will test your commitment to doing high-quality things in the early phases of the partnership.” 

Have patience, “If it takes 3 months or more to get a program off the ground, that’s okay, because once you have momentum it will be hard to stop!” Asher concludes. 

What Should You Expect from Partner Managers?

“In the old days, the partner manager was the ‘wine and dine guy’ but now they are highly disciplined and certified business people,” notes Asher. “Today, every good partner manager should understand basic marketing, and be multidisciplinary,” he adds. 

“Experience matters” Asher explains. “There will be misses, so partnership professionals build resilience into their plans and go back to partners to diagnose problems for continuous improvement.” 

How Do You Identify Potential Partners?

“It’s easy to identify potential partners,” Asher notes, “Just run a survey among your customers.” Ah yes, when in doubt, talk to your customers. He also suggests asking two questions: 

• Question #1: What do you read or watch to stay sharp about your category? 

• Question #2: Is there a company that we should have partnered with to make our story stronger and more appealing to you? 

If you’re having great success with partnerships, please let us know what’s working.