We all know enterprise sales are marathons, not sprints. But just like training for a marathon helps you pick up the pace, there are smart ways to make enterprise deals move faster too.

In this success story, you’ll learn how Stripe is using Deal Navigator to accelerate deals and why Ecosystem Intelligence is the boost you didn’t know you needed. 

At Stripe, Partner Development Manager Martin Polash supports account executives across the Nordics and Benelux, where opportunities often take 9-12 months to close. 

Since 2024, he has made it his mission to elevate Stripe’s Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG) strategy. His mandate is simple to say but hard to execute: help sellers close bigger deals, faster by activating the right partners at the right moment.

The only question was: how?

Early this year, Martin was invited into the beta of Crossbeam’s Deal Navigator and it was, as he describes, a coup de foudre (the French version of “love at first sight”). From that moment, Crossbeam’s newest feature became his first stop for every partner conversation.

Why? Because it shines a light on exactly where partners can accelerate open opportunities.

“My main function at Stripe is to co-create go-to-market strategies with the partners, co-marketing campaigns, and most importantly, I help our account executives close deals faster and get customers up and running on Stripe, faster together with our partners,” said Martin. “At Stripe, we always want the best tools to be used, and we've been using Crossbeam for a long time.”

It’s still early days, but the signals are promising: Deal Navigator is already helping Stripe identify ways to shorten long enterprise cycles.

To appreciate the impact, consider the scale: Stripe powers millions of businesses worldwide and processes $1.4T in payments (≈1.3% of global GDP). Even modest cycle reductions on deals of that size create a meaningful revenue pull forward and smoother implementations for customers.

“As an early adopter of Deal Navigator, I just wanted to share the buzz around Deal Navigator and how, honestly, it opened up so much more than I could have ever kind of imagined,” said Martin.

First things first

For those of you who haven't had the opportunity or are wondering what Deal Navigator is, let us introduce it to you: 

Deal Navigator is a table view of open opportunities that overlap with your partners’ customers, enabling you to focus on the most promising deals and partnerships. 

Designed for sales managers, individual sellers, growth and marketing managers, Deal Navigator enhances sales efficiency by leveraging Ecosystem Intelligence to prioritize deals and surface key partner insights.

Some of the Ecosystem Intelligence signals that are used to surface recommended partners are:

• Recent wins: Partner recently closed a deal with the account (last 3 months)
• New contacts: Partner added 1+ new contacts at the opportunity level
• Long-term relationship: Partner has had the account as a customer for 2+ years
• Missing contacts: Partner has key contacts not in your CRM
• Crossbeam activity: Partner has shown recent engagement on Crossbeam

Navigating deals with Martin

“One of the things that I've seen over my career is that you are able to accelerate deals with the help of your partners. So Deal Navigator just kind of puts a magnifying glass on things that we are already working on with partners,” said Martin. “It's been a good way to get clarity and visibility.”

We know that Martin’s strategy is still in early stages, but we got a premier ticket in our recent webinar to see how his strategy looks like:

Step 01: Prioritize what moves the needle

Deal Navigator ranks open opportunities using smart logic (deal size, urgency, stalled activity) plus ecosystem signals (recent partner wins, shared/missing contacts, relationship depth). 

Martin opens the view and instantly sees which deals deserve attention today.

Step 02: Prep every partner sync in minutes‍

Before weekly calls, Martin applies two simple filters:

• AE filter to his regional sellers (rarely changes), and
• Partner filter for the team he’s meeting.

In 5–10 minutes, he has a crisp, shared agenda: new overlaps, stuck deals, and which partner is best positioned to help.

Step 03: Make “no-partner” a red flag on complex deals‍

With 17 years in enterprise sales, Martin knows major accounts almost always involve partners. 

If a big-brand opportunity shows no partner, he’s “suspicious.” Deal Navigator lets him surface the best-fit partner immediately, often the one with a fresh win in the account, multi-year relationship history, and decision-maker contacts sellers don’t yet have.

Step 04: Turn first meetings with new partners into momentum

When meeting prospective partners, Martin uses Deal Navigator to validate overlap on the spot. 

Seeing real shared accounts early removes the shyness barrier, proves joint value, and kickstarts co-selling.

Step 05: Meet sellers where they live (Salesforce) 

Because Deal Navigator is available in Crossbeam and as a Salesforce iframe, sellers don’t have to switch tools. They can message partners, request intros, and add accounts to shared lists from the opportunity.

Early impact: Leading indicators that point to speed

Even though it’s only been a couple of months of the implementation of Deal Navigator, Martin assures that, “Deal Navigator is always there and so simple to use, you don’t need a PhD in Crossbeam to get value.” 

Martin shared some leading indicators of early success:

• Sharper focus, faster: Martin goes from “what should we talk about?” to a prioritized, actionable list in minutes.
• More and better partner involvement: He now spots the right partner weekly (often daily) and spins up joint threads on high-stakes opportunities.
• De-risked enterprise cycles: Warm intros to economic buyers, missing contacts, and proven partner context reduce stall points before they happen.
• Stronger new-partner pipeline: Instant overlap views turn exploratory chats into concrete co-selling plans.

Just the beginning (we’ll be watching)

The early signals (faster prep, tighter partner alignment, immediate access to buyer committees, and weekly partner activation on big deals) are exactly the precursors you want to see before cycle time drops show up in closed-won data.

We’ll keep an eye on Martin’s numbers as these opportunities mature through the full enterprise timeline. If the leading indicators hold, the headline won’t be that he accelerated deals, it will be how much.

Want the same playbook Martin uses to prioritize and unblock enterprise opps? Book an ELG Strategy call with our experts to move complex deals faster.

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