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Interconnected partnerships can fuel your go-to-market strategies, drive collective success, and create sustainable competitive advantages.
October 21, 2024
Issue #680
There’s a reason trees grow in groves and diverse species make their homes in forests.
Just like trees, we need a little help from our partners to thrive and succeed.
Dive into today’s newsletter to discover how forming strategic alliances can turn your go-to-market strategy into a lush forest of opportunity.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to complete the 2024 Future of Revenue survey — your coffee break can help shape the next generation of GTM. Be the tree that helps everyone see the forest! Or something!
PRINCIPLES
ELG = Interconnected value + collective success + sustainable competitive advantage
*I’m just going to share Suraj Atreya’s (GTM Marketing Leader Strategic Alliances Partnerships at Rackspace Technology) thoughts. He perfectly described the value of ELG — thanks Suraj for your insights.
“Go-to-market strategy today isn't just about internal clarity and alignment.
It's also about external synergies with alliance partners to build sustainable competitive advantages and drive profitability.
Ecosystem-Led Growth incorporates this shift leveraging partner ecosystems as the primary means to attract, convert, and grow customer relationships.
Think of it like a forest ecosystem. Trees, insects, fungi, and other animals form a complex web of interdependencies, each playing a crucial role in the ecosystem's health and growth.
A tree provides shelter for birds, which in turn disperse the tree's seeds. Fungi form underground networks facilitating nutrient exchange between plants. This delicate balance ensures that the forest ecosystem thrives.
Similarly, in ELG, businesses create mutually beneficial partnerships that drive collective success. Each partner brings unique strengths to the ecosystem, creating value that no single entity could achieve alone.”
To read the complete LinkedIn post from Suraj, click here.
TACTICS
How to request ecosystem data
By tapping into insights from partners within your ecosystem — whether through shared customers, tech stack integrations, or mutual objectives — you can gain invaluable intel that you won’t find on Google or LinkedIn.
This data enables you to personalize outreach, propose highly relevant solutions, and even accelerate deal closures.
Here’s a simple process you can follow to request and effectively leverage ecosystem data to boost your business outcomes:
Step 1: Identify the partners in your ecosystem
Start by mapping your ecosystem of partners. Identify key players like technology partners, system integrators, or other non-competing vendors who have overlapping customers or insights relevant to your market.
How? Use tools like Crossbeam or Reveal to analyze customer overlap, shared prospects, and existing integrations.
Step 2: Reach out to gather intel
Once you've identified potentially valuable partners, reach out to them via email, LinkedIn, a Slack integration, or through your Ecosystem-Led Growth platform. Be specific in your request. Use questions like:
- How is [Prospect/Customer] leveraging your platform?
- What is their key objective or pain point?
- How long have they been a customer?
- What’s their overall opinion of your platform?
Important: Everytime you ask your partner for intel (or even influence and intros) you have to be proactive about sharing your own valuable intel and ready to reciprocate. Find out which companies they’re trying to get as customers (that are already customers of yours) and gather some intel for them, make a referral, or offer an intro.
Step 3: Analyze the data
Compile the ecosystem data you've gathered and match it with the prospect or account you're targeting. Use this intel to identify how your product can fit into their existing tech stack or solve their pain points.
Step 4: Tailor your pitch
Customize your outreach or sales pitch based on the insights provided by partners. Address the prospect’s most relevant pain points, suggest personalized solutions, and highlight joint value propositions.
For instance, you can align your product’s features with the partner’s platform to demonstrate how both tools work better together.
Step 5: Accelerate the sales cycle
Use partner recommendations and data insights to build trust with your prospect. Partner testimonials can reduce friction and move deals forward more quickly.
Ecosystem data often helps cut down the time spent on discovery or validation, making your conversations more effective.
Bonus tips: Ecosystem data isn’t only for sales and partnerships
- Incorporate ecosystem data into your marketing strategies by running joint campaigns with partners.
- Align customer success efforts with ecosystem insights to enhance retention, identify churn signals, and boost upsell opportunities.
Kolleno, Fivetran, Fullstory, Clari, and Gainsight are leveraging ecosystem data to sell, market, and service their customers (and prospects) better. Want to know their secrets? Click here.
MEME OF THE DAY
Not everything that shines is gold
Yes, there are thousands of intent signals on the internet, but some are more relevant than others.
Our best tip to ensure you get the right signal, ask your partner — they already know the answers to the test.
Thanks Jeff Chen for the meme
STUFF YOU CAN’T MISS
- October 22 — Successfully Presenting Your Plan — TOMORROW
Learn from Tai Rattigan (Co-founder and COO of Partnership Leaders) how to effectively present your budget plan to key stakeholders with confidence and clarity. Save your spot here.
- October 24 — Tech Stack Summit ‘24
Join Justin Zimmerman, Tai Rattigan (Co-founder of Partnership Leaders), Kristen Kelly (Global Technology Alliances Director at Netskope), Greg Portnoy (CEO of Euler), and many more GTM leaders as they help you pick the right people, process, or tools to grow your co-sell, integration, or cloud partnerships. Save your spot here.
- November 11 - 14 — Web Summit 2024
70,000 people will gather in Lisbon, Portugal for one of the biggest tech conferences in the world, featuring speakers from leading companies across nearly every technology vertical. Book your ticket to join them here.
You're all caught up
See you tomorrow
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