The following article includes a deep dive of an excerpt from “The State of Partner Sales: Studies in Excellence” from HubSpot, Crossbeam, and Partnership Leaders with a foreword from Bobby Morrison, CRO, and Ritu Khanna, VP of Global Partnerships at Shopify. 

The State of Partner Sales is a collection of stories from key players in the industry who are finding success selling with their ecosystem partners. These case studies show how unifying motions between companies and their partners, as well as partnership teams and their sales counterparts, can drive more revenue.

For years, Aircall and HubSpot maintained a strong partnership rooted in personal connections, dating back to 2016. While the relationship had impactful moments, it lacked a structured, scalable strategy. Natural transitions, like changes in key contacts, sometimes made it harder to maintain momentum.

Without a clearly defined process or broader ownership, it was challenging to grow the partnership consistently, which caused Aircall’s sales team to have limited opportunities to plug into the value of the partnership.

Lesson for sales leaders: If you expect your reps to co-sell, you need more than enthusiasm. You need process, alignment, and the right enablement before you ask for their time.

That’s why Mali Diez, Aircall’s Strategic Partner Manager for HubSpot, joined HubSpot’s co-selling pilot program in 2023. Together with Elizabeth Niemczyk, Sales Director for North America (West Coast), they turned a loosely defined relationship into a revenue-driving co-sell engine, delivering:

• 55% close rate on HubSpot-referred leads
• 20% higher MRR per opportunity
• 30+ monthly collaboration requests

Aircall’s partnership DNA

Aircall, an integrated customer communications and intelligence platform founded in 2014, has always believed in an “integration-first” mindset. The product team prioritized alliances with other tech players from day one.

Ten years later, partnerships remain core to their go-to-market. “It’s impossible not to have partnerships as a core in our strategy,” says Mali. “They help us co-sell, co-plan, co-win, and sometimes we even uncover inbound leads who turn out to be HubSpot customers.”

For Elizabeth, partnerships aren’t just a network play, they’re a sales enabler. “Partners make the buying process smarter, shorter, and more personalized. The ecosystem is fundamental to how we sell at Aircall,” said Elizabeth. 

From ad hoc to aligned: Building the co-selling motion

Joining HubSpot’s co-selling pilot in 2023 was the turning point, but it wasn’t plug-and-play. Mali and Elizabeth first had to align every stakeholder around a repeatable process.

Steps they took to operationalize the partnership:

1. Secure internal buy-in from sales leadership and reps (Elizabeth played a key role here).
2. Work with RevOps to integrate the necessary tech into the stack.
3. Collaborate with legal to define what data could be shared and how.
4. Set strategy with the partnership team for how to leverage HubSpot’s ecosystem.

Once two-way data sharing was live, Mali’s team prioritized opportunities before passing them to sales by:

• Cross-referencing HubSpot intel with Aircall’s own data.
• Building enablement content for marketing and sales, including value propositions, feature descriptions, outreach sequences.
• Creating curated lists and personalized one-pagers tailored to HubSpot users/admins.

“When selling within a larger ecosystem, you need to speak the customer’s language — in this case, the HubSpot user’s,” says Mali.

Sales execution: Turning intel into deals

Elizabeth’s team took that partner intel and made it actionable by:

• Organizing the data into target account lists.
• Defining co-selling motions for each priority.
• Using Slack channels to share live deal updates and requests between sales and partnerships.

This two-way information flow helped them target the right accounts at the right time, and close deals faster.

“Partnerships have changed our motion in every way,” says Elizabeth. “They’ve given us focus, better account prioritization, and a stronger value proposition.”

Her team now treats partnership data as a fundamental part of every pipeline review. In those meetings, Elizabeth, usually asks her team:

• Which partner AEs are you working with?
• Has the partnerships team been looped in?
• What’s the joint value proposition for the prospect?

The HubSpot x Aircall partnership has allowed Elizabeth and her team to understand what the market, customers, and prospects want, identify the best way to deliver on that, and target the right accounts with the right intel, at the right time. “It’s a two-way street of information that we have operationalized to drive deals forward,” said Elizabeth. “It impacts how quickly we can close a deal.”

How Ecosystem Intelligence shapes the sales cycle

For Elizabeth’s team, one of the most effective strategies has been using partner data to create account tiers. This tiering helps the entire sales organization stay aligned on priorities.

“Ecosystem Intelligence has changed the way we go to market and the way we go after specific accounts,” says Elizabeth. “It’s also changed the feedback I give to my marketing team about how to position our product.”

In this case, partnerships also act as a sales aid, beyond content enablement, data, and joint GTM efforts. The partnership team monitors what products prospects are using alongside HubSpot and what it means for Aircall’s positioning. For example, they have inside knowledge of the value and nuances of being a HubSpot Marketing Hub customer.

Thanks to Ecosystem Intelligence shared via HubSpot on Crossbeam, Mali’s team can leverage both technographic and demographic data to:

• Guide discovery and validation questions for the sales team.
• Tailor demos to align with the prospect’s specific pain points.
• Craft messaging that resonates with a HubSpot user’s reality.

“We tailor demos based on the information we get from partners, before the discovery call even happens,” says Mali. “The discovery call helps validate business needs, but Ecosystem Intelligence says a lot about how your prospect is already using HubSpot today.”

This combination of pre-call intelligence and live discovery allows Aircall’s sales team to enter conversations with context, speed up the buying process, and improve win rates.

“Working with data enriched by Crossbeam allows us to be more intentional with our targeted GTM efforts alongside HubSpot. We will continue to invest in resources that can expand these capabilities in the future,” said Matthieu Gombeaud, Global VP Partnership at Aircall. 

(Here’s a short video showing how Mali and Elizabeth execute their co-selling motion on Crossbeam.)

Aircall’s journey with HubSpot proves that partnerships can be far more than sales alliances, they can be core revenue drivers. But only if sales leaders invest in process, alignment, and enablement to make co-selling a repeatable part of the motion.

Turning partnerships into a scalable revenue engine

Aircall’s journey with HubSpot is proof that co-selling success doesn’t come from chance, it comes from structure, alignment, and intentional execution. What started as a relationship-dependent partnership evolved into a repeatable revenue motion because the team invested in process, integrated Ecosystem Intelligence into their sales cycle, and made partnerships a visible, measurable part of their culture.

For sales leaders looking to replicate this kind of transformation, the playbook is clear:

• Structure beats relationships. Build a process that survives turnover and delivers consistent results.
• Get cross-functional buy-in early. Align Sales, RevOps, Legal, and Partnerships before launching.
• Pre-filter partner intel. Only pass on relevant, actionable information your reps can use immediately.
• Make partnerships part of the sales culture. Embed them into pipeline reviews, team goals, and success metrics.
• Leverage Ecosystem Intelligence with Crossbeam. Use partner data to sharpen your targeting, tailor your demos, and strengthen your value proposition.
  
  

Aircall’s experience shows that when partnerships are operationalized, not just celebrated, they become more than a network play. They become a scalable revenue engine that accelerates deal cycles, deepens customer relevance, and unites sales teams under a shared growth strategy.

Experience firsthand how Ecosystem Intelligence can help your team target the right accounts, personalize outreach, and close deals faster, just like Aircall did with HubSpot.

Book an ELG Strategy call with our team and start unlocking revenue with smarter, data-driven co-selling.

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