Get partnerships back on the table

As humans, we sometimes get stuck in our biases and framing.

Biases are like mental blinders. They help us make decisions faster, but the downside is that they also tend to create blind spots.

The partnerships world is not immune to human biases; you’ve likely noticed this when trying to get buy-in.

Your internal departments hear the word “partnership” and it brings up memories of a bad experience.

Partner pro, you need a new strategy. You can’t keep playing into their negative biases.

That’s where “nearbound” is powerful.

At the Nearbound Summit, Kevin Maney (author of the bestselling book, Play Bigger) explained why “nearbound” is so important for widespread partnership adoption:

Category design is not marketing at all. It’s a strategy. It’s about very clearly seeing a significant market category the world needs, then not only being able to see it, but to define it and put rules around it.

Your company needs partnerships, but they don’t need just any ‘ol spread of partnerships. They need partnerships that improve the buyer’s journey.

The old way of thinking about partnerships allowed for a siloed partnerships department and spray-and-pray partnership efforts.

Nearbound, however, does not.

Nearbound is strategic, obsessed with the buyer, and an overlay to every department.

Kevin Maney explained what you’re actually doing when you pitch nearbound:

Category design is about taking people on a journey from the way they do things right now to the way they could do things in they adopt this category.

Frame the problem, hit the pains, and explain the “new” solution.

Get your partnerships pitch away from the negative biases. Start pitching nearbound.

Listen to the full conversation with Isaac Morehouse and Kevin Maney at the Nearbound Summit and click here to get a nearbound pitch template.

Insights from a Chief Ecosystem Officer

Change is hard. Transformation is harder.

What we’re trying to do with the nearbound movement is take something that previously existed in parts, and transform it.

Partnerships aren’t new, but the way they used to work — as a siloed department — won’t get you the growth results your company is searching for.

Partnerships cannot be a force multiplier unless it’s an overlay across your entire go-to-market strategy.

And to drive that transformation inside of your organization is hard work. No one will tell you otherwise.

But it’s worth it.

Allison Munro (Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer at Vena Solutions) shared one of her favorite strategies for driving transformation:

What if you just run an experiment?

People look at nearbound GTM as a big transformation they need to employ in full force, right now. Then they get stuck in a state of inaction because they’re afraid to fail.

What if, instead of trying to change your whole company’s GTM strategy, you start with one hypothesis and a group of people willing to test out the hypothesis with you?

When things don’t work (because they won’t a lot of the time), you can make incremental changes and continue experimenting. When things do work, you double down and save those bits of proof for a later conversation on buy-in.

False starts are no fun, but everyone’s up for a little experimentation now and again.

Listen to the full conversation with Allison Munro and Jill Rowley (Chief Evangelist, nearbound.com) to hear what Allison thinks about the current state of the market and her title, Chief Ecosystem Officer.

Co-marketing with a large ecosystem

I was scrolling LinkedIn the other day when Connor Jeffers popped up in my feed.

Turns out Aptitude 8 launched a course on HubSpot Academy!

This is an incredible example of co-marketing with a large ecosystem for a couple of reasons:

• It’s a win-win-win that’s centered on bringing value to HubSpot’s customers.
• As a HubSpot exclusive services agency, Aptitude 8 wants to win in this ecosystem. They align themselves with HubSpot often and build brand recognition within the ecosystem.

Partner-created content is such a great play for large ecosystems. We’ll likely be seeing more of this in months to come.

Stuff you don’t want to miss!

• Nearbound Summit 2023 Recordings—The future of GTM is Nearbound. Watch the recordings to hear how B2B leaders across departments unite with Nearbound strategies and tactics. Listen here.
• Dec 13, 2 PM EST —Navigating Change: Dealing with Uncertainty, Restructurings, and Its Aftermath— Join Faisal Mirza (Director in Strategic Partnerships at Adobe) and Scott Pollack (CEO at Firneo) and they discuss how to manage through changes in the organization and deal with its aftermath. 
• March 19-20th — Affiverse’s Amplify Summit — Join them for a 2-day virtual event to help affiliate businesses amplify their performance. Learn about digital, partnership, and affiliate marketing.

Calling all nearbound pros

Share this with a partner pro who needs to become a nearbound pro.