Find ’em

Imagine you knew that there was a group of existing and potential partners that account mapping showed to have massive customer and prospect overlap with your business.

You know who those partners are?

👉 Your Tribe

What astonishes me about this is:

1️⃣ Many B2B SaaS companies have these overlaps with a tribe which is a joint customer ecosystem.

2️⃣ Your customers are begging, soon to be demanding that you market, sell and support (aka GoToEco) in coordination with this tribe. This includes creating joint solutions and validated use case/outcomes.

3️⃣ Most C-Suite in B2B SaaS are clueless about #1 and either don’t know or are ignoring #2 OR they get 1 + 2 but the whole partner thing is just to complicated and squishy for them to invest in.

Implications?

👉 B2B SaaS is out of touch with the market, our GTMs stink, employees are being fired or are miserable, everyone is losing.

There is a very, very simple answer that will transform B2B SaaS for GOOD:

• Find your tribe
• Build joint offerings with your tribe
• Sell and support with your tribe by optimizing for the needs of your joint ICP

B2B SaaS needs to wake up before it’s too late and get tribal.

Thanks for contributing to this section of the Phd, Allan Adler!

Get fired in 2023

Are you worried about layoffs in 2023? Don’t make these mistakes as a Partner Manager.

1️⃣ Failing to align departments around partnership initiatives

Make partnership a native activity for each department and not just the responsibility of the partnership team.

Each department should contribute one-third of their activities towards achieving the revenue target.

👉 Make others the hero and act as a guide to help them.

2️⃣ Having Shiny Object Syndrome

Make careful choices about which opportunities to pursue.

Build a few strong partnerships where you have skin in the game before going out there and getting more partners.

👉 Partnering should be based on the science of SaaS rather than just the art of the possible.

3️⃣ Not taking responsibility

Great leaders take responsibility for failures and give credit to others for successes.

Defensiveness about individual contributions can be counterproductive and off-putting to leaders.

Build trust by emphasizing teamwork and shared responsibility.

4️⃣ Conducting random acts of marketing

Don’t waste the marketing team’s time on one-off partner initiatives without a clear strategy.

Choose partners carefully based on their ability to bring net new leads and value, not just because they are available.

Run your own partner webinars and build relationships with partners first without relying on marketing support.

👉 I did is better than we should.

5️⃣ Giving to get (instead of helping to get)

Understand your partner’s needs first.

Develop shared business objectives and help them reach their promised land.

6️⃣ Getting more integrations built

Consider first whether customers are using your current ones.

Through data, make informed decisions about what drives activation, adoption, and retention.

Without this information, pitching another integration is a waste of resources.

▶️ Bonus: Spending too much time on LinkedIn

The world has shifted from focusing on "how" to "who" - who can help me with this? Who has been where I want to go? Who do I trust?

Think about who you want to be a hero to each day - you can’t be a hero to everyone, but by focusing on one or a few people, you can make a big impact.

There is a danger in focusing too much on building your network and being a hero to your LinkedIn followers while neglecting the people you work with or your partners.

👉 Don’t be the one who everybody loves on LinkedIn, but everyone else thinks he’s an a***ole.

"You can’t be a hero to everyone. Chose who you’ll be a hero to today." – Isaac Morehouse

Thanks for contributing to this section of the PhD, Eric Sangerma!

Learn to leverage Nearbound data with HubSpot

You’ve got partner data - now what? Why is Nearbound data so significant?

Two weeks ago, Connor Jeffers, Jared Fuller, and Per Allin got together to discuss the secrets of using Nearbound data to win in 2023.

Did you miss the event? Catch the replay here.

Connor Jeffers, Jared Fuller, and Per Allin discuss the power of using Nearbound data to grow your ecosystem.

Happenings

• PartnerHacker x Magentrix – Thursday, June 1, 1 PM ET – How We Incentivized Resellers to Grow Our Program by 26% – Learn how Magentrix activated their partners to increase pipeline by 26%!
• No B.S. Guide to Co-Selling Millions with Partners (from partnership people who’ve really done it) – June 16th, 12 PM ET. Meet up (Zoom) with Chris Lavoie, Rob Rebholz, and Justin Zimmerman, who will share the real-world sh*t that works. 

Quote of the Day

To find great partners, look to the companies your customers already trust. - Jared Fuller

Invite your tribe to the PhD

Share the PhD with a partner pro. Help ’em get their Nearbound game on, and get some PartnerHacker swag while you’re at it.