In last month’s column, we talked about why it was important for partner teams to reposition themselves as partner co-sales experts, given the critical importance of generating net new revenue for struggling revenue teams in B2B SaaS.

Today, let’s dig in and explore additional dimensions of co-selling and what we believe to be the most important job to be done by partner teams, namely, driving co-sell orchestration.

We’ll start with an overview of the different co-sell motions, each of which is unique.

Then, we’ll look at the three key objectives for co-sell orchestration, and we’ll close with a review of the core processes and organizational responsibilities that allow co-sell orchestration to drive B2B SaaS revenue team mastery.

Understanding the different co-sell motions

The diagram below identifies four distinct co-selling motions, each with different objectives, outcomes, processes and success factors.

GoToEco Co-sell motions

Let’s review the 4 motions:

1. Programmatic/Reciprocal Motion - This is where one revenue team exchanges intel, intros, and influence with another revenue team through give-and-get processes that leverage Reveal and Crossbeam account overlap and collaboration processes reciprocally.
2. Strategic Alliance Motion - This is where two companies (e.g., an ISV and a GSI focusing on the enterprise) align on a shared strategic roadmap, align stakeholders across both company’s product and GTM teams, and leverage executive alignment and QBRs to keep things straight. Teams leverage tools like WorkSpan to manage these co-sales complexities.
3. Big Partner/Marketplace Motion - This is where a large player like AWS or SalesForce establishes a top-down programmatic structure that dictates co-selling T’s and C’s to ISVs and service providers who seek to leverage the big player’s customer pull, marketplaces, and procurement mechanics. Teams leverage tools like Tackle.io and WorkSpan to manage these co-sales complexities.
4. Platform/Embedded Motion - This is where an ISV seeks to be embedded into the GTM of a platform company (e.g., Stripe payment process embedded into Spotify’s merchant platform). This is the cloud version of an on-prem, OEM agreement, but unlike with OEM, the ISV often leverages a co-sales GTM to drive adoption by the platform partner and their customers and prospects.

Motions 1 and 2 are reciprocal. Motions 3 and 4 are usually non-reciprocal. Motions 1 and 3 are programmatic. Motions 2 and 4 are more strategic and BD-driven.

Objectives for co-sell orchestration

In the diagram below, I outline three key objectives for co-sell orchestration - the 3 C’s, aligning partner teams, partners, and revenue teams.

GoToEco Co-Sell Orchestration

Let’s explore the 3 C’s:

1. Competency - Build co-sell competency within the revenue team. Today, most sales and CS teams do not have the knowledge, mechanics, processes, and incentives to co-sell at scale. Partner teams must orchestrate the enablement of co-sales competency and maturity.
2. Coordination - Coordinate co-sales readiness with partners. Today, most partner teams lack a co-sales readiness and co-sales contracting muscle. Teams need to deliver co-sales-ready partners to drive meaningful co-sales collaboration between revenue teams.
3. Collaboration - Drive collaboration across revenue teams. Today, most revenue teams lack the cadence, process, and direction to give and get the 3-Is (Intel, Intros, Influence) with the right partner revenue teams. Partner leaders must orchestrate the collaboration process leveraging emerging tools from companies like Crossbeam, Reveal, WorkSpan, Superglue, LeanData, Qollabi, co-sales process best practices, and a coherent change management plan.

Understanding co-sell orchestration processes and responsibilities

It’s important to know your co-sales processes and jobs to be done because your CRO will soon ask that you work with RevOps to create a repeatable co-sales process for your revenue team. Here is our high-level view of the processes, the associated jobs, and the tools they should leverage:

GoToEco Co-Sell Process

1. Process -
Readiness assessment and mapping

• Job - Present sales reps with account overlaps only for co-sell-ready partners
• Tools - Crossbeam, Reveal

2. Process - Sales rep enablement and routing

• Job - Route overlaps only to co-sell ready sales reps and support those reps to collaborate with partner revenue teams
• Tools - LeanData, Crossbeam, Reveal, Superglue

3. Process - Joint pipeline management

• Job - For enterprise deals, manage joint pipelines
• Tools - WorkSpan

4. Process - Collaboration governance and reporting

• Job - Work with RevOps to govern, collaborate, and report on attribution
• Tools - Crossbeam, Reveal, LeanData, Superglue, WorkSpan

The road to co-sell success

Understanding the array of co-sell motions, the associated objectives, and the related processes, and building out an EDR (ecosystem development rep) team, will be critical for partner teams to drive revenue in the coming year.

Our advice is that learning about this stuff, listening to the struggles of your revenue team, and becoming a change agent and advocate for co-selling will all be key to success.