By Olivia Ramirez

October 31, 2023

You know those partners your team keeps talking about? They’re not just the latest, fancy logos on your marketing website. They’ve also got existing relationships with your prospects. Yep, the prospects you’re eyeing in your outreach list right now.

Your partners can give you the intel you need to qualify your prospects faster — or the OK to move on and target the right prospects who are ready to buy. The result? More conversations with leads that close and a better use of your time. 🥇

If your partner…

… has your prospect as their existing customer, then they likely have insight into their current tech stack, workflows, pain points, and goals.

… has your prospect as an open opportunity, then they’re steps ahead of you in the sales conversation and can provide insight into your prospect’s tech stack goals, buying process, stakeholders, and more.

Your partners are here to help. They can answer your most pressing questions and even put in a good word for you. Strategic top performers are looking to partners to accelerate their sales cycles and improve their win rates. A few quick stats:

• There’s been a
  15% YoY decrease in win rates for sales teams in SaaS.
  

• Today, only
  18% of sellers are leveraging tech partners in the sales process.
  

• Revenue leaders say “being analytical and more targeted in their sales approach” is the top quality in top performers (Data from the upcoming “Future of Revenue” report with Pavilion).
  

• 81% of go-to-market (GTM) teams say deals close faster when a partner’s involved (Data from the upcoming “Future of Revenue” report with Pavilion).

• Deals close
  46% faster when a partner’s involved.
  

By working with partners, you could improve your close rate and stand out as a top performer on your sales team. And it all starts in the discovery phase. Target the right prospects with help from partners, and you’re more likely to win the deal.

Below, we’ll share how and why you should approach partners with help in your BANT (“budget”, “authority”, “need”, “timeline”) qualification process. There’s a partner in your ecosystem that knows the answer to all of these.

#1: Budget

The Question You Should Ask: “Do they have the budget to purchase my product?”

If your prospect is a customer of your partner, they could have insight into what tools your prospect has budget for over the course of the next year. They have direct access to knowledge about your prospect’s tech stack, which tools they’re looking to adopt, and the goals they’re trying to achieve. If your prospect has budget allocated to modernizing their martec stack and you’re selling a martec solution, now’s a good time to start the sales conversation and to sell additional features and integrations your prospect might be interested in. By knowing your prospect has budget allocation, you can not only sell to your prospect but also increase the deal size.

Your partners also have knowledge about budget restrictions, hiring freezes, layoffs, and more that could impact the deal. Knowing this intel ahead of time can help you hold off on the sales conversation and revisit it at a better time. It’ll also help you approach the conversation thoughtfully and protect your reputation as a seller.

#2: Authority

The Question You Should Ask: “Am I speaking with the right person?”

Some of your partners have already sold to your prospect, and others are in ongoing sales conversations. They’ll know if you should take a top-down approach, a middle-out approach, or a bottom-up approach.

If you’re speaking with a practitioner, but they don’t have direct access to get buy-in from an executive with buying power, your partner can help you identify who you should speak with to make the deal happen. They can even help you map your prospect’s org chart.

#3: Need

The Question You Should Ask: “Could they use [your software] right now?”

Have an integration with your tech partner? Your tech partner’s customers can use your integration to improve their day-to-day work and the value they get from your partner’s product. Your partner knows how your prospect is using their own product and can inform you about how they would adopt and use your product as well. They can also help educate your prospect about your product’s value.

Maybe your prospect isn’t ready to buy right now (in sales,
timing is everything!). This intel can be just as valuable. Focus on the prospects who are ready to buy rather than the ones who aren’t.

Your partner can also inform you about when your prospect might be ready to buy in the future. Perhaps your prospect is planning to grow their team, onboard more specialized roles, or make improvements to their tech stack — and your product may be just the right fit.

#4: Timeline

The Question You Should Ask: “What’s their timeline?”

If your prospect’s a customer of your partner, then it’s likely your partner has a plan for increasing value for their customer over time. In onboarding, your partner’s customer success reps developed a plan for helping their customer hit their first milestone. They may have developed
a detailed customer journey that includes adopting specific integrations over time as their product usage becomes more advanced.

Knowing how your prospect is using your tech partner’s product can help you develop a plan for selling. For example: If you have a direct mail marketing tool, your partner can inform you about when and how your prospect is looking to incorporate direct mail in their larger marketing strategy. If it’s not on their radar right now, your partner can help educate them about the value of incorporating direct mail into their strategy and how they can use your product and integration when they’re ready. If they’re planning to expand to using direct mail in six months, you’ll want to be ready to sell to them in six months.

Your partner may also have intel about when your prospect is looking to expand or simplify their tech stack. If your prospect is currently using your competitor’s product but the contract is up in June, you should be ready to speak to your prospect just prior to June about alternative solutions.

Curious about other ways your partner can help? Check out these
15 questions that can help accelerate your co-selling motions.