It’s your first day as a new partner manager. You’ve never done partnerships before, but you said “yes” to the challenge. You’re familiar enough with the partnerships world to have heard of terms like “nearbound” and “account mapping,” but you don’t have any idea how you’re going to turn your company’s existing shell of a partner program into a revenue-generating machine.
Nine months ago, Sam Collins became a partner manager at Reachdesk. He transitioned from his position as a BDR into partnerships with a few things already on his side: buy-in from his CRO, business development, and marketing Directors on an “Allbound” GTM strategy, an existing personal network of agencies, a few “shadow” partnership opportunities, and two years’ worth of company expertise.
When Sam took over partnerships, Reachdesk’s executive team was aligned on an Allbound GTM strategy, a holistic approach to generating and capturing demand as well as closing more revenue. Similar to the nearbound ethos, Allbound requires that every team—marketing, sales, customer success, rev ops, and partnerships—work together in harmony.
Despite executive alignment, Sam encountered three main challenges. First, no one understood the current impact of partnerships, which meant cross-departmental buy-in was sparse. Second, partnerships weren’t being treated as an overlay to existing GTM functions. And third, existing partnerships weren’t being optimized.
Over the next six months, Sam tapped into the power of nearbound GTM and Reveal to revamp Reachdesk’s partner program. It wasn’t an easy task, but the results were powerful:
-
He got his entire GTM organization to buy into partnerships,
-
He tapped into dormant partner value,
-
He established valuable new partnerships, and
-
He began driving partner pipeline.
If you’re a new partner professional taking on an existing partner program, or trying to get your program from 0 to 1, you know all about Sam’s struggle.
So, how can you replicate his results?
We’ve compiled three nearbound plays Sam used in Reveal to achieve success in less than six months.
Keep reading to learn how Sam:
-
Diagnosed the health of his program
-
Revamped his partner strategy using nearbound GTM principles
-
Ran nearbound GTM plays with alongside his GTM team
Reachdesk’s nearbound journey
Coming from the Sales department inside of Reachdesk, Sam understood the company’s rhythm of business—how different GTM teams operated, how they planned their calendars, what they were measured on, and how to communicate with them. This gave him a birds-eye view into Reachdesk’s partnership potential.
Next, he would need to determine Reachdesk’s immediate opportunities and limitations so he could prioritize and build a strategy.
Step one: Find the story the data is telling
Sam needed insight into the health of his partner program:
-
How many partners did Reachdesk have?
-
What was the state and health of the program (KPIs)? How were partners being leveraged?
First, he looked at his account mapping software. He saw 19 connections, of which, only two were regularly engaged.
That was an immediate red flag.
“How can you be a partner when you’re not actually talking to people? That’s not a relationship.”
Next, he looked at his CRM to evaluate the number of activities Reachdesk was running with partners. He saw a lot of informal activities, but very few formal ones.
That was another immediate red flag that indicated a lack of unified strategy across the GTM.
Step two: Revamp Reachdesk’s partner strategy
As a one-man partner team, Sam knew he couldn’t run partnership activity at scale without the help of his other teams.
So Sam re-evaluated his IPP, constructed a strategy, and began building a bridge between partnerships and the rest of the company.
Evaluating his IPP
Sam first looked at Reachdesk’s customers and their ecosystems to determine which companies surrounded them.
“Which companies are playing in the same ecosystems?”
That made up his first list of potential partners.
Then, to get even more specific, he compared that list with the company’s priorities and capabilities.
“What are our top priorities, how can partners influence them, and do we have any limitations?”
Finally, he looked at Reveal’s account overlaps to find data that could bolster his better-together partner pitches.
Bridging the gap with his GTM teams
When Sam was a BDR, he didn’t know what his partner teams did. As the new partner professional, he knew that to succeed, that would have to change. He would need to bridge between partnerships and his other GTM teams.
As he explained,
“The long-term aim here is that I’m redundant to the process. If my GTM teams can become self-governing, then I can start to focus more on the long-term partner strategy. But in the early days, we need to keep things simple and just get s*** done.”
Sam’s method for bridging the gap started with putting himself at the center of all go-to-market activity.
He explained,
“Right now, I want to work alongside rather than be a resource drain on any of my teams.”
He met with every major stakeholder, took a vested interest in their goals, and found ways to evangelize nearbound.
For example, Sam asked Sellers about their top accounts and used Reveal to uncover nearbound opportunities for intel, intros, and influence. He would then facilitate his Sellers’ success.
Sam understood what takes many partner pros years to understand: buy-in requires that you show your teams what it looks like to succeed, even if that means a lot of upfront work.
Step three: Run nearbound GTM plays
Sam shared three plays he’s using to open opportunities and win deals.
Play one: Bring partners into company events
Sam determined he wanted to be the most helpful person on the team. He looked for gaps to fill and realized events were a sweet spot.
Reachdesk didn’t have an events person, which meant it was an incredible way to both support his Marketing team and drive collaboration with partners.
Sam shared that when he finds a great event opportunity, he pitches it to his marketers like this,
“I will drive it if you will support it.”
And of course, Marketing is excited because it’s a win-win-win.
Example: Reachdesk and Apollo
Coming into his new role in partnerships, Sam learned that Reachdesk and Apollo planned to do an event together. He saw this as the perfect opportunity to show his marketers that he could help them maximize their revenue potential.
The result of the event?
A closed-won deal.
Here’s how they did it:
-
Both teams decided on the topic and purpose of the event.
-
Sam used account mapping data in Reveal to determine which mutual and target customers to invite to the event.
-
Reachdesk and Apollo delegated tasks according to each partner’s strengths.
-
Both teams built an event plan to help their sellers make the most of the event.
-
Both teams created cadences to follow up with customers and prospects after the event.
Sam explained that the open opportunity closed because of the trust the Reachdesk team was able to establish at the event while affiliated with a larger partner like 6Sense.
Sam worked with his marketing team to create an event playbook to pitch internal teams and partners.
In the event playbook, they include information like:
-
Event overview
-
Reachdesk event strategy overview
-
Swag (or other value-add at the event)
-
Promotional plan
-
Follow up plan
-
Sales team material
-
Goals for the event
Takeaway: Look for areas where you and your company’s partners can fill gaps for your internal departments. Help them achieve their goals and they’ll have a hard time not loving you.
Play two: Better-together stories
Every stakeholder needs to understand the what, why, and how of every partnership:
-
What partnerships exist?
-
Why are they valuable and relevant to our customers, our company, and my function?
-
How do I uncover opportunities with this partner?
So, once Sam finds a partner he wants to establish a relationship with, his next step is building a better-together story.
He looks at his Reveal data, pulls out a compelling story from the data, and then builds a minimal pitch deck to share that story with his primary stakeholders.
“Using mutual customers as a starting point (ideally over 30 mutual customers) I can quickly connect with CSMs to understand what a better-together story would look like. Initially, I get a bit of help from ChatGPT, then get quick feedback on these ideas from all parties to get the ball rolling. The speed at which Reveal helps to do this has been the biggest asset. Even simple tasks like identifying a single CSM with a good number of overlapping accounts is key here since it saves me time figuring out the best person to work with internally.”
If the partnership is approved by all parties involved, Marketing turns his minimal pitch deck into a thorough better-together story.
The Reveal x Reachdesk better-together story
Recently Reveal and Reachdesk collaborated on a better-together story.
Here’s how it happened:
-
Sam recognized an overlap in audiences while looking through Reveal and saw the potential for a great better-together story.
-
He began researching Reveal’s customers, ecosystem, and product.
-
He identified the joint-value proposition: better gifting = stronger partnerships.
-
He built a minimum viable presentation to pitch his case.
-
His stakeholders approved the story and his marketers helped construct the final product.
A tip for Reveal users: Find customers to interview for these better-together stories using account overlap data.
Play three: Partner prospecting campaigns
Sam has found that partner prospecting campaigns are a great way to tap into potential customers inside of a partner’s audience. They open a wider array of personas for sellers to engage with which also allows for multi-threading.
If executed correctly, partner prospecting can drive value for your company, your partner, and your partner’s customer.
Example: Reachdesk and Chili Piper
Recently, Sam initiated a partner prospecting campaign with Chili Piper.
Here’s how he did it:
-
Started with a list of Chili Piper customers
-
Made sure all new accounts were tagged and assigned to a BDR or AE
-
Instructed BDRs and AEs to enroll an expanded persona into automated Chili Piper cadences
-
Detailed out a LinkedIn search for his sellers to copy-paste into LinkedIn
-
Set expectations
-
Gave them a cadence to prospect
Check out the instruction guide he shared with his team.
Sam explained that each time there’s a new partnership, he joins the BDR standup on a Monday morning to officially announce it.
Sam emphasized the value he and his sellers have seen in doing partner prospecting campaigns:
“Looking at this through a partnership lens has expanded the volume of people within an account that we’ve been able to engage with and that’s led to a buying decision.”
Sam Collins revamped Reachdesk’s partner program in less than 6 months because he tapped into nearbound GTM and leveraged the data inside of Reveal.
Sam, reflecting on this journey, shared,
“That’s probably been my main takeaway in the last six months: if you just do the grunt work yourself, make people’s lives easy, and align to their goals, then the chances of them working with you increase significantly.”
A few key takeaways:
-
Lean on your CRM and partner data to find gaps and hidden potential.
-
Early buy-in requires that a partner pro facilitate win-win-wins for their customer, partner, and internal GTM teams.
-
A complete nearbound strategy accounts for the rhythm of business and puts partner pros at the center of all go-to-market activity.
Want to see how Sam executed his nearbound strategies in Reveal? Book a call with our team.
