The most powerful way for your Sales team to leverage partnerships is by helping them with intros. They might leverage intel and influence from time to time, but their holy grail is (and always will be) intros.

As part of your partner program, you might have in place an existing referral program with your partner, but an intro is not a referral. It’s even better.

An intro is a high-intention message that not only drops your name into a conversation, but actually gives context, and reasons why the introduction is relevant to your prospect.

In this article, we’ll talk about:

• Why intros are so important

• When are the best times to leverage an intro

• How to ask for partner intros

If you want to know how to best help your Sales team win with partners, keep reading.

What is the big deal with intros?

Partner intros are a big deal for several reasons.

The first and most important is that an intro leverages the strengths and networks of your partners to enhance your and your company’s credibility and trustworthiness in the eyes of your potential customers.

Customers are more likely to consider and adopt a product or service recommended by someone they already trust.

Some other reasons may include:

• Access to new audiences: Your partners have established networks and customer bases that you may need access to—no more extensive costs typically associated with entering new markets.

• Accelerates sales cycles: Leads generated through intros are often pre-qualified and come with a higher level of interest and intent. This can significantly reduce the time and effort required by your sales team to convert these leads.

• Increases customer retention: Partners who understand your business and the needs of your customers are likely to introduce you to prospects that are a good fit for your product.

• Scalable growth strategy: As your network of partners grows, so does your potential for lead generation. Remember your partner’s growth fuels yours.

• Provides valuable insights: Partners can provide feedback on the market perception of your product, competitive positioning, and customer needs.

When to leverage partner intros?

As fun and easy as it sounds to always ask for your partner for intros, you have to keep something in mind:

It’s a two-way street.

Be ready to offer something valuable in return, such as market insights, access to exclusive resources, expert guidance, or even an intro.

When asking for intros you’re leveraging your partner’s trust at the highest level. When done correctly, it can drive double the revenue, but misuse can harm reputations.

Now with this in mind, here are some scenarios where your Sales team can leverage partner intros:

Scenario one: Your Sales team has reached out to your buyer, and after a couple of meetings and emails, they just stopped responding without any explanation.

Scenario two: Your Sales team has tried to get the conversation back, but after a couple of months, they haven’t been able to reconnect.

Scenario three: Your Sales team has been engaging with your prospects—and they may even your champions—but they aren’t the right deal influencers. This means, your AEs need an intro to high-level executives or decision-makers.

Scenario four: Your Sales team is trying to enter into a new market or a specific industry sector.

Scenario five: Your Sales team is engaging with potential customers who are skeptical or unfamiliar with your brand.

Scenario six: Your product is part of a broader solution ecosystem, and the customer is already using your partners' products.

Scenario seven: Your Sales team is competing against well-established competitors with strong customer loyalty.

Scenario eight: The sales process involves multiple stakeholders and requires a coordinated approach to address various concerns and requirements.

Scenario nine: Your sales cycle is long, and you need to accelerate the process to meet revenue targets.

Scenario ten: Your company is targeting large, strategic accounts that require significant customization and personalized engagement.

How to ask for partner intros (Reveal and email templates)?

If you don’t want to get your intro request ignored, you have to meet your partner in the right place, at the right time. To help you with that, we have four channels and some email templates (from
Will Allred’s Co-Founder of Lavender) that you or even your Sales team can leverage to ask for an intro.

Channel #1: Directly in Reveal

With Reveal’s Get Intro, your Sales team can collaborate directly with you, and/or partners to request nearbound help (in the form of introductions, intel, and influence) and drive revenue on their accounts.

Get Intro is an action that can be used from partner account mapping or 360° Goals on Reveal.

With Reveal’s Get Intro feature, you can:

• Choose the partner you'd like to request the intro from or verify that the one you selected is correct

• See who the partner owner is at the partner’s company

• Identify where the intro request will go, such as an internal Slack channel, an external Slack Connect with the partner, or an email to the Partnership Owner at your company

• Select the Contact you'd like an intro to. For example, ask for an intro to the CMO, CEO, or CFO.

• Add context to your request. We recommend adding extra details:

  • Your point(s) of contact

  • Describe the situation: eg. are they ghosting you, are you currently prospecting them, etc?

  • What are you asking from the partner: an intro to a contact, intel on who their signer was, info on how they use the partner's tool, influence during an upcoming meeting, etc

  • What you can offer the partner in return

Channel #2: Your CRM

You can easily ask for an intro to the Partner Manager, Account Manager, or even your partner’s AEs directly from your HubSpot or Salesforce widget. With Reveal’s Get Intro button, you can choose who you want the intro to (make sure you select a deal influencer).

Within your Salesforce and HubSpot widget, you or your Sales team can:

• Identify partner presence on accounts you’re working on.

• Understand if you have contacts in common, or if your partner knows contacts that you don't.

• Click Get Intro to request help on this account/opportunity.

Channel #3: Slack

Reveal’s Get Intro to Slack is a better way to get your Sales team to request help on accounts while allowing Partner Managers to maintain transparency and control with partners.

Here’s one way your AEs can take advantage of it:

Utilizing the Widget (in HubSpot or Salesforce), your reps can identify partners already engaged with their target accounts. By leveraging Get Intro to Slack, they can swiftly request detailed insights from these partners on their prospect's usage of their tools (or any other type of intel) or ask for an intro.

This seamless process, tracked directly on Slack, streamlines connections with partner reps, fostering valuable relationships for both present and future collaborations.

Channel #4: Email

Every Friday, Reveal users receive a weekly digest email on partnerships that you've favorited on Reveal, containing the latest updates on:

• Open opportunities

• Prospects without open opportunities

• New joint customers

So if you saw that one of your prospects became a customer of your partner, this might be the right time to connect with a partner and ask for an intro directly from that e-mail.

No matter which of the four ways you select, after requesting an intro, this is what will happen:

• Reveal will send an email to the partner owner within your company (this is the partner owner who is listed on the partner tile on your Reveal partner dashboard).

• Add your intro to your Reveal Collaborate. This process streamlines tracking and makes the information more actionable.

• Notify your team and your partner’s team through Slack (if they have the integration connected).
  

Once your partner has accepted your intro request, you can use these templates to send effective requests to your partners:

Template #1: Leverage relationship

From:[ You]

Subject: Intro to [Account name]

Hey [Partner name],

I’ve been in comms with [Buyer’s name(s)] over at [Account name] for the past [Time laps].

I noticed [Your relationship] with [Buyer’s name(s)], whom I am trying to bridge the conversation over to.

I am positioning [our value proposition] as the reason for that conversation with them.

Given your relationship, I’m reaching out with a draft email based on your feedback for an intro.

I put a first draft with context on our previous comms below.

Take a look and if you don’t mind sending it over, will you let me know?

In partnership,

[Your name]

P.S. It looks like we might share a handful of accounts/contacts I could introduce you to, as well. I recently sold in [relevant industry name]. Happy to discuss or help there if that’s valuable, just let me know.

Template #2: Reciprocity first

From:[You]

Subject: Intro to [Account name]

Hey [Partner name],

Do you know [Buyer’s name] at [Account name] well enough to make an intro?

Realize it’s a big ask. Happy to help out with [Buyer’s name] at [Account name]. Looks like they’re open ops for you.

If you’re open to it, I’ll draft up a quick note for you to see if they’re open to it.

I’m talking to [Other POC] already. They seem excited about [your value proposition], but it would be super helpful to get [Buyer’s name]’s buy-in.

[Your name]

Template #3: Follow-up

You can use this email as a follow-up if your partner didn’t reply to the first e-mail.

[Partner’s name],

Saw you renewed [Account name] a couple of months ago.

I’m talking to [Buyer’s name] about [priority or value proposition]. I realize I need to get buy-in from [Job Title/ Name of person in charge of purchase decisions].

Do you know them well enough to make an intro?

Happy to draft up a note you can send them to see if they’re open to it.

PS. Realize it’s a big ask. Looks like you’re working [Account name]. Talking to [Buyer’s name] next week. Happy to do the same for you.

Ask for an intro

Leveraging partner intros requires a strategic approach, ensuring mutual value exchange and maintaining partner trust.

By identifying opportune moments and employing various communication channels such as Reveal, CRM integrations, Slack, and email, Sales teams can seamlessly request and track partner intros, driving revenue and nurturing valuable partnerships.

Through these collaborative efforts, companies can unlock significant growth opportunities and establish themselves as trusted leaders within their respective industries.

Want to know more about how to empower your Sales teams with intros to close more deals? Book a call with our team.