The industry needs ecosystem-focused funds.

Hear from Justin Gray, Josh Wagner, and Sean Kester—three seasoned B2B VCs— on how nearbound enables scale and hyper-growth. Register here.

An inbox horror story 👻

Last week I was scrolling through LinkedIn when I stopped. A post caught my eye. It was Peter Caputa, the CEO of Databox and HubSpot legend, sharing an inbox horror story. 

He explained,

I just got the same exact awful sales message from two different people. 

He shared the full thread and then asked his network for advice. 

My favorite piece of advice came from Phil Wiseman.

Why is this important? Because the best sellers play the long game and build relationships.

Another incredible seller, Sam Mckenna took the point even further in a nearbound.com principles article, 

Yes, you want to bring in revenue; but more importantly, you want to be seen as a person who helps bring solutions to the table.

You see, caring isn’t just about the warm fuzzies. 

It’s a real strategy to differentiate yourself as a seller. AI, automation, and hundreds of playbooks have made words cheap. 

It used to be impressive to write a good email. Now if you want someone’s time, you’ve got to show you’ve done your research.

Continue reading to hear how you can leverage nearbound tactics to do that!

So, about short emails...

Sam Mckenna, famous in the nearbound.com community for coining the phrase show me you know me, recently shared a tip with her community of sellers.

One of the best ways sellers can prove they know their buyer is with a solid email strategy—but not necessarily short ones. Sam explains: 

One of the things we hear these days is shorter emails are better.Gong data and all other data sources show the longer an email is, as long as it’s personalized and relevant, it actually works better.

This might seem counterintuitive since buyers are often bombarded with emails, but Sam explains that the motive for sales using short emails is more for us than it is for buyers:  

The reason is what we’re actually doing is only selfishly thinking about our email, versus thinking holistically about the buyer’s inbox.

As perfectly showcased by Peter Caputa in the previous section, your buyer’s inbox is full of short, generic emails. Personalization helps you stand out from the rest because it’s step one in forming a real relationship.

You could use information from LinkedIn or Google to personalize, or you could take it a step further with nearbound tactics and get intel from the people your buyers already trust.

For example, you can find a partner overlap and reach out using the 3 I’s of nearbound play-by-play template to ask for some intel on the account.

Which one are you more likely to respond to—an email with some generic info about your company or an email that name-drops a mutual friend and addresses a specific problem you’ve been facing?

We’ve got to remember that our buyers are just like us. They have limited time and respond to those who have earned their trust.

Will Allred and Jared Fuller are doing a session on real templates you can use to run nearbound sales on November 9th at the Nearbound Summit 2023.

Never get lost in a crowded inbox again. Register now.

Amazon leverages the ’Who Economy’

Amazon just launched a feature that allows customers to “consult a friend” to help them make purchase decisions.

The company’s internal data showed that customers were already sharing and asking for feedback. Apparently, customers “pressed that button billions of times!”

Here’s more evidence of the Who Economy. People are turning to voices they trust for feedback on purchase decisions—even ones as simple as home decor on Amazon.

Maybe “consult a friend” will even lessen the items in a customer’s “save for later” black hole.

Read more about the story.

Stuff you don’t want to miss!

• Join the official Nearbound Summit community brought to you by Partnership Leaders — Partnership leaders’ goal is to connect people interested in learning about partnerships around the world. Join here.

• TODAY—October 25th —Firneo Partner Strategy Forum (Day 2): How to Prioritize the RIGHT Partners— Learn how to make sure you’re investing your (limited) resources in partners that will generate a meaningful. Register here

• November 1st —Firneo Partner Strategy Forum (Day 3): How to Get Executive Buy-In for Partnerships— Learn how to secure resources & support from key stakeholders that are critical to partnership success. Register here

• November 6th-9th —Nearbound Summit 2023— The future of GTM is Nearbound. Join us for the biggest-ever remote experience in GTM where B2B leaders across departments unite to share how they’re winning with Nearbound strategies and tactics. Register here.

• Enroll before November 14th —PXP Academy Partner Manager Certification Course— Join the interactive learning session that equips you with everything you need to be successful in your daily job as an operational Partner person. Register here.

• November 16th —Elevate Your Presale GTM with Tech Partners— Learn from industry experts like Kelly Sarabyn (HubSpot), Jared Fuller (nearbound.com and Reveal), Sunir Shah (AppBind), and Alexander Buckles (Forecastable). Evolve your GTM strategy with tech partners. Register here. 

• Enroll by November 17th —Firneo’s Mastering Partnerships Strategy (4-week course)— Registration is now open! Learn how to diagnose and solve your partner program’s biggest challenges from the world’s top partnership leaders. Use the code "NEARBOUND" for a 1:1 Strategy Coaching package (worth $1,000) for FREE. Enroll (or check out a free preview) here 

• April 19th-20th —SaaS Connect 2023— It’s that time of year again! Get your spot early for the 11th annual partnership conference in San Francisco, hosted by Cloud Software Association. Register here. 

Integrate to differentiate

Integrations aren’t just tools for keeping customers, but also for winning them over your competitors.

Learn how to use integration to differentiate your product from Alexis Petrichos on Product Day at the Nearbound Summit.