Originally appeared on Audience Plus

PartnerHacker just rebranded to nearbound.com and did a massive relaunch and refresh of our 1,000+ item content library.

And we did it on AudiencePlus.

Maybe there are some sick and twisted marketing leaders who enjoy vendor selection, but I’m not one of them. I do love learning out loud though, so I thought I’d share some of the reasons AudiencePlus is the best solution to help nearbound.com usher in the future of GTM.

Table stakes and checkboxes

Stuff just needs to work. It needs to connect to other tech solutions, and not be too disruptive to current workflows.

That’s basic. I’m not easily swayed by tons of fancy new features. I just want simple, clean, streamlined tech that nails the basics.

Lots of vendors meet this criteria. AudiencePlus checks the boxes here as well. That alone wasn’t enough to get the nod, but total confidence in the basic functionality was a must.

Gimme the upside

I like simple. But I also like an upside. I’m an entrepreneur at heart. This is where AudiencePlus really stood out from the crowd.

And it starts with their strong point of view.

Narrative alignment FTW

At nearbound.com, we have a point of view around the B2B market. We believe we’ve left the ‘How’ economy, where buyers ask, “How can I solve X?” and Google results were king. We’re in the ‘Who’ economy, where buyers ask, “Who can I trust to help me solve X?” and relationships are king.

AudiencePlus has a point of view as well, and one that is totally in line with ours. They recognize the power of owned media and membership - not just traditional “content marketing” with PDF downloads and social media posts. In fact, I first met AudiencePlus’s CEO Anthony Kennada when he spoke at one of our events about the future of media and community. It resonated immediately.

This may sound like a fluffy or spurious reason to pick a vendor, but I think it’s one of the most overlooked. Our shared belief around the market and where it’s going means we are aligned on our futures, and gives me a lot of confidence that their roadmap matches our goals.

I like the product today, and I love where they are going tomorrow - and why.

Don’t forget the love

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out a basic fact often overlooked when evaluating tech platforms: you’re going to be working with people.

Yes, it’s true.

Even in our PLG, self-serve world, at the end of the day, a vendor only works for you as well as the people behind it. When you’re going to be doing a lot of onboarding and setup, you don’t want to hate those interactions - you want to love them!

We hit it off with the AudiencePlus team right away, starting with the founder. We enjoy working with them, and that goes a long way when problems inevitably arise.

The Nearbound benefits of working with a newcomer

Here’s where it gets sneaky cool, and where we get some inception-level stuff going - nearbound.com writing an article about a vendor where we talk about running Nearbound plays together…whoa.

First, a quick definition of Nearbound: a GTM strategy that taps into those your buyers trust for intel, intros, and influence at every step along the customer journey.

Where outbound interrupts and inbound attracts, Nearbound surrounds.

One of the things I love about AudiencePlus is that they are an earlier company than their biggest competitors. This has advantages. It means we can do more than just purchase their product. We can partner with them to live-in-market together.

Here are some of the things we can do together because of it:

1. Co-Innovating: They’re early enough that we can be a part of shaping the roadmap with feature feedback and requests.
2. Co-Marketing: We are creating and sharing content and hosting events with AudiencePlus where our topics and markets overlap.
3. Co-Selling: Using Reveal (our parent company) to see account overlaps, we tap each other for intel, intros, and influence on deals.

That’s Nearbound, baby!

And that’s a lot less likely with the old-guard vendors.

I’m thrilled to be a customer of AudiencePlus and to partner with them as we look to shape the future of B2B together.

Isaac Morehouse | About the Author

CMO at Reveal

Isaac Morehouse is the Co-founder and CMO of PartnerHacker (now nearbound.com) and the CMO of Reveal.