Within the next 12 months, nearly every company expects to use partner sales as part of their sales strategy, according to a recent Salesforce study. This is not shocking, as it is currently believed that 96% of all revenue is at least partner-assisted. With statistics like these, it is no wonder that enabling partner ecosystems with value has been a key priority amongst Ecosystems’ Customer Value Community members.
In the first part of Ecosystems’ Two-Part Webinar Series, our speakers Asher Mathew, Co-Founder & CEO of Partnership Leaders, and Chad Quinn, Co-Founder & CEO of Ecosystems, discussed Building a Value-Based Partnership Strategy. During the event, they covered the current market for partnerships, emerging use cases, and growth opportunities for partnership sales. Keep reading to learn more.
1. State of the Market
During the webinar, we reviewed the following stats from the recent Salesforce study, which shows a marked push to increase the involvement of partners in value-based selling.
Ecosystems also shared its own research in its 2024 Value Maturity Assessment benchmarking study. Based on over 110+ responses from over 80 top B2B companies, we found that enabling partners around value selling is one of the least mature amongst our members. [To learn more about the latest version of our Value Blueprint, you can download it here.]
We also discussed the economics driving the growth of partnerships. As the graph below demonstrates, the Go-To-Market (GTM) spend ratio—the total sales and marketing budget divided by net new annual recurring revenue (ARR)—has been exponentially increasing in the last decade to 264%. Never before have B2B companies spent so much for so little revenue. In fact, companies are seeing that for every $2.64 spent, companies are only getting $1 back. Thus, B2B organizations have turned to partners as a way to reduce their GTM spend.
2. Four Partnership Methods
With the rising trends of B2B companies wanting to focus on partnerships, Asher went on to share emerging use cases based on these four ways to partner:
- Co-Build: working with your partner to co-create products that fit the use cases of potential customers
- Co-Market: working with your partner to jointly market to potential customers
- Co-Sell: working with your partner to jointly sell to potential customers
- Co-Serve: working with your partner to provide services your potential customer needs to meet specific business needs
To help you determine which type of partner initiative would be best for your individual and joint goals, you need to align with your partners on customer value. The Ecosystems platform supports this with one continuous value conversation in a collaborative environment to co-create your objectives and align on priorities as partners.
Aligning objectives with your partners is key, as it is likely that one partner may be highly interested in co-marketing, while another is interested in co-building, or maybe you have a long-time partner that started with co-selling but has now developed into all four. These four core ways to partner are not linear, and all are not required for a successful partner sales relationship. The goal is to determine what type of partnership is right for you.
3. Tips to Drive Revenue by Value Selling with Partners
Once the partnership method is determined, the next step is execution. Below are some best practices shared during the webinar.
a. Enable and Coach Your Front-Line Sales & Customer Success Teams
There's an opportunity for us not to react but to be proactive.
Enable sales and customer success teams to identify potential partners. Creating trusted relationships with partners that could lead to a beneficial partnership is a skill that takes practice and continuous coaching. Work with your team to ensure they know how to spot potential opportunities, such as when your partner consistently mentions their customers facing a challenge your product/service could solve. Be sure to also coach sellers on how to extract referrals from partners when the opportunity arises. For example, if your partner mentions having a good relationship with a company that is a target account for you, coach your sales team on how to broach the conversation by asking for an introduction.
b. Build Executive Relationships
This is easier said than done. One of the best ways to connect with partners is to have your executive team provide insights to their partner peers. One-on-one executive insight sharing from benchmarking or end-customer behavior keeps the partnership focused on key priorities.
c. Create Self-Service Models
Self-service sales models have become increasingly popular in the sales industry, as according to recent Gartner research, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will most likely occur digitally in 2025. This same principle can be applied to partner sales relationships. Take the time to focus on building out self-service models that are specifically designed to communicate a holistic value proposition that includes both you and your partner's combined value proposition. Ecosystems’ value selling platform stands alone in its ability to build bespoke value-based conversations and business cases at scale for Partner Ecosystems. These will also give you greater insights into the conversations between your partner and future customers.
Ecosystems collaborative SaaS platform can help you work with your partners to collaborate on value and maximize the potential of your joint solutions to create a compelling value proposition. Contact our team if you are interested in learning more.
