By Olivia Ramirez
September 5, 2023
In the last month of the quarter, it can seem like the days move too fast. Deals you thought were a sure thing are suddenly pending. Some of the leads you thought were the most promising suddenly ghost you, and C-level stakeholders put down their gavel —
there’s no room in the budget right now.
Despite changes in the market conditions in 2023, B2B SaaS companies are still buying technology — just differently than they were before. Companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Meta are increasing their investment in cloud infrastructure and AI. Leading companies in the industry are being more “thoughtful and deliberate” when it comes to every business decision they make.
The old way of selling your product may not be enough. You’ve got to convince everyone from your core practitioners to the C-suite that your product is a critical piece of their tech stack.
You need an in, and your partners can help.
If your prospect…
…is already a customer of your tech partner, then they’re already using your
partner’s product as part of their tech stack.
… is already a customer of your channel partner
(think: agency partners
or system integrators), then you know they regularly look to your channel partner for guidance around any number of products in their tech stack and how to drive efficiency.
… is an open opportunity for your tech or channel partner, then your partner could not only help sell your product with their own but also increase the deal size, depending on how they package your joint solution.
If you have open opportunities that have stalled and you haven’t checked which partners could help influence and advance the deal, then you haven’t explored one of the most effective sales channels. Deals are 53% more likely to close when a partner’s involved.
(Skip ahead for more stats!)
Below, we’ll share how your partners can help you move your open opportunities across the finish line and just how much revenue is at stake.
Partners can help sales reps close millions in revenue
Nothing speaks louder than numbers, so we analyzed approximately 300 companies in Crossbeam
to see how much revenue their partners could help them close. Specifically, we looked at the amount of forecasted revenue attainable for any open opportunities where partners have an existing relationship with the prospect.
We’ll cut to the chase: There’s a combined
$60.8 Billion
in Crossbeam
that sales teams can close through their open opportunities with the help of their partners. If we divide the $60.8 Billion evenly across all 300 companies, that’s
$202.6 Million
per company. (Which piece of the $202.6 Million
is in your pipeline right now? 👀)
The image below is an account mapping matrix
in Crossbeam. The account mapping matrix makes it easy to understand which opportunities you have in common with your partner.
For example: our cohort of 300 companies on Crossbeam has a total of
$36.8 Billion
in open opportunities that are already customers of their partners (That’s $122.7 Million
per company).
They also have $24 Billion
in open opportunities that are also open opportunities for their partners (That’s $80 Million
per company).
If your open opportunities overlap with your partner’s open opportunities,
below are some ways your partners can help:
-
Your partner can sell your joint solution or integration as part of a package for your mutual prospect. In some cases, this can help you not only close the deal but also increase the deal size.
-
Your partner can put in a good word for you and your product during the late stages of their sales conversation. Their prospect may be looking to them for guidance around implementation and maturing their tech stacks, and this is the perfect opportunity to speak to the value of your product.
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Your partner can share success stories and case studies showing how your mutual customers have benefited from your joint solution or integration.
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Your partner can include your product in a request for proposal (RFP) they’re developing for their prospect.
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Your partner can provide intel about their prospect’s business goals, any changes in their go-to-market (GTM) strategies, budget restrictions, and more to help you fine tune your communications with your prospect and give you a better competitive advantage.
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Your partner can provide insight into which competitors your prospect is considering and why, and they can help box out the competition.
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Your partner can recommend your product and/or integration to their prospect as soon as they become their new customer. Their onboarding customer success managers can include your integration as part of their new customer’s integration adoption roadmap,
and they can update you when it’s the right time to sell. If your product would help their new customer get more value from their product, then it would be beneficial for you, your partner, and your prospect if they adopt your product early on in the customer journey.
If your open opportunities overlap with your partner’s customers, below are some ways your partners can help:
-
Your partner can advocate for you and your product to the stakeholders with the most buying power.
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Your partner can provide insight into what the sales cycle was like, which stakeholders were involved, and what needed to happen to push the deal across the finish line. They can inform you about legal and security requirements that can help you be proactive in your communications, smooth over any roadblocks, and advance the deal.
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Your partner can share case studies and success stories about similar mutual customers to help your prospect understand your product’s value.
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Your partner can join you on a call with your prospect to discuss how they can adopt your joint solution or integration.
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Your partner can share intel about your prospect’s buying timeline, and they can update you when it’s the right time to sell.
-
Your partner can recommend your integration as part of their customer’s integration roadmap.
Why companies are leveraging their ecosystems to drive sales
In a June 2023 Pavilion Pulse Report, nearly a quarter of GTM leaders said they would be focusing on Ecosystem-Led Sales, or co-selling with partners, in H2. With Ecosystem-Led strategies on the rise, more companies are relying on their partners for help driving growth.
Throughout the past few years, we’ve heard many success stories from account executives (AEs) and sales leaders about how partners in their Ecosystems have accelerated their sales cycles and helped improve their close rates.
Data
courtesy of Alex Richards, former Account Executive at TalentPop
We’ll share a few of these stories below; plus, check out every stat we have
on the impact of partnerships.
Austin Park, Senior Account Executive at Botify, began co-selling with partners as an Enterprise Account Executive.
“When I’m in the proposal stage of a deal and that prospective client has their already trusted advisor say ‘Hey, these guys are actually going to be good,’ [then] they’re going to be the tide that raises all ships, they’re going to make our efforts and [their own] efforts better.”
After one of Park’s leads suddenly went cold, Park’s partner offered to advocate for Park to their customer and to encourage them to purchase Botify.
“They were huge proponents of the prospect purchasing Botify directly,” says Park.
Ella Monarch, Business Development Manager at Ryder E-Commerce by Whiplash, says she always brings a partner on her second call with a prospect.
My goal is always to give my clients the best possible solutions,” says Monarch. “[Partners] help clients do better business.”
18% of Monarch’s sales pipeline comes from partner-sourced leads and she gets around two warm leads a month directly from partners.
Aaron Geller, previously the GTM Lead at DigitalOcean and now Vice President of Revenue at QuickNode, spotted a risk in an open opportunity and looked to his team’s partners to help ensure they could close the deal. As a result, they also increased the deal size.
“We saw a risk, and we brought in that third partner to bring it home,” says Geller.
“The original commitment was X. Once they started working with us closer, it jumped up significantly. Once they saw that trust, and they only wanted to move a subset of products [originally], they were like, ‘Wow, this is awesome, we’re getting better service, better support.’ There were three great partners working together to help them out with what they were doing.”
Partners contribute to a larger deal size at Highspot, too, with 60% larger deals when a partner’s involved. Additionally, partners influence 58% of the revenue
generated by Highspot’s top sales reps.
Psst! If you work in partnerships, check out Chelsea Graham’s Supernode talk, where she speaks about how she gained the trust of her sales team and drove the adoption of Ecosystem-Led Sales at Highspot.
Getting Started
If you work in sales, talk to your partnerships team or sales leaders about how to get visibility into which partners could help influence your open opportunities. It’s easy to access partner data directly in your customer relationship management (CRM) system using Crossbeam (it’s free).
If you work in partnerships, get started with Crossbeam to begin mapping accounts and using the starter Crossbeam Widget, or explore our Connector or Supernode plans.
More resources for sales teams:
