Integration station

Not every ask deserves action.

When prioritizing integrations, Kenny Browne (Co-Founder and CEO at PartnerFleet) suggests crafting a handful of impactful integrations.

“Build a few very useful integrations for customers, and learn what integrations fit your ecosystem’s biggest use case.“ –Kenny Browne, CEO & Co-Founder of Partner Fleet

We don’t build integrations to showcase a logo, we build integrations to solve a customer need.

Karen Ng (SVP of Product at HubSpot) went a level deeper, recommending that companies start with integrations around their core product (build deep). Then, once a strong foundation has been established, gradually expand integrations to cover a variety of use case categories.

“You need time to build integrations, but there’s no way to scale a platform from 0 to 50, or 50 to 500 if you don’t have more product depth than the other players in the space. You have to do your core set well, and identify what’s happening around your ecosystem that is important.” –Karen Ng, SVP of Product at HubSpot

Read more highlights from the summit, or click here to listen to the recordings.

Building a full nearbound motion off of integrations

In 2022, Chilipiper ended the year with a total ARR of $2mil+ coming from nearbound motions.

That was after years of coming up short.

In his presentation at the Summit, Alexis Petrichos (Director of Strategic Partnerships & Ecosystem Marketing at Chili Piper) explained how they did it with integrations.

Strategy

In the early stages of ChiliPiper’s partnerships journey, the team viewed partners as a channel they could tap into for leads. The problem was that once they had the leads, they didn’t have the right infrastructure to convert them.

Alexis realized they needed a reframe: from partners as a channel to nearbound as a strategy and overlay.

Instead of leads, Alexis realized their greatest path to value was actually integrations.

This unlock led him to build a short-term and long-term partner strategy — one to drive value immediately, and one to build slowly and simultaneously that could compound in value.

Integration tiers

Part of Alexis’ short-term strategy was creating a priority tier list for integrations.

His tiers were:

1. The sleeping giants

   • integrations already built

   • never marketed properly

   • high adoption

   • huge potential

2. The popular ones

   • most customer requests

   • common reason for closed-lost

   • potential outweighs the effort required

3. Think out of the box

   • value not obvious at the offset

   • impact on core value prop becomes obvious when you think differently about the market

He started with their sleeping giants, wanting to max out the potential of everything the team already had at their disposal.

Then, he prioritized customer needs.

And finally, he allowed himself to get creative.

Often partner pros are tempted to get creative in the beginning. Don’t. Start with low-hanging fruit.

A common misconception is that you get
to be creative. I think it’s more true that you earn being creative.

Listen to the full session with Alexis to learn more.

On the hunt for Nearbound Nikes

You’re walking down the streets of Boston when you pass a woman with the coolest shoes you’ve
ever seen.

"Where did you get those?!" you’re compelled to ask.

With a smile on her face, she responds, "They’re limited edition Nearbound Nikes."

The odds of an encounter like that are SLIM — only 20 Nearbound Nikes in a U.S. of 335 hundred million people — but be on the lookout!

When you come across Nearbound Nikes in the wild, take a pic, share it with us, and who knows...maybe you’ll even get a pair of your own! 😉

Stuff you don’t want to miss!

• Nearbound Summit 2023 Recordings—The future of GTM is Nearbound. Watch the recordings to hear how B2B leaders across departments unite with Nearbound strategies and tactics.
  Listen here.

• Dec 13th, 2 PM EST —Navigating Change: Dealing with Uncertainty, Restructurings, and Its Aftermath—
  Join Faisal Mirza (Director in Strategic Partnerships at Adobe) and Scott Pollack (CEO at Firneo) and they discuss how to manage through changes in the organization and deal with its aftermath.
  Register here.

• Dec 15th, 2-2:30 PM EST — The 3 Key Partner Principles — Join Franz-Josef Schrepf (Head of Partnerships at StreamYard) and Nelson Wang (Head of Worldwide Partnerships at Airtable) to learn what decades in the industry have taught Nelson about building the best partnerships. Register here.

• Feb 5-7th in Miami — Impartnercon 2024 —
  Partnerships are the future of growth. Join partner leaders to learn what it means to build the future of business, together.
  Register here.
  

• March 19-20th — Affiverse’s Amplify Summit —
  Join them for a 2-day virtual event to help affiliate businesses amplify their performance. Learn about digital, partnership, and affiliate marketing.
  Register here.

Share the movement

Lots of companies treat partnerships as a channel. Send this to someone who needs an "AHA moment!"