Welcome to the
Nearbound Daily Newsletter—the #1 partnerships newsletter in the world keeping thousands of partner professionals on top of the latest industry principles, tactics, and trends. nearbound.com is a project of Reveal. Join the movement here.

PRINCIPLES

A secret about the biggest ecosystems 🤐

Most of the biggest ecosystems out there are not actually orchestrated.

When you look at large ecosystems it’s easy to think, "There must be someone connecting all of these dots behind the scene."

But the truth is, dots connect because customers demand it.

The more networks are connected, the more value it creates for the ecosystem.

In most ecosystems, there’s not enough involvement from the parent of the ecosystem.

Jared Fuller (Chief Ecosystem Officer at nearbound.com and Reveal) and James Hodkinson (SVP of Ecosystems at 360insights) have opinions on this phenomenon and what it looks like to do ecosystems right.

Join them to discuss this on May 2nd.

TACTICS

Most partner pros miss this...

Have a POV when you explore partnership opportunities.

Even if that point of view is wrong, it shows you care enough to develop a hypothesis about the partnership.

Before working with Reveal as Head of Strategic Partnerships, Kevin Linehan worked at HubSpot, Drift, and impact.com.

He’s an incredible partner professional who has learned what it takes to establish big and successful partnerships.

Recently he’s been working with 360 Insights, a critical partner for Reveal, on their new marketplace and event coming on May 2nd so I asked him for an exclusive insight on developing stronger partnerships.

He shared,

Before you partner, you need some sort of validation mechanism. You have to have a reason to have the conversation. Oftentimes companies don’t do the amount of homework or research that they need to develop a point of view or a hypothesis.

Here’s how to develop a strong POV around every potential partnership.

1. Establish general understanding—What can you learn about the product, offering, mission, and customer of this partner company?
   

   • Website

   • Product page

   • Social presence

   • Demo

2. Gather data—What kind of data points validate this partnership?
   

   • Market data

   • Reveal account mapping data

3. Partner intel—Can any of your partners weigh in on this partnership or give you insights to create a stronger better-together story?

Kevin points out,

The exploration and discovery aspect of a partnership is often overlooked, especially when companies are partnering inside of existing ecosystems.

Here are five additional questions you can ask yourself to make sure you’re on the right track with a new partnership:

1. Do they have a relevant
   and
   accessible customer base?

2. Does their customer base match our ICP?

3. What is their customer base’s maturity?

4. Is this partner credible to my customer?

5. Would my end customer look at this partnership and understand it?

TREND

Ecosystem representation in the C-suite?

Last week, Asher Matthew (CEO of Partnership Leaders) shared data on CPO titles that showed that since the beginning of 2024, there are already 59 new Chief Partner Officers.

The title is growing steadily, but the question remains—will it become a widespread position or will it stay niche?

That’s where the ecosystem gets to weigh in, and the market gets to decide.

What do you
think about the CPO title? Do you think this is the best way for partnerships to get representation in the boardroom?

If your mind still isn’t made up yet, join Heather Margolis (President and CEO of Channel Maven) and Asher Mathew (CEO of Partnership Leaders) on May 2nd to talk through the rise of the CEO (Chief Ecosystems Officers) and CPO (Chief Partnership Officers).

They’ll explore questions like:

• What does the normalization of partnership and ecosystem strategy in the c-suite mean?

• How can a new approach to their tech stacks help these new executives maximize impact?

EVENT OF THE DAY

2 days left to register

360Insights is partnering with the best individuals and companies in the industry to discuss their new project, a true ecosystem in action.

What does it look like to create an integrated user experience where ecosystem partners can get everything they need in a single orchestrated workflow?

Learn on May 2nd.

Learn more.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Stuff you don’t want to miss!

• May 1st—Tracking Success In Cloud Marketplaces—Join Jay McBain
  (Chief Analyst of Channels, Partnerships, and Ecosystems at Canalys)
  and Sam Yarborough
  (Chief Growth Officer, Salesforce at Invisory)
  to discuss how you should be thinking about marketplaces. Register here.

• May 2nd—The Era of Ecosystem Orchestration is (Nearly) Here—Join 360 Insights and their close partners to unveil their new ecosystem project that stands to redefine their marketplace forever.
  Register here.

• May 7th—MartechDay 2024—Join
  Scott Brinker
  (VP Platform Ecosystems at HubSpot) and
  Frans Riemersma
  (Founder, MartechTribe) to release the latest Marketing Technology Landscape graphic. It’s a celebration of the thousands of talented people working in martech, at brands, vendors, and across the community. Scott and Frans will also be interviewing key leaders for their deep domain-specific knowledge.
  Register here.

• 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.

You’re all caught up.

RECENTLY PUBLISHED ON NEARBOUND.COM

• Rhythm of Business
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• Chapter 2:
  Nearbound Defined
  by
  Jared Fuller

• What I Learned at
  Goldenhour (And Why It All Points to Nearbound) by
  Shawnie Hamer

• Nearbound and the
  Rhythm of Business
  by
  Jared Fuller

• How Pigment
  Increased Win Rates 5-10% with a Nearbound Overlay & Reveal by
  Shawnie Hamer

• How to use Reveal for
  Co-marketing Events

• Unleashing the Power of Nearbound:
  The Stats You Need to Know
  by
  Andrea Vallejo

• Oneflow
  Sees a 190% Surge
  In Created Opportunities After Beginning 2-Way Data Sharing with HubSpot with
  Johan Jansson

• Howdy Partners #71:
  Natasha Walstra
  on Increasing
  Luck Surface Area
  in Business

• Nearbound Podcast #161: 3 Things You Need to Know: Attribution Crisis, Early Majority, and the
  Consolidation of Tech with AI

• Mastering the
  Nearbound Rhythm
  of the Business: Key Takeaways from the Nearbound Book
  by Andrea Vallejo

• A Deep Dive
  Into the Nearbound Book, with
  Mike Midgley
  Part 2

See you tomorrow

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nearbound.com is a project of Reveal.co