A quick recap of the PhD from this week:

• Partnerships Start with the Customer

• Use Partnerships to Turn On Easy Mode

• 12 Rules for Partner Pros

• Give Value First

• An Excuse to Get Wild 🎉

Recently published:

• PartnerUp #104 - When Sales and Partnerships Partner Up With Rich Lewis-Jones and Stan Wasowicz with Isaac Morehouse and Jared Fuller

• Selling Together #7: They Win, You Win with Jessie Shipman

• The Partner Experience Weekly: Tracking Partner Influence in SFDC by Aaron Howerton

• Introducing the Partnering Reference Architecture by Brian Hattaway

• A Co-CEO Future for B2B SaaS Companies: Fantasy or Inevitability? by Allan Adler

• Howdy Partners #28: Positioning With Your Partners is More Important Than Working On Your Co-Sell Pitch | Katie Bentz

• Marketing Together #7: Understanding the Will of Your User’s Existing Communities - Jen Allen

• What Top Companies are Doing Different with Co-Marketing by Micaela Richmond

• Your Brain on Story by Jessie Shipman

• Ecosystem Creator Lab #6: How Can You Support The Ecosystem This Week? by Will Taylor and Micaela Richmond

• Frenemies or Friends? The Art of Partnering with Competitors by Janelle Gates

Partnerships isn’t a department

Partner pilling 💊 a sales, marketing, or success org doesn’t come from the partnerships department bringing net new accounts, opportunities, or upgrades as handouts for all internal parties.

Look, I’ve done your job for you, here’s new sourced accounts, opportunities, and upgrades!

At best, that results in a short-term “hero” label but at worst, the well runs dry & hero no more.

The key 🗝️ right now (IMO) is that partner orgs need to embed their functions inside of each department by virtue of marketing, selling, or retaining/upselling together with the market.

In other words, RUN, don’t walk, to build out departmental partner excellence.

Help your marketers market together. Sellers sell together. Etc.

Each part of the buyer journey can be drastically improved by doing so with equal or better effects on business unit economics.

That’s the nuance of the “Nearbound” angle. It’s the application and competency of partnering for each department.

So I think that’s the job to drive revenue now. Don’t be a bottleneck to partner revenue. Help your team do it.

Don’t be a hero, be a helper.