Driving Revenue from Partner Networks ->

As a Go-to-Network marketer, you are more than just a connector—you are a strategic thinker who can truly understand the partner ecosystem around your business and can uncover where each partner can bring value to your organization (and vice versa).



Not all partners serve the same purpose, however. Just as you tap into different networks for specific goals, you should approach partners in the same way. Some are an awareness play—their association with your brand boosts credibility because they’re already trusted within the industry.

Other partners will help you drive revenue directly, where the combined efforts of both orgs create a "better together" kind of story that ultimately brings more value to the end user.

Finally, there are partners who see your organization as the aspirational brand they want to align with—this is where you can tap into sponsorship dollars.

What sets you as a Go-to-Network marketer apart from the traditional partner marketer is your ability to navigate these nuances and understand how each relationship brings value, and not just to the business but to the customer experience as well.

It’s not just about co-branded campaigns—you are working to build a level of trust that surrounds the customer at every touchpoint.

The scope of a Go-to-Network approach is far more comprehensive than just acquiring new business, but because our north star in this guide is driving sustainable, warm revenue as a marketer, we’ll focus on acquisition through partnerships here, and retaining, expanding, and driving referrals from that new business in a later section.

Here is a simple breakdown of how you should look at partnerships to acquire new, warm revenue as a Go-to-Network marketer:

How partners help:

• 2x the reach
• Broader expertise creates more value for customers
• Tap into existing trust, the hardest currency to develop in an ecosystem

Which department(s) are most involved:

• Marketing

Partner types:

• Media partners
• Communities
• Influencers
• Key opinion leaders
• Content-level co-marketing tech partners

Why partners are critical to this phase:

• The awareness stage, also known as the “top of funnel,” casts the widest net.
• Buyers become aware of your brand, product, or service with one goal: to learn about the ecosystem.

The Play:

Run a multi-partner event

Set the stage: Figure out which partner(s) you should include based on the topic, target audience, and the information from your overlaps.

Approach your partners with a specific direction (take the lead but leave room for creativity and suggestions):When: General date and timeline.

• What: Topic – what industry trend will you discuss?
• Who: Who you want to include from their team
• How: Format of the content

Divide and conquer based on strengths

• Outline a task list and delegate based on each of your team’s strengths and your partners’ strengths. This should include things like back-end work and promotion. If you’d like, you can implement a few if X, then Y stipulations. For example, if [partner] drives a certain number of clicks, then they get a lead list.

Run the show

• Show up the day of, ready to make the content valuable and entertaining for anyone in the audience. Further mobilize your team by understanding whose accounts are registered. That means specific folks on the sales team to ensure they are actively networking with those who have engaged with the content.

Repurpose content

• Take all of the content you created and find ways to repurpose it into articles, social posts, video clips, and more to drive value to the ecosystem.

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How partners help:

• Endorse your offering
• Share their trust and influence with people and teams they already work with
• Pair your partner’s industry knowledge with your “net new” learnings to their audience, blending the value and making use of the existing momentum
• Allow you to surround your customers with trusted nodes of influence

Which department(s) are most involved:

• Marketing

Partner types:

• Influencers and practitioners
• Key opinion leaders
• Strategic technology and service partners
• Content-level co-marketing tech partners

Why partners are critical to this phase:

• The education stage of the buyer’s journey is where they learn about how your solution solves their problems and decide whether or not it will be helpful.

The Play:

Create a co-branded report

Figure out which partner(s) you should include based on the topic, target audience, and the information from your overlaps. Pull collective data and create key benchmarks that point to significant pain points that you and your partner’s joint audience are facing, and how your joint solution can solve them.

Co-create a plan with your partner (take the lead on this project, but leave room for creativity and suggestions):

• When: General date and timeline
• What: What is the value your joint audience will glean from your report?
• Who: What population do you want to survey and why
• How: Format of the report

Divide and conquer based on strengths

• Outline a task list and delegate based on each of your team’s strengths and your partners’ strengths. This should include things like back-end work and promotion.

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How partners help:

• Access to critical intelligence
• Can influence purchase decisions
• Make intros with key decision-makers
• Co-sell together

Which department(s) are most involved:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Customer Success

Partner types:

• Independent software vendor (ISV) integration partners
• MSPs and other service partners
• Consultants & agencies
• Strategic alliance partners

Why partners are critical to this phase:

• In the engage stage of the buyers’ journey, buyers are making major decisions about whether or not to purchase your product or service

The Play:

Customer stories

• Work with your partner to find a joint customer that aligns with the target audience and best tells your better-together story.
• Co-create a list of interview questions for the customer that keeps the conversation focused on the story you want to tell. However, remember to stay open to the things the customer is most excited about; this is how you discover unique use cases in your product.
• You, the partner, and the customer conduct a recorded interview
• Find and clip the best moments in the conversation to use as promotional materials, and to uplift both the partner and customer.
• Write the story. Remember that the goal should be to tell the story that solves a problem for your buyers and customers, not to focus solely on your product.
• Share promotional assets with your partner and the customer. Make it easy for them to share with their network.
• Share the story with your customers who are prospects of your partner, and have your partner do the same with your list of prospects.
• Reuse the story in other content, such as subsequent strategic articles or sales and customer success decks.