Who Benefits from the B2B Partner Ecosystem

All revenue builders face the same three needs:

High-quality leads
The right opportunities
More deals closed

They spend hours navigating this trio. If you're here, you are probably a revenue builder. It's a good thing you came because there's a secret that no one told you. All of these needs can be fulfilled and in a fraction of the time you're spending.

This article makes the secret public, and we are excited to finally make it happen. Whether you're a partnership manager, a sales manager, or a growth marketer, your goal is to boost revenue - i.e., A revenue builder. With a partner ecosystem, doing so has never been easier. We'll tell you why and then we'll tell you how, read on.

Over the past few years, consumer behavior has shifted to a more digital landscape across many industries. To stay relevant, businesses must adapt and continuously improve customer experience. According to a 2017 study by Accenture, 76% of B2B leaders agree that current business models will be unrecognizable in the next 5 years and that ecosystems will be the primary change agent.

Building the right partnerships helps your business stay competitive. With the right partners, you can successfully set yourself up as an industry leader. There is a level of strength in a collaboration that working in silo can not produce. Working with your partners expands your salesforce, opens your lead pool, and multiplies your pipeline in ways you could not imagine before.

What is a B2B partner ecosystem?

A B2B partner ecosystem is a network of complementary businesses. Members of your ecosystem often share your ideal customer profile (ICP), customers, prospects, and territories. These partners provide opportunities for a tech company to accelerate revenue growth in many ways. Typically, an ecosystem is viewed primarily for Partnership Managers to function in. This is not incorrect. Partnership managers are the facilitators of the growth of an ecosystem. However, it is through the ecosystem that Growth Marketers and Sales can really thrive.

Having a B2B partner ecosystem in 2021 is more than just a "nice to have" strategy. It is essential. Ask any analyst at Forrester, Gartner, or Deloitte. It is through the ecosystem that a company lives or dies. Knowing this, B2B leaders are increasingly discussing how to drive innovation and compete in today's fast-paced markets. To grow and maintain market share, B2B companies need to invest in strategic partnerships that can act as extensions of their own business and produce ROI.

A partner ecosystem allows organizations to focus on co-creating value. This value is expressed in exceptional customer experiences but also in outstanding partner experiences. The partners part of a B2B ecosystem is strategically formed and work together to deliver mutual benefits to their companies.

Seeing the overall partner ecosystem benefit, let's dive into how it helps revenue builders individually.

Who benefits from the ecosystem?

Partnership Teams

As covered earlier, B2B ecosystems allow partners to tap into each others' value to deliver a solution to their company and customers. Often, there are barriers to maximizing the full potential of a partnership. As mentioned in the Accenture study, 91% of B2B leaders said they expect more business from their partners. This reflects that ecosystems present an ROI. It is up to the Partnership Managers to deliver it.

Naturally, a key concern is knowing how to leverage partnerships correctly. Part of that is making the right partnerships.

Successful ecosystem partnerships allow Partnership Managers to feed value to other departments and, in doing so, prove that these relationships contribute to revenue growth—and they do.

It is often misunderstood what a Partnership Manager does. From where we stand, they are relationship managers. They utilize the right tools to find the right partners. Successful ecosystem partnerships allow Partnership Managers to feed value to other departments and, in doing so, prove that these relationships contribute to revenue growth—and they do. They fuel integrations, co-selling motions, co-marketing campaigns, territory expansion, and market presence. All of these efforts are made successful, visible, and with ease when done from a partner ecosystem.

Sales Teams

While it is the Partnership Managers role to create the Partnership. It more than behooves the Sales team to leverage it.

Through a partner ecosystem, Sales have greater access to high-quality leads, customer events, and data about customer trends. Putting together this data and sharing appropriate customer insights amongst the members of a partner ecosystem supports an indirect channel for sales growth and solves a significant pain for sales teams: it frees them from the barrier of limited information. #weloveenrichment

Further, A partner ecosystem enables Sales to gain access to key decision-makers and hit their sales targets. Say goodbye to all the pains and wasted time of cold calling. With the correct information, sales managers can finally prioritize leads. This increases time spent engaging the right prospects and increases their conversion rate to customers.

And resources? Well, salesforce increases when collaborating with partners. By communicating with partners' sales teams, they can co-target accounts and reach customers more widely by taking advantage of their partners' presence. They also can help their partner by giving them introductions to their prospects who are customers.

Marketing Teams

Finally, growth marketers can also benefit from a partner ecosystem. Across many industries, growth marketers have transformed into a revenue-generating function within the business. A partner ecosystem can support goals of driving revenue through high-quality lead generations across all parts of the marketing funnel.

Every customer that's captured within an organization's or their partner's ecosystem presents an opportunity. With access to a partner ecosystem, especially one that brings together multiple partners, growth marketers can tap into new opportunities that present greater conversion rates. If your partner has an existing customer, that customer likely needs a solution that you're presenting. Because it's a common customer, it presents a mutual opportunity, which, once a growth marketer gets access to, can result in a new customer.

Are You Ready for A Partner Ecosystem?

The question has shifted from "should we invest in a partner ecosystem" to "when will we invest in a partner ecosystem." To put it into perspective:
Think about all the time spent on manual account mapping, cold-calling, and hacking. Now imagine if that time searching was spent executing. Imagine if the people you were talking to came with a level of certainty. It's possible. And that investment? Well, it's free.

All you have to do is sign up for Reveal, and your partner ecosystem journey will begin.

Reveal connects you with your partners to increase revenue, generate leads, and tap into customer insights quickly. Sign up for a free trial with Reveal to leverage your next Partnership to its full potential!