*Sales Managers:* Winning Partner-Involved Deals Through Situational Tag Teaming
Knowing how to leverage partners to win deals opens the door to endless opportunities. As a sales manager, fine-tuning the tag-teaming approach – strategically choosing which partners to bring in and why – can significantly impact your sales cycle.
Being on the front lines lets you see how wins happen across the organization, build relationships with other managers, and understand which partners impact what deals and why. This position puts you in a great spot to use tag teaming effectively. Share this knowledge with your reps and help them succeed by using partnerships strategically!
Tapping Into Your Extended Team
If you’re new to a partner-centric approach, think about partnerships like direct selling in complex, mid-market enterprise sales. In these types of sales, involving multiple buyers, longer sales cycles (at least 45 days), and a minimum annual contract value (ACV) of typically no less than $25,000, you’re taught to use your extended team or non-sales resources.
This team includes:
- Pre-sales engineers
- Marketing teams
- Executives
- Internal stakeholders like board members, investors, or advisors
- Partners
So, how does this apply to partner-involved deals? Consider partners as integral members of your extended team.
Now, let’s look at ways to use situational tag teaming to win deals.
Tag Teaming to Build Relationships
Third-Party Partner Content
I had a manager who called me Yertle the Turtle – a children’s book about the ‘king of the pond’ who tried to expand his kingdom by standing on the backs of his subjects. I’d pretend I owned everything and every partner reported to me. I thought, ‘If I could get any partner to do anything, what would that be?’ Then, I’d ask them to do it.
For instance, I wanted to provide prospects with objective third-party content about my company. The power of partners here became obvious. I knew that third-party credibility, even from just a blog post, could make the difference between winning or losing a cycle. So I asked for it, and it worked.
When I left that SaaS company to run the revenue function at a professional services company, I reverse-engineered the approach. I won a lot of business creating unbiased third-party content for my SaaS company partners to leverage in their sales cycles. In turn, we got inbound leads from content that buyers wanted!
Ask your partners to create the content you need and tag them in when necessary. That’s what tag teaming and using your extended network is all about.
Executive Introductions
When tapping into your extended team, especially executives, think strategically about making introductions that add value for prospects.
For example, during many marketing automation sales cycles, I faced chief marketing officers (CMOs) who weren’t directly involved in the day-to-day activities of their team’s evaluation of our offering. Leaving that executive alone was not the answer, so I frequently leveraged my extended team by offering one-on-one meetings with our CMO, who had credibility and a strong social following (they were excited to meet her). This tactic built rapport with the buyer and created a sense of obligation, as they’d received valuable time from a senior leader who had proven social credibility. It gave us a meaningful leg up in competitive sales cycles.
Look at your partner network for opportunities to involve executives when it benefits both parties. If your partner already works with your prospect as a customer, highlight their CMO’s or relevant executive’s expertise and suggest an introduction. Bringing your partners’ teams into your extended network can help you win deals and strengthen your partnerships.
Services Partners
Another effective tactic for situational tag teaming involves tagging in a services partner. Suppose you’re in an initial conversation with a lead or a prospect, and they mention an acute pain point your technology could potentially impact. Rather than immediately trying to sell your tech (not a best practice on the first call, especially in complex mid-market enterprise sales cycles), consider connecting them to an unbiased third party in your network for insights into their pain point.
This scenario is where introducing a services partner with a skilled solutions architect specializing in that area can be invaluable. You can foster a productive and meaningful conversation in just 30 minutes by putting that architect on the phone with this stakeholder.
Sample tactic:
Position it as an off-the-cuff remark: “You know what? That made me think of Justin Zimmerman. Do you follow him, or are you connected to him?” It’s a win-win, whether they follow that person or not, as long as the person you’re positioning can actually solve for the pain they identified. Don’t introduce to introduce.
If they say no, reply with excitement: “Man, this guy knows exactly what he’s talking about when it comes to partner webinars. I think chatting with him for 30 minutes will solve many of your problems. Would you like an intro? I know him pretty well. Happy to do it!”
If they say yes, determine how well. They might volunteer that information, or you might have to say, “Awesome! How far back do you go with Justin?” That’ll typically surface a “Well, I don’t know him that well, but I like his posts.” Rinse and repeat the tactic above – excitedly offer a formal intro because you ‘know him well.’
Let’s break down the benefits in the scenario above:
- You can be the hero by connecting a prospective account with a meaningful stakeholder to address their pain point and deliver value. You earn recognition without any additional costs. Plus, you build credibility with your services partner by putting them in front of an account.
- Your introduction positions you to ask for support or introductions in return, further expanding your networking opportunities as a sales rep.
- After making the intro, you must prepare the services partner stakeholder for what to expect. Schedule a 15-minute call to share the identified pain point and potential outcomes and request they do some discovery on your behalf. Their insights might kick off a sales cycle, open access to other stakeholders, or uncover new pain points or budget initiatives.
Audits and Assessments
You can also leverage audits and assessments as a tag-teaming approach. Customers often face very specific pains, like managing complex operational processes tied to running hundreds of field marketing events. If you’re a SaaS company, helping solve for this pain can add value and lead to upsell or cross-sell opportunities or simply strengthen your credibility with the customer.
If you know a partner capable of solving these pains, offer their expertise. You might say, “I know a services partner specializing in this area. While they typically charge for these services, sometimes we have a special arrangement for complimentary audits or assessments for this type of problem” (even if you know they give it away).
Just ask if they’re interested. If they say no, they’re not a buyer. But if they say yes, your partner can conduct discovery around the problem. (Again, align with them on what you’re expecting.) The customer gets value. You look like a hero, and your partner is navigating toward a sales cycle or recommending they solve for that pain using your offering.
Tag Teaming to Remove Roadblocks
For partners frequently involved in the accounts you manage and crucial to your team’s success, prioritize building relationships at both the sales manager and management levels within those accounts. These relationships are essential for points of escalation and resolution in deals.
As a manager, you should be ready to contact your counterpart manager on the partner’s side when issues arise to unblock or resolve them efficiently. This proactive approach goes beyond situational tag teaming; it’s about actively removing roadblocks for your reps in partner-involved deals.
In practice, this may involve tagging in the other side’s manager to ideate or strategize solutions for overcoming obstacles. Establish management and one-level-up relationships where appropriate to create points of contact, which can lead to partner-sourced deals and de-escalation of situations.
Additionally, it’s important to establish executive alignment with these partners. Avoid overstepping boundaries and only attempt to develop relationships with executives if you have a track record of delivering significant deals within their forecast. Ensure alignment between personas on your side and theirs by going up the chain appropriately.
Conclusion
Sales managers hold the key to unlocking the full potential of partner-centric deals. You can significantly boost your team’s success by mastering situational tag-teaming – strategically bringing in the right partners at the right time.
Utilize your extended network for unbiased content creation, executive introductions, or services expertise. And remember, it’s not about “Yertle-ing” your partners but building and leveraging genuine relationships to create win-win scenarios for everyone. So, tag them in!
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