Jumpstart new partner-sourced pipeline in Q1 with a “Partner Shuffle Co-Sell Play”

TLDR: Run a Partner Shuffle Co-Sell Play with PartnerTap

Are your partner managers or channel account managers moving around and getting new partners in Q1? Is Q1 typically a slow start where the team waits for their new assignments and gradually builds rapport? Turn Q1 from a get-to-know-each-other quarter to a data-driven pipeline-sourcing quarter for your PAMs and your partners.

Partner team reassignment “shuffles” slow down growth 

As companies enter their new fiscal year it’s common for partner account teams to get re-shuffled. PAMs and CAMS get reassigned and may have no relationship with their new counterparts. They’ll spend Q1 building relationships before really diving into the actions that accelerate growth for each of their companies. This gets the new fiscal year off to a slow start with less partner-sourced pipeline than your CRO is hoping for. 

Data-driven conversations can accelerate growth in Q1

You can’t afford a slow start in Q1. Your mutual customers with each partner are your best path to expansion pipeline, and their customers are your fastest path to new logo pipeline. By leveraging automated account mapping, and embracing a give-to-get approach, your PAMs and CAMs can have a data-driven strategy for meaningful conversations that source new pipeline faster. PartnerTap gives your partner and channel teams the detailed data and automation they need to impress their new partners and help them both be successful in the new year. 

If you’re the Channel Chief or CRO at a company that uses PartnerTap, here’s how to run a Partner Shuffle Co-Sell Play. Train your PAMs and CAMs to upload their partner spreadsheets into PartnerTap and instantly see a heatmap of their market and opportunities. From there they can drill down into their matched accounts report and zero in on the most valuable accounts to run through co-sell automation. 

If you’re a Channel Chief at a company that isn’t yet on the enterprise-leading ecosystem platform and co-selling solutions, it’s time to invest in automation. Rather than adding headcount, PartnerTap’s automation can instantly identify all the potential pipeline buried in your partners’ data, and action the highest-propensity-to-buy accounts quickly with co-sell workflows.

How to run a Partner Shuffle Co-Sell Play with PartnerTap

This Q1 partner shuffle co-sell play requires three things: up to date mapped accounts with each partner, hyper-targeted action lists from this data, co-sell automation to quickly action these target accounts with each of your sales teams. 

1. PAMs and CAMs invite their partners to connect directly with them on PartnerTap. This establishes a digital connection between them, but does not automatically share data. All the two people will see is their Partner Overlap Dashboard (shown above).

2. Talk about a valuable co-sell motion that would help both companies drive new pipeline in Q1.
   1. High tech example: Company A customer with product X, and Company B customers with product Y → cross sell opportunities for new generation solution that includes both their technologies
   2. ISV and SI example: ISV customers with product X, and SI customers in the past 24 months → cross sell ISV customers product Y with SI so SI can do the implementation services
   3. Vendor and reseller example: unattended vendor accounts with marketing intent signals, where reseller already has existing customer relationships → reseller can focus their reps on these accounts to sell more vendor deals quickly

3. Use enterprise sharing controls to share the data necessary for each co-sell sales play. Once share settings are set each side will be able to see an instantly-mapped view of the data shared with them. 

4. Use the report filters to zero in on the most valuable accounts to focus on for the first co-sell play, and save this as an action list for the Co-Sell Engine.

5. Run a Co-Sell Workflow in PartnerTap to trigger the opt-in process and introductions to connect the sales reps on each side for pre-opp conversations.

More Ways to Co-Sell and Win

The Partner Shuffle Co-Sell Play is just one example of how data-driven partnering can accelerate growth. PartnerTap’s enterprise co-selling software lets your channel teams proactively identify partners who have meaningful relationships and proximity to your buyers so you can accelerate pipeline and sell more efficiently in 2024.

If your Sales Reps changed or are about to change territories, learn how to run a New Territories Sales Play that jumpstarts new pipeline.