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Expert advice from Justin Zimmerman (Founder, Partner Playbooks) and Kristiana Mane (Partner Enablement, HubSpot). Snapshot You are running events—webinars, local dinners, half-day workshops, or large online summits—and you need them to produce measurable business outcomes! But without a repeatable system that connects planning, targeting, data enrichment, and sales follow-up, a great experience can still look […]

Expert advice from Greg Portnoy and Justin Zimmerman. Introduction According to Kyler Poyer, the biggest untapped growth lever in modern go-to-market is: partnerships! The opportunity is simple and urgent. When partnerships are built with intent, data, and repeatable processes, they produce better win rates, larger contract values, shorter sales cycles, and superior customer lifetime value […]

Expert advice from Justin Zimmerman (Founder, Partner Playbooks) and Abdul Sethi (Email Deliverability Expert, Mailivery). Snapshot Cold outbound is one of the most direct ways to find and recruit channel partners, resellers, and co-marketing allies. Done correctly, it lets you target the exact partner profile you need, start meaningful conversations at scale, and convert outreach […]

Expert advice from Zev Zoldan and Justin Zimmerman. Snapshot Slack: It’s not just a chat app — it’s where partners live, collaborate, and make decisions in real time — which means it’s also where small nudges, timely asks, and quick follow-ups can turn into predictable leads. The risk is simple but costly: when partner conversations […]

Expert advice from Rob Rebholz and Justin Zimmerman. Table of Contents Snapshot Channel Partnerships: The opportunity is simple but profound: when partnerships are treated as a systematic motion—driven by repeatable processes, clearly defined touch points, and the right automations—they stop being a handful of ad-hoc favors and become a predictable source of pipeline and closed […]

Expert advice from Justin Zimmerman and Subham Paul. Table of Contents Snapshot Do you know the #1 co-marketing motion? If you guessed webinar, you’d be correct! Partner webinars are one of the best channels for demand generation, but without the right data and tooling they quickly degrade into expensive broadcasts with little targeted follow-up and […]

Expert advice from Miranda Sambrook and Maisa Fernandez. Table of Contents Snapshot Partnership teams are sitting at the center of an expanding universe where integrations, co-markets, and AI features can either propel your growth or waste your budget. The stakes are high: partnerships can unlock new audiences, amplify awareness, multiply pipeline, accelerate product‑market fit, and […]

Expert advice from Gina Batali-Brooks, Allan Adler, Rachael Rogers Introduction You are building more than a partner program. You are building a new growth engine — a coordinated set of people, processes, and technology — that can materially reduce acquisition costs, accelerate deal velocity, and multiply customer lifetime value — but only if you get […]

Expert advice from Jason Yarborough and Raegan Wilson. Live events are hot! But: event budgets are under pressure, buyer attention is fragmented, and sponsors demand measurable returns. What used to work—large expo halls, badge scans, and giveaway-driven lead lists—no longer moves the needle for most B2B tech sponsors. The stakes are simple: design the wrong event […]

Expert advice from Danny Porter, Russell Bradly-Cook, Allie Schratz, and Gwen Sioson.  Introduction Top technology partner managers agree: we are operating at a moment when partnerships can either be your clearest path to predictable revenue or a collection of one-off integrations and unmet expectations. The difference isn’t glamour; it’s discipline. It’s how you translate strategic […]

Expert advice from Jared Fuller, Isaac Moorehouse, and Elliot Haralambous. Introduction You probably noticed we’re living through a shift in go-to-market. For years, companies built great products and then tried to buy attention through paid channels, cold outreach, or brute force sales motions. That approach is breaking down. B2B buyers no longer respond to anonymous ads […]

Expert advice from David Ward, James Hodgekinson, Derek Larson, Jason Atkins, and Seb Tyack. Introduction Ecosystems, data, and AI converge to redefine how partnerships create value. The choices you make now about data architecture, measurement, and orchestration will determine whether your ecosystem becomes a competitive moat or a fragmented cost center. Those choices include how […]

Expert advice from Jesse Cunningham and Kelly Sarabyn. Introduction HubSpot is more than a CRM; it is a high-value customer acquisition channel. With hundreds of thousands of paying customers and product extensibility maturing quickly, building an integration is no longer just a technical exercise. It is a strategic decision that impacts discovery, sales motion, retention, and […]

Expert advice from Johan Jansson, Jesse Cunningham and Arlo Hill. Introduction It’s become clear integrations are no longer a checkbox; they are a differentiator that decides whether your product becomes essential or disposable. The marketplace has thousands of apps, and the pressure to stand out is intense. What used to be “does it integrate?” has […]

Expert advice from Jesse Cunningham, Tim Koeth, and Pat Donley. Introduction Fact: integrations decide whether prospects convert and customers stick around. The stakes: High. The quality of your HubSpot integration can shorten sales cycles, increase close rates, and create long-lasting account value. If your product simply exists alongside HubSpot, you miss a massive opportunity to […]

Expert advice from Chris Brisson, Ryan Milligan, Jesse Cunningham. Introduction You are sitting on high-intent partner-sourced leads every time someone installs your integration. What’s at stake is simple: installs are only valuable when they become active users and paying customers. Left unchecked, that funnel leaks—often badly—because new users hit friction right after install, don’t get […]

Expert advice from Greg Portnoy and Rob Moyer. Introduction You are being asked to do more with fewer resources, to create predictable partner revenue from relationships that feels unpredictable. Sure partnerships can unlock massive growth, but only when you move beyond logo-chasing and embrace an operating model built on repeatable systems, clear attribution, and relentless […]

Expert advice from Jesse Cunningham, Daniel Zarick and Jen Keepes. Introduction You are sitting on a major inbound partner-sourced growth channel, if your product integrates with a widely adopted platform. The opportunity is simple and enormous: reach high-intent buyers inside an ecosystem, lower customer acquisition costs, and unlock exponential value by positioning your app as […]

Expert advice from Kenny Browne and Riley Carr. Introduction Whether your solution connects with an existing tech stack ranks among the top three buying considerations. That means integrations are not optional features; they are strategic assets that influence acquisition, retention, and growth. If you want to move from being a standalone product to a platform […]

Expert advice from Erin DiVincenzo, Christi Williams, and Alexis Bonavoto. Introduction Partnering well can multiply your product’s value, accelerate sales cycles, and dramatically improve retention. The biggest missed opportunity is not a lack of potential partners but a lack of a repeatable approach that aligns product, services, and customer outcomes. When an app partner, a […]

Expert advice from Jesse Cunningham, Mario Rosser and Kevin Raheja. Introduction Today customers expect their tools to play nicely together. The tech stack is no longer a set of isolated point solutions; it is an interoperable nervous system that must move data, automate workflows, and deliver measurable time to value. If your product sits outside […]

Featuring expert advice from Nelson Wang and Justin Zimmerman. Introduction You are trying to turn partnerships from a “check in the box” into a measurable revenue and customer-success engine. Nelson Wang and Justin Zimmerman laid out practical frameworks, real-world examples, and operating-level advice for anyone building partner programs: from ISV integrations and solution partners to […]

Featuring expert advice from Greg Portnoy and Justin Zimmerman. Introduction We are in a moment when AI powered partnerships and ecosystems can either become a competitive advantage or a missed opportunity for your GTM strategy. AI is not just another checkbox — it’s an accelerant that multiplies the impact of disciplined processes, accurate data, and […]

Featuring expert advice from Justin Zimmerman and Bob Moore. Introduction Change is arriving faster than planning cycles. New AI capabilities are accelerating how teams think about process, but the smartest moves are not always about the flashiest tech. The real win lies in combining disciplined workflows, clear data strategies, and partnership orchestration so you can […]

Featuring expert advice from Rob Moyer and Nelson Wang, Greg Portnoy, and Justin Zimmerman. Introduction You are operating at a turning point for partnerships: AI is accelerating what’s possible, but the biggest gains come from sharpening process, data and orchestration—not from chasing every new shiny tool. In a recent discussion with Rob, Nelson, and Greg, […]

Featuring expert advice from Christi Williams, Alex Buckles, Chris Lavoie. Introduction You already know that partnerships are one of the highest-leverage channels for growth — but turning that potential into predictable pipeline takes more than a partnership directory and a couple of webinars. This article synthesizes practical, repeatable advice from experts who’ve built co-sell and […]

Unleash strategic power by orchestrating your ecosystem to outpace competitors. Discover innovative tactics for market dominance and success!

Expert advice from Roman Kirsanov at PartnerInsight and Luca Gianaschi at Tackle.io. Snapshot You face a major inflection point: customers, budgets, and buying habits have shifted toward cloud marketplaces and co-sell channels. Buyers are increasingly comfortable with self-service procurement, procurement teams expect catalog‑based purchasing paths, and cloud field sellers are being incented to recommend solutions […]

Expert advice from Alex Buckles at Forecastable and Justin Zimmerman Snapshot We are at a turning point: the cheap-money-fueled growth playbook of the past few years—unlimited SDRs, huge marketing splurges, and sponsorship-driven pipeline—no longer buys the outcomes it used to. Budgets are tighter, acquisition costs are creeping up, and one-off tactics deliver flashy but fleeting […]

Expert advice from Justin Zimmerman and Cody Sunkel at PartnerFleet.io. Snapshot You might be sitting on an underutilized growth channel: the partners who build on your platform, extend your product, and connect you to new customers. These partners — ISVs, integrators, agencies, implementation partners, and marketplace apps — can drive new pipelines, improve retention through […]

Expert advice from Danny Porter at Coport.co and Justin Zimmerman. Snapshot Every partner manager recognizes: more partners equals more opportunity… on paper, but more chaos in practice. That means the difference between a partner program that hums along and one that stalls, is rarely about signing more logos. It is about how you focus, operationalize […]

Expert advice from Rachel Collie and Danny. Snapshot Are you running a partner program with too many spinning plates and too few hands? You’re not alone! We all do this because the strategy is obvious: tech partnerships are a growth engine, create product stickiness, and act as a strategic lever for M&A, vertical expansion, and […]

Expert advice from Greg Portnoy at EulerPRM and Justin Zimmerman Snapshot You are probably running a partner program with far fewer resources than the results you are expected to produce — a lean team, a thin budget, and a long list of tactical tasks that range from onboarding and contracting to tracking referrals and paying […]

Expert advice from Delya Jansen at PartnerUtopia and Justin Zimmerman Snapshot You are measured on results, not effort. That simple truth reshapes how the top partnership leaders approach partnerships—and it raises the bar for speed, accountability, and repeatability.  The stakes are high: the majority of partnerships fail, and each failure can waste months of time, […]

Expert advice from Tai Rattigan and Katie Landaal Snapshot As a partnership leader, what you build and how you tell its story determine whether you remain an undervalued tactician or become a compensated executive driving tens of millions in impact.  The difference between a mid-level manager and a six-figure leader is not just tenure — […]

Expert advice from Justin Zimmerman (Founder, Partner Playbooks). Snapshot You are juggle deadlines, sponsors, and the constant pressure to prove that your event or community effort moves the needle. What’s at stake isn’t just attendance numbers. It’s the trust you build with partners, the momentum you create with your audience, and the long-term sustainability of […]

Expert advice from Rachel Rogers, Will Taylor, and Antonio Caridad. Snapshot You are competing in a world where ecosystems and alliances increasingly determine who wins — market leadership is no longer decided solely by product or sales force but by the network of relationships you build and operationalize. That means partnerships are no longer a […]

Expert advice from Tyler Briggs at Box.com and Lauren Jeter at Pong. Snapshot Partner marketing is not a “nice to have.” When done correctly, it amplifies reach, accelerates product adoption, and builds brand equity faster than many direct channels. You can share logos, co-host events, and tap into a partner’s audience—often at lower CAC than […]

Expert advice from Chris Samila (Partnership Leaders), Bryan Williams (Hockey Stick Advisors), Heather Margolis (Channel Maven), and (Kron Technologies). Snapshot You are not just doing a job — you are building a reputation, a network, and a track record that will follow you from role to role and company to company. Partnerships live at the […]

Expert advice from Rob Rebholz (Superglue), Mike Sandoz (Bloomreach), and Chris Lavoie (Partnership Mastermind). Snapshot Fact: partner ecosystems are getting more complex, revenue targets are rising, and partner teams remain intentionally small. You can add to that, market dynamics — more channels, blended sales motions, distributed product teams, and cross-border partnerships — means the number […]

Expert advice from Justin Zimmerman and Andreas Geamanu (Introw). Snapshot Partnership programs can be a strategic revenue engine and the tools you choose can either accelerate that momentum or create friction that kills it. There a lot of considerations when choose the right partner relationship management solution. It can touch onboarding, deal registration, attribution, commission […]

Expert advice from Enrique Gutierrez (GTM Architect, BEMO ) and Kristen Kelly (Alliances, Netskope). Snapshot Today’s procurement decisions are dominated by one question: how well will this vendor fit into the buyer’s existing ecosystem of tools, vendors, and integrations? Buyers prioritize interoperability, pre-existing relationships, and a vendor’s ability to plug into their workflows — not […]

Expert advice from Barbara Treviño (Alliances, Sugar.io)  and Justin Zimmerman. Snapshot Fact: Appearing in a marketplace puts your product directly into procurement flows, gives buyers familiar billing and compliance modalities, and short-circuits trust barriers that slow traditional enterprise sales. The faster you move from idea to active listing, the sooner you begin capturing not only […]

Expert advice from Delya Jansen (Founder, PartnerUtopia) and Jason Scott (COO, PartnerUtopia). Snapshot Ask around and you’ll hear: Discovering and activating new partners is a grind. Reasons include, weak joint value proposition and internal stakeholders can’t agree on what “value” looks like. Add mismatched resource commitments and weak governance after a partner is engaged, and […]

Expert advice from Cody Sunkel (Head of Growth, PartnerFleet) and Justin Zimmerman. Snapshot You have two choices: build integrations one at a time, concede ground to competitors, or make the leap to an open platform and grow exponentially. The stakes are high — this is not a product roadmap trade-off so much as a go‑to‑market […]

Expert advice from Scott Brinker (VP Ecosystems, HubSpot) and Justin Zimmerman Snapshot Integrations have become the new currency as AI races faster than organizations can reorganize to take advantage of it. That gap is the defining strategic challenge of this decade and the biggest opportunity for any company that acts with intention. I It’s not […]

Expert advice from Jay McBain (Analyst, Canalys) and Justin Zimmerman Snapshot Your mandate: Distribution, technology, and buyer behavior have converged to rewrite how value is created and captured. What is at stake is not just revenue growth but the very survival of companies that have relied on old models of selling, packaging, and supporting technology. When […]

Featuring expert advice from Ben Jolly, Corey Snyder, and Tyler Calder. Introduction You are likely under pressure to grow partner sourced revenue while CAC keeps rising, and affiliate & agency partners are the lever you might be underusing. They provide a big opportunity to reduce acquisition costs, extend reach, and unlock new channels—if you recruit the […]

Don’t make your 1st partner hire or sign that next deal without reviewing this proven profitable guide to growth.

Expert advice from Scott Singerman (VP Partnerships, Mixpanel) and Lauren Jeter (Founder, Pong Agency). Snapshot Done well, a partner marketing program amplifies your reach into new audiences, lowers cost per acquisition by pooling budgets and credibility, and effectively turns other companies into distributed sales and marketing teams that scale your GTM motion. But it isn’t […]

Expert advice from Franz-Josef Schrepf (Head Partnerships, OpusClips) and Will Taylor (Founder, AudienceLed). Snapshot Defining which partnership types to pursue, how leads are qualified and routed, who owns enablement, and which KPIs prove success are the key elements to any program. Without clearly defining and communicating these, you risk wasting engineering, sales, and operations time, […]

Expert advice from Nate Strong (CEO, StrongCRM) and Eddie Hanson (CEO, Prolifiq). Snapshot In a world where every big deal is a complex deal: multiple stakeholders, parallel partner motions, and buying committees the risks are obvious and immediate—lost pipeline, elongated sales cycles, missed renewal windows, and partners who create noise instead of delivering momentum. But […]

Expert advice from Cody Sunkel (Head of Growth, PartnerFleet) and Cameron Schuette (Product Manager, Salesloft). Snapshot If you run a SaaS product, a partner program, or a platform team, then you’ll agree your ecosystem is an untapped growth engine or an operational sinkhole. At center of it all is your the marketplace. It is a […]

Expert advice from Rob Rebholz (CEO, SuperGlue.io) and Will Taylor (Partnerships, AudienceLed). Snapshot You know this: Partnerships have always been a high-leverage channel, but today they remain underutilized because partner teams lack systems that make partner signals actionable in real time. And if you continue relying on manual outreach, periodic enablement sessions, and siloed data, […]

Expert advice from Kristen Kelly and Elizabeth Whalen. Snapshot Can partnerships and integrations can be the single biggest lever to grow revenue, shorten cycles, and unlock new motion in sales? Yes — but only if your teams actually use the data the right way. That means going beyond reports that live on a shelf: you […]

Expert advice from Lizzie Chapman (Partnership Director) and Greg Portnoy (Founder, Euler PRM). Snapshot Incredible fact: you are sitting on a growth channel that almost no one has fully optimized: partnerships. Enter Lizzie at NextRoll. She figured it out. She moved from zero partner tech to a connected stack that found revenue, cut manual hours, stopped […]

Expert advice from Rachael Rogers (Partner Strategy, GitLab) and Delya Jansen (Founder, PartnerUtopia). Snapshot You face balancing ambitious partner growth goals with finite time and budget while the market keeps changing. The biggest risk is choosing the wrong partners or missing the moments when partnership leverage matters most. When you move up-market, change your ICP, or […]

Expert advice from Jason Yarborough (founder, Arcadia) and Justin Zimmerman (founder). Snapshot You are competing for attention, loyalty, and time. The predictable hotel ballroom, the scripted talk, the perfunctory sponsor booth — those formats are tired and they dilute the relationships you want to build. What’s at stake is far more than an attendance metric: […]

Expert advice from Barbara Treviño (Alliances, Sugar.io). Snapshot Hyperscaler marketplaces open doors to enormous buyer commitments and new procurement routes, but they also create operational complexity that ripples across sales, finance, product, and customer success.  If you treat marketplace as a checkbox rather than a full GTM channel, you risk missed revenue, poor product fit […]

Expert advice from Marco De Paulis (Partnership Director, Loop), Amanda Neilsen (Partner Sales Mngr, Box), Kelly Sarabyn (Partnership Director, HubSpot) and Jessie Shipman (Founder, Fluincy). Snapshot This hits home: You are scaling a partner program and every tool choice feels high stakes. Choose wrong and you waste budget, confuse partners, and add friction to deals. […]

Expert advice from Tai Rattigan (Partnership Leaders) and Justin Zimmerman (Partner Playbooks). Snapshot The budget is the single most powerful document in your company—and if partnerships is absent from “the table”, they become invisible to the organization. Why? Budgets are what organizations actually commit to. When strategies shift and OKRs bend, the budget sticks. If […]

Expert advice from Bob Moore (CEO, Crossbeam). Snapshot The reality is: Companies that treat ecosystems as strategic assets win bigger deals, retain customers longer, and unlock new motion for cross-functional teams. The merger between Crossbeam and Reveal, combined with the rising adoption of ecosystem-led growth, changes the playing field.  The recent vendor consolidation represents an opportunity […]

Expert advice from Scott Brinker (Hubspot) and Jay McBain (Canalys). Snapshot The customer you sell to thinks in terms of integrated experiences, not single-product decisions. These buyers expect a constellation of touchpoints—pre‑sale advice, technical integrations, implementation services, and ongoing optimization—so purchase choices are made against a backdrop of recommendations, bundled solutions, and trusted intermediaries rather […]

Expert advice from Justin Zimmerman and Mark Kilens. Snapshot Are you trying to turn webinar events into reliable pipeline? Easier said then done. Traditional webinars rely on the moment—people showing up and hearing the closing pitch and then buying. Statistically that is actually rarely. Attendance drops, engagement is low, follow-up is slow, and leads cool […]

Expert advice from Justin Zimmerman. Snapshot The big picture is simple: Nearbound Marketing amplifies trust signals from partners and couples them with crisp first-party data so you can find who is actually in market—right now. The issues is without a focused co-marketed survey, partner promotions often produce vanity registrations and weak leads. However with the […]

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Shoutout: Checkout the partner engagement platform, Superglue. Rob (and his team) built this for partner managers, so they can scale onboarding, enablement, and co-selling experiences and drive more revenue. Support this meetup / community by clicking ➡️ https://playbks.com/superglue-loom Follow Ushttps://www.linkedin.com/in/justinzim/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-sarabyn/

Shoutout: Checkout the partner engagement platform, Superglue. Rob (and his team) built this for partner managers, so they can scale onboarding, enablement, and co-selling experiences and drive more revenue. Support this meetup / community by clicking ➡️ https://playbks.com/superglue-loom Follow Ushttps://www.linkedin.com/in/justinzim/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-sarabyn/https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcole6/https://www.linkedin.com/in/corikendrick/https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaacsmithon24/

Shoutout: Checkout the partner engagement platform, Superglue. Rob (and his team) built this for partner managers, so they can scale onboarding, enablement, and co-selling experiences and drive more revenue. Support this meetup / community by clicking ➡️ https://playbks.com/superglue-loom Follow Ushttps://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-lavoie-phd-aaaa4111b/https://www.linkedin.com/in/robrebholz/https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinzim/ Get This Slide Deck

Shoutout: Checkout the partner engagement platform, Superglue. Rob (and his team) built this for partner managers, so they can scale onboarding, enablement, and co-selling experiences and drive more revenue. Support this meetup / community by clicking ➡️ https://playbks.com/superglue-loom Follow Ushttps://www.linkedin.com/in/markkilens/https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinzim/ Get A Free “One On Them” Airmeet Webinar (up to 500 Attendees)https://www.airmeet.com/hub/free-plan/ Get A Dozen+ Webinar […]

Shoutout: Checkout the partner engagement platform, Superglue. Rob (and his team) built this for partner managers, so they can scale onboarding, enablement, and co-selling experiences and drive more revenue. Support this meetup / community by clicking ⬇️https://playbks.com/superglue-loom Follow Coryhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/corysnyder/ Partnership Agreements https://playbks.com/active-campaign-reseller-agreement https://playbks.com/active-campaign-affiliate-agreement https://playbks.com/active-campaign-ambassador-agreement https://playbks.com/maropost-partnership-agreement

After the incredible meetup (0 to $10M Partner Pipeline Playbook session with Marco De Paulis) we got back together, along with Scott Pollack to dig into your top 10 questions on the topic. If you missed the meet-up, the replay is below. Question 1: Is there a maximum number of partners that should be promoted each month […]

Building a brand new partner program from scratch is hard. Getting it from 0 to well over $10M in revenue pipeline in 12 months is even harder. Which is probably why over 337 partner people registered for my meetup with Marco De Paulis. During this 67 min session, we learned 13+ questions to ask (and the order you […]

🙏 Support this meetup’s patron, checkout Firneo’s Certified Partnership Professional Course https://playbks.com/firneo-free-course-preview https://playbks.com/firneo-apply ⏰ Time codes of things we talked about 05:01 – What are my meetups are about 06:16 – Get the PartnerHacker Maturity Map 07:57 – What you need to know about Marco 10:41 – His proven partnership flywheel 13:14 – What exactly is “alignment” and […]

Discover the innovative 1-Person PRM, designed from a successful $25M program, revolutionizing project management with efficiency and simplicity.

Your existing partner planning strategy is probably failing you. When you’re always reviewing past results, you miss out on opportunities to predict future success. It’s time to make a better plan, with the help of a joint action planning expert. In my recent conversation with Qollabi’s Frie Pétré and Channelnomics’ Larry Walsh, we discussed the impact […]

In today’s ecosystem driven world, customers buy software based it’s ability to integrate with the other apps in their stack. This makes partner webinars the perfect goto market motion. When leveraged correctly, partner webinar forge strong relationships with partners, while demonstrating “a better together” solution for customers. However, without knowing how to build a partner […]

The meetup Mutual Action Plan Demo