Exploring Effective Partner-Led Growth

by Jason Ogden | Oct 17, 2023

As we enter the annual planning season, it’s time to review where new business comes from and what might be new ways to find clients. One highly effective market approach worth contemplating is the strategic partner-led strategy. In general, strategic partnerships are channel-based and require formal activation and cultivation to generate prospects. They may or may not be fee-based in nature.

Some B2B strategic partner types:

Reseller Partnerships: A reseller sells products of another company directly to their customers. At Syrup, we see this frequently in the commercial equipment and industrial goods verticals.

Collaborative Partnerships: This channel type is when two companies form natural alliances to sell complementary goods and services to the same customers. In our case, as a marketing agency, this might encompass partnerships with video producers and photographers. Such collaborations can lead to either referrals or direct involvement in active sales opportunities.

Distribution Partnerships: These partnerships focus on generating referrals and hinge on cooperation between companies whose clientele is likely to be similar, although their offerings aren’t directly complementary. For instance, we collaborate with consultants, accountants, and insurance agencies that cater to our target market, creating opportunities for mutual benefit.

When considering how to cultivate strategic partner relationships you need to evaluate their significance in your go-to-market strategy and what types of opportunities they can realistically generate.

Here are some best practices for cultivating Strategic Partnership relations:

1. Relationship Building: The most common cultivation tactic is basic relationship building. This includes things like regularly scheduled in-person meetings, lunches and coffees. It can also include emailing something that may be relevant and useful or replying to your strategic partners’ personal or business LinkedIn posts.
2. Leveraging Common Marketing Tactics: This includes creating high-value content that caters to the needs of your shared customer base or your strategic partner. It may also involve targeted social media campaigns, remarketing efforts, and even personalized direct mail campaigns.
3. Affinity or Co-Branding: A third approach is affinity or co-branding where both parties enter into a joint venture of sorts. This could be an in-person event, a virtual gathering, or possibly even a high-value piece of content for your shared customers. The key is that both companies prominently feature throughout the collaboration, with each contributing financially and with resources to execute the initiative. Typically, this type of venture is driven by a strategic initiative or a specific market opportunity.

Strategic partnerships play a pivotal role in a B2B company’s go-to-market strategy.

However, their significance varies from company to company. Regardless of how strategic partners integrate into your business, now is the time to think about how to best invest in them for 2024.