Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.390 Welcome back to be to be growth. I'm looking lyles with sweet fish media. 2 00:00:08.429 --> 00:00:12.070 I'm joined today by Jonathan POGATT. He's the VP of marketing over at 3 00:00:12.150 --> 00:00:14.949 drips. Jonathan, welcome to the show. I have to ask you. 4 00:00:15.150 --> 00:00:18.510 What is your wallpaper currently on your cell phone? Listeners want to know. 5 00:00:18.670 --> 00:00:22.739 Man, Oh wow, logan, that's that was a curveball, I have 6 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:27.460 to admit, and I'm ashamed of it, it is default blue skies with 7 00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:31.660 bubbles on it. Default. Okay, all right, that's all right. 8 00:00:31.699 --> 00:00:34.780 We're trying to open up the show with a little bit of a curveball. 9 00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:38.609 I give you something to think about. In plus, I'm just really curious. 10 00:00:38.609 --> 00:00:41.929 I'm one of those that is always changing up my wallpaper right I get 11 00:00:42.009 --> 00:00:45.409 bored, I'm looking for a nice new landscape or I see something from a 12 00:00:45.490 --> 00:00:48.810 photographer I like on instagram. Anyway, Jonathan, we are going to be 13 00:00:48.929 --> 00:00:53.200 talking about something you're really passionate about and something that has led to some phenomenal 14 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:56.880 results over at drips in the last few years, since you came on as 15 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:00.359 the first marketing higher, and that's really your framework for partnership marketing. Tell 16 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:04.510 us a little bit about why partnership marketing has been so influential for you guys 17 00:01:04.549 --> 00:01:08.870 at trips and why it's something that you're so passionate about. Yeah, for 18 00:01:08.989 --> 00:01:12.909 sure. In one one last comment of defense of my default. My year 19 00:01:12.989 --> 00:01:18.739 old would also be pretty ashamed of me for having anything default in his world 20 00:01:18.819 --> 00:01:21.900 of fortnight. Not supposed to be a default anything. Oh Yeah, yeah, 21 00:01:22.019 --> 00:01:23.939 I love it, man. I'm gonna I'm going to use that as 22 00:01:23.980 --> 00:01:29.140 a takeaway from this call. But partnership marketing has been something that has helped 23 00:01:29.180 --> 00:01:33.689 us quite exponentially. We're four year old company in the text base. We 24 00:01:33.890 --> 00:01:38.930 Service Companies Large and small. familar enterprise, fortune one, hundreds to two 25 00:01:38.969 --> 00:01:44.129 agencies that service the other clients and when I came on board about a year 26 00:01:44.129 --> 00:01:47.840 and a half ago, I had one marketing manager that currently worked at the 27 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:51.879 company. kind of a Swiss army knife of everything. Really good at design, 28 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:55.280 paid media, social media, probably a place a lot of your listeners 29 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:57.000 have found themselves in at some point, just being part of a lean, 30 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:00.280 startup, scale up type of company where you've got to have a lot of 31 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:04.870 hats on, and that's still the case. But when you have to wear 32 00:02:04.909 --> 00:02:07.110 a lot of hats, you sometimes have to think about how to get the 33 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:10.909 most out of your return on effort, your return on time, and that's 34 00:02:10.949 --> 00:02:15.620 where partnership marketing is really come into play with us and allowed us to and 35 00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:20.819 has continued to allow us to to scale our efforts and get a huge return 36 00:02:20.860 --> 00:02:23.900 back on our time and investment. I love it. Man always looking for 37 00:02:24.060 --> 00:02:29.020 more return on investment as well as time. It's really important with a lot 38 00:02:29.099 --> 00:02:31.569 of lean marketing teams that I talked to as well, which you know. 39 00:02:31.610 --> 00:02:36.050 I know that's the way you describe your team over there at trips. Jonathan, 40 00:02:36.129 --> 00:02:38.210 as you and I were talking before this interview, you mentioned something that 41 00:02:38.289 --> 00:02:43.569 was interesting to me, and that is there's a there's a distinction between Channel 42 00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:47.000 Marketing and Partnership Marketing in the way that you guys define it, and how 43 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:52.560 does it differ compared to some things that might be similar, might be in 44 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:55.360 people's minds as they're listening to this, like Channel Marketing? Yeah, that's 45 00:02:55.439 --> 00:03:00.030 that's a great way of putting it, and you know this is our definition. 46 00:03:00.270 --> 00:03:02.949 So partnership versus channel. I think a lot of it has to do 47 00:03:04.069 --> 00:03:07.550 the level of thought, thoughtfulness and the most the amount of time you put 48 00:03:07.629 --> 00:03:12.939 into developing your relationships. When I think about Channel Marketing, and I've been 49 00:03:12.979 --> 00:03:15.419 on both sides of the coin, when it's come the channel, it's very 50 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:23.740 transactionally focused, right, it's very pipeline driven, it's measured very frequently and 51 00:03:23.979 --> 00:03:27.330 you might drop a partner of than that generating enough revenue for you in the 52 00:03:27.370 --> 00:03:30.050 short term. I think of partnership marketing as more of a long term play. 53 00:03:30.169 --> 00:03:35.569 It's about developing relationships, it's about kind of the long balld long game. 54 00:03:35.650 --> 00:03:38.569 For any Gary V fans out there, right, it's about finding somebody 55 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:44.120 that you love doing business with, that share a number of things in common 56 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:46.520 with your company, because ultimately we all want to make revenue. This isn't 57 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:50.439 just for fun, but it's more of a longer term play and, in 58 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:54.949 my opinion, something that delivers a better r why? Absolutely, man. 59 00:03:55.069 --> 00:03:59.469 So from here we're going to be talking about, you know, for things, 60 00:04:00.270 --> 00:04:05.349 to develop your your partnership marketing strategy. One really what that can look 61 00:04:05.349 --> 00:04:10.419 like in your organization. How do you focus on delivering value, which you've 62 00:04:10.460 --> 00:04:13.740 already quoted Gary V, and you're going to be talking about how to deliver 63 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:16.339 value. James R CEO just already loves you and I'm sure a lot of 64 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:20.339 regular our listeners that are like minded with us. It's sweetish to already so 65 00:04:20.540 --> 00:04:24.970 those two and then how to scale that up and how to operationalize it. 66 00:04:25.290 --> 00:04:29.329 But one question before we get into the four pieces of the how to of 67 00:04:29.410 --> 00:04:32.649 partnership marketing is how do you determine if you're ready for it or if it's 68 00:04:32.689 --> 00:04:36.170 the right move for you? So tell us a little bit from your perspective, 69 00:04:36.209 --> 00:04:41.319 how you guys identified at drips that partnership marketing was the way to go. 70 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:44.279 Was it your stage? What were the things that came into it? 71 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:46.160 I'll stop trying to guess and just let you answer, man. Yeah, 72 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:48.399 I mean another great question, right, like it has to do with a 73 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:53.029 few things. One of them is the stage of your company. Has a 74 00:04:53.110 --> 00:04:57.589 lot to do to with ideal client profile and who you who you serve as 75 00:04:57.629 --> 00:05:00.269 a client base. Right, and we can get into like what we consider 76 00:05:00.310 --> 00:05:04.829 to be the five pillars of our partnership marketing strategy. But you have to 77 00:05:04.870 --> 00:05:09.540 have influence in your space too, and that could be through thought leadership, 78 00:05:09.699 --> 00:05:14.860 could be through content marketing, it could be how visible you are at conferences 79 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:17.939 or, these days, virtual events. You have to have something to give 80 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:20.930 as well. So you have to have some level of influence, wherever it 81 00:05:21.009 --> 00:05:27.129 may be. With our company I've been super fortunate to be synked up with 82 00:05:27.170 --> 00:05:31.810 our cofounder and CEO, who is a marketer by by nature, which is 83 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:35.560 a huge advantage for me as a marketer. I don't have to go through 84 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:41.480 kind of those motions of explaining why this is valuable. He just gets it, 85 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:45.240 has great ways to make things better. He has had a tremendous amount 86 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:49.629 of in influence with the linkedin audience. He has developed relationships one by one 87 00:05:49.870 --> 00:05:54.550 by one in order to grow this company. So when we think about we 88 00:05:54.750 --> 00:05:58.389 have to give in terms of influence, it's it's a certain amount of scale 89 00:05:58.509 --> 00:06:00.709 to a certain amount of personalization that we bring to the table when we're talking 90 00:06:00.750 --> 00:06:04.579 to companies that we want to do business with. I talked a little bit 91 00:06:04.620 --> 00:06:09.699 about ideal client profile. You have to have one and it sounds very fundamental. 92 00:06:09.939 --> 00:06:13.980 I think if you were to ask everybody at the company, Anybody's company, 93 00:06:14.019 --> 00:06:16.220 you know, what's our ideal client profile, this should be pretty insane. 94 00:06:16.420 --> 00:06:19.129 In live. Should have the same answer, or at least be in 95 00:06:19.170 --> 00:06:24.689 the same neighborhood, but most companies don't have a defined and documented ideal client 96 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:30.250 profile. It's incredibly important to have before you even start to talk about partnership 97 00:06:30.290 --> 00:06:33.759 marketing, because you're going to be spending a lot of time and cycles in 98 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:39.199 conversations that necessarily are good to be a great use of your time. And 99 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:43.480 this sounds very obvious, but do you have a marketing department that could establish 100 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:46.800 an own this thing? Right? It can't be the responsibility of your CEO 101 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:48.990 to own partnership marketing as a function. You've got to have somebody that cares 102 00:06:49.029 --> 00:06:51.709 about it, that somebody that owns that number at the end of the day 103 00:06:53.269 --> 00:06:56.269 and has line of sight on kind of the KPIS that you're going to measure 104 00:06:56.509 --> 00:07:00.230 to understand whether or not it's successful. I love it, Jonathan. So 105 00:07:00.430 --> 00:07:03.379 recap for me the five pillars of partnership marketing as you guys define them, 106 00:07:03.459 --> 00:07:06.500 and then we'll go through them each step by step. But let's lay out 107 00:07:06.540 --> 00:07:10.500 the five real quick if you could recap them for list. Nurse Man, 108 00:07:10.899 --> 00:07:15.339 absolutely. First thing is, are you ready for partnership marketing? We could 109 00:07:15.339 --> 00:07:19.209 talk a little bit about what that means, identifying the right partners giving value. 110 00:07:19.449 --> 00:07:24.250 First, scaling, how do you take this from one to ten, 111 00:07:24.649 --> 00:07:28.050 and then operationalizing, like those are the five things you really need to think 112 00:07:28.089 --> 00:07:32.079 about when you're starting a partnership marketing practice at your company. Yeah, so, 113 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:36.319 you know, you already alluded to step number one, talking about are 114 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:41.839 you ready? You mentioned something offline to me that I thought was interesting. 115 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:45.829 Kind of plays into this question. Do you need to act a little bit 116 00:07:45.870 --> 00:07:48.230 bigger than you are, or are you a big established company that needs to 117 00:07:48.509 --> 00:07:53.189 act a little bit smaller than you actually are? Tell us a little bit 118 00:07:53.310 --> 00:07:57.310 about what you mean by that and how does that play into figuring out are 119 00:07:57.389 --> 00:08:01.019 you ready? It is partnership marketing right for you? Yeah, so you 120 00:08:01.100 --> 00:08:03.180 have to know what your place is, I think, a little bit and 121 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:07.459 just having some self awareness, right, and I think part of that process 122 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:11.660 is understanding what your superpower is. Right, every every company, every markers, 123 00:08:11.699 --> 00:08:15.850 going to have their own unique superpower, and what I mean by superpower 124 00:08:16.009 --> 00:08:20.009 is, what could you bring to the table that's going to deliver value to 125 00:08:20.329 --> 00:08:22.490 the company you're looking to partner with? What what's going to make them really 126 00:08:22.610 --> 00:08:28.319 care? So we're an example of that. Like what's what's your marketing superpower? 127 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:33.159 What's DRIPS marketing superpower? For sure. So when we're talking to some 128 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:37.000 partners of ours that are considered a little bit more enterprise later stage, super 129 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:41.279 well funded, we're still good strapped, huge client base. You know, 130 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:43.429 there's some things that they're going to be really good at. Right they're gonna 131 00:08:43.429 --> 00:08:46.149 have more budget, they're going to have a marketing team of thirty right there 132 00:08:46.190 --> 00:08:50.230 and literally have, you know, twenty times more resources than we have. 133 00:08:52.149 --> 00:08:54.269 But what are some of the things that we can bring the table? They 134 00:08:54.309 --> 00:08:56.820 can one, we can do faster, we could be more agile, we 135 00:08:56.899 --> 00:09:01.899 could execute quickly, we can execute off plan if we need to. A 136 00:09:01.980 --> 00:09:07.659 lot of larger companies they'll plan a quarter and advance and I've worked with them. 137 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:11.090 It's like hey, if this request comes in que we can't execute it 138 00:09:11.129 --> 00:09:13.889 till Qtwo. As kind of a scale up company like drips has and at 139 00:09:13.929 --> 00:09:16.570 having a lean marketing team, like I know a lot of your listeners are. 140 00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:20.330 You know, you can do faster and you can execute much quicker and 141 00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:22.809 that's a huge advantage to an enterprise company that they're going to want to take 142 00:09:22.809 --> 00:09:28.159 advantage of. I love it, man. So pillar number two is recognizing 143 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:31.399 who are the partners, who are the right fit partners that you need to 144 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:37.159 go after. You kind of mentioned there in in that example, one way 145 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:39.870 that that might look for us. You know, we've been beating this drum 146 00:09:41.230 --> 00:09:46.350 since last year, this idea that we go further faster together then we'll go 147 00:09:46.509 --> 00:09:50.029 alone. And a lot of that is identifying who shares a similar ICP and 148 00:09:50.110 --> 00:09:54.659 similar buyer persona to you. They might be directly complementary to your offering, 149 00:09:54.779 --> 00:09:58.980 but they might not be if they're trying to reach the same people and they 150 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:01.460 are not competitive. That's kind of where we start and as we look at 151 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:05.220 partners that we collaborate on content with, is that where you guys start as 152 00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:11.210 well? Very similar. So it's a bit of a hate the word hack, 153 00:10:11.289 --> 00:10:13.649 right, but it's like, if you want to get started quickly in 154 00:10:13.730 --> 00:10:16.330 the most effective and efficient way, understand what other technologies, if you're a 155 00:10:16.370 --> 00:10:20.090 tech company, your clients are using, right and how you fit in their 156 00:10:20.210 --> 00:10:26.639 text act and what would be complimentary in terms of going to market together when 157 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:31.360 it comes down to reaching the same ideal client profile. So for us it's 158 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:33.799 about who are the companies are clients are using? Are They not competitive or 159 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:39.029 the complementary? And can we tell a story together too? So I like 160 00:10:39.149 --> 00:10:43.789 to identify partners that where their clients would make great trips clients and our clients 161 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:46.070 would make great clients for them. I think it's a win win situation. 162 00:10:46.750 --> 00:10:52.899 Yeah, absolutely. So let's say you know pillar number three is adding value, 163 00:10:52.019 --> 00:10:56.419 and we're talking about this partner relationship. This might come back to what 164 00:10:56.460 --> 00:11:00.179 we talked about earlier in recognizing your superpower, but I see a lot of 165 00:11:00.220 --> 00:11:03.340 folks that are like, okay, one, they only take part of what 166 00:11:03.419 --> 00:11:07.570 you just said. We're going to identify all the people who have clients that 167 00:11:07.649 --> 00:11:09.330 would make great clients for us, and they don't stop and think. Wait, 168 00:11:09.409 --> 00:11:13.250 would our clients make good clients for them? Am I creating a win 169 00:11:13.370 --> 00:11:16.649 win or just a win for me, because then it's not a hack. 170 00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:20.159 Then you really you know you sound like a hack when you go pitch them, 171 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:22.000 Hey, will be a great partner, when really it's just like hey, 172 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:26.000 we're just coming in with her hand open, right. And so how 173 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:31.000 do you think about adding value to a partner relationship? It seems like it's 174 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:33.470 one you've got to think about. Where is the win win and then you 175 00:11:33.549 --> 00:11:37.389 kind of press into that. What has that looked like for you guys, 176 00:11:37.389 --> 00:11:41.110 because I imagine in different partner relationships the way you add value might be different. 177 00:11:41.190 --> 00:11:45.429 So what are maybe some of those examples so that people can start to 178 00:11:45.549 --> 00:11:48.980 think through? Okay, maybe I do have something different to offer here to 179 00:11:48.139 --> 00:11:52.419 someone who would be very strategic, but I'm not sure how to make that 180 00:11:52.460 --> 00:11:54.580 ask or how to present it as a win win. For sure, and 181 00:11:54.899 --> 00:11:58.539 this is going to sound very fundamental, but in my opinion the best advice 182 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:03.730 that I get is the basics and going back to the basics. So you 183 00:12:03.889 --> 00:12:07.809 have to be you have to give first. It's super important to drive as 184 00:12:07.850 --> 00:12:11.809 much value to that partner as possible, and part of that is identifying and 185 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:15.799 leaning into that Super Power of yours. Right, you don't have a super 186 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:18.759 power. You're probably not ready for partnership marketing, right, or at least 187 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:22.759 you're probably not ready to partner with somebody that might be a larger company than 188 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:28.799 you are. There's advantages to that. So always give without expectation. I 189 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:31.870 think that's it's maybe quoting somebody we all know already again, but it's just 190 00:12:31.990 --> 00:12:37.509 so important to to really understand is like give and don't think about like it's 191 00:12:37.549 --> 00:12:41.629 just going to hit my pipeline in the next week or what's your contribution to 192 00:12:41.710 --> 00:12:45.179 my revenue in the next month? You have to be able to give with 193 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:50.419 one hundred percent authenticity, without expectation. And sometimes these are the small things. 194 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:54.899 This is where relationships really come into play. Could be hosting a dinner 195 00:12:54.700 --> 00:13:00.169 right, could be buying the drink tab. It could be, you know, 196 00:13:00.529 --> 00:13:03.210 building a case study with clients that we have in common and doing the 197 00:13:03.289 --> 00:13:07.450 hard work, having your content team do works, having your design team design 198 00:13:07.610 --> 00:13:13.080 on their letter right, use their branding. These are all really small things 199 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:16.799 that mean a ton to a really busy marketer. Somebody comes to me and 200 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:20.600 says, Hey, Jonathan, hey, we I know we have this client 201 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:22.879 in common. I was just on the phone with them. They said all 202 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:26.200 these great things about you here. I just put this case study together for 203 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:30.230 you with your branding. I would be thrilled out of my mind. And 204 00:13:30.389 --> 00:13:33.350 how much time did that take them? Probably took some time, right, 205 00:13:33.429 --> 00:13:35.629 but couple hours of time. They're going to get a huge return on investment 206 00:13:35.710 --> 00:13:39.870 for me for doing that. Yeah, absolutely, that's a great example. 207 00:13:39.909 --> 00:13:43.539 Another one I think of as you know, we've done some content collaborations with 208 00:13:43.620 --> 00:13:48.539 with folks in the marketing and the sales space. Had them contribute content. 209 00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:52.820 One we gave them a very clear framework on how we wanted them to submit 210 00:13:52.899 --> 00:13:56.529 the content. Made it very easy. And then when, when we took 211 00:13:56.529 --> 00:14:01.169 that content, we wrote a linkedin status update for them and not just saying 212 00:14:01.169 --> 00:14:05.289 hey, whence this goes live, will tag you? Can you share it, 213 00:14:05.809 --> 00:14:07.970 giving them something to share. Even even in that scenario, though, 214 00:14:09.090 --> 00:14:11.240 that it was still a little bit less participation than what we were wanting. 215 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:15.039 But I mean you've got to you got to kind of see where that line 216 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:16.240 is, wherever you think it is like, Oh, I've done enough, 217 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:20.840 you probably need to go a stepper too farther. You know. Another thing 218 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.669 is, hey, we're a bootstrapped, Scaling Up Company of about twenty right 219 00:14:24.710 --> 00:14:26.509 now. There are a lot of bigger brands, but hey, we've been 220 00:14:26.509 --> 00:14:31.710 at this podcast thing before podcasting was cool. We've got sixteen hundred episodes. 221 00:14:31.710 --> 00:14:35.230 We get a hundred and fifty thousand downloads a month, and so I've seen 222 00:14:35.309 --> 00:14:37.269 that as a lever to where, hey, we could we could partner with 223 00:14:37.389 --> 00:14:41.860 someone over here. Let us feature your CEO and the podcast were. You 224 00:14:41.940 --> 00:14:45.019 guys could run an ad on our show for four times over the next month. 225 00:14:45.259 --> 00:14:48.940 But then here's kind of where what you're talking about make it valuable and 226 00:14:48.019 --> 00:14:52.059 make it easy and frictionless, instead of just saying, Hey, you could 227 00:14:52.059 --> 00:14:54.330 run an out on our show for for a few months or four times over 228 00:14:54.370 --> 00:14:58.370 the next month. Will write the ad for you and then you guys can 229 00:14:58.409 --> 00:15:01.090 give it a thumbs up, as opposed to like yeah, that's great, 230 00:15:01.529 --> 00:15:05.210 now I got to do something right, and it becomes a withdrawal from that 231 00:15:05.409 --> 00:15:09.600 emotional bank account instead of the deposit that I was thinking it was going to 232 00:15:09.639 --> 00:15:13.039 be. Jonathan, I want to make time for pillars four and five, 233 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:16.320 because I think they're really where the rubber meets the road. How do you 234 00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:20.159 scale this up and how do you operationalize it? Tell us about these last 235 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:24.549 two pillars. As you guys have progressed in your own partnership, marketing evolution, 236 00:15:24.710 --> 00:15:28.669 it drips when it comes to scale. It's about something really important to 237 00:15:30.070 --> 00:15:33.029 is is the CEO head of sales? Are they engaged, not on let 238 00:15:33.070 --> 00:15:37.019 your head of sales or CEO, but is the CEO and the head of 239 00:15:37.059 --> 00:15:39.179 sales at the other company engaged, because if it's not, it's going to 240 00:15:39.179 --> 00:15:43.580 be really hard to work together, right, to be really hard to align 241 00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:46.779 on priorities, and that might be asked being a lot right. So kind 242 00:15:46.779 --> 00:15:52.289 of using alignment as the operative word, meaning does the CEO know that we 243 00:15:52.409 --> 00:15:56.129 have a program together to where we are doing a number of these activities that? 244 00:15:56.250 --> 00:16:00.129 Do they know that we've given with that expectation? Do they know that 245 00:16:00.210 --> 00:16:03.440 they've helped support us as well? It's really important. Otherwise you're living on 246 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:06.759 an island, right. You're going to end up as a line item on 247 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:10.600 somebody's budget that's going to say, what's the Roy of partnership marketing? You 248 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:12.960 want that CEO and head of sales to say, Oh my God, that 249 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:17.159 companies help deliver so much value for us. So I think that's one of 250 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:21.389 the big keys when it comes to scale. In this might sound counterintuitive, 251 00:16:21.389 --> 00:16:23.230 but when it comes to scale, I think less is more. Right. 252 00:16:23.629 --> 00:16:29.070 I think you start off by iding we call thirty to forty partners or so, 253 00:16:29.750 --> 00:16:33.379 but really pick for pick for where you're going to make a big impact. 254 00:16:33.620 --> 00:16:36.019 Right, big impact. You're going to share pipeline, you're going to 255 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:38.940 do client inners and prospect dinners together. You're going to really get to know 256 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:42.779 each other sales process. You're going to introduce your social media manager to their 257 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:47.059 social media manager, right their VENTP are, their head of marketing, their 258 00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:49.250 sales. You're going to get on the same page with everything. They're going 259 00:16:49.289 --> 00:16:52.009 to be your best friend. You're going to be texting them, they're going 260 00:16:52.049 --> 00:16:56.889 to be texting you. That's how we really look at partnership marketing and that's 261 00:16:56.929 --> 00:17:00.210 how we look at scale. Is You know, initially we thought let's get 262 00:17:00.289 --> 00:17:04.680 forty, fifty partners, but we were making zero impact and we've made a 263 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:10.759 tremendous amount of impact by just selecting for and work. Man, I love 264 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:15.319 that. The way to scale is is to not scale right, and that's 265 00:17:15.400 --> 00:17:18.990 going to scale the results. It's not just about scaling number of relationships, 266 00:17:18.029 --> 00:17:22.309 it's taking the right relationships and having those scale. This so well put, 267 00:17:22.390 --> 00:17:25.630 I'm not even summing it up as well as you just said it. For 268 00:17:25.670 --> 00:17:29.029 anybody listening, just hit the back button a few times listen to Jonathan say 269 00:17:29.029 --> 00:17:30.660 it instead of me again. All right, now let's talk a little bit 270 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:36.339 about operationalizing it. You mentioned the head of sales or CEO. If they're 271 00:17:36.339 --> 00:17:38.980 still involved in Biz Dev and your organization getting aligned with them. What are 272 00:17:40.059 --> 00:17:44.019 some of the other key operational things that you guys have figured out? Man, 273 00:17:44.690 --> 00:17:48.490 turning this switch or doing this one thing really makes this a lot more 274 00:17:48.769 --> 00:17:53.009 effective and efficient. Yeah, it's the continuation in alignment of relationships really, 275 00:17:53.650 --> 00:17:56.890 but the first one when it comes operationalizing to is just staying in your weight 276 00:17:57.009 --> 00:18:00.400 class. This is has a little bit to do with ideing partners as well, 277 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.160 but like, check yourself at this point to make sure that you're not 278 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:06.839 biting off a little bit more than you can chew. All right, like, 279 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:11.759 how awesome would it be if I had an official partnership marketing agreement with 280 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:15.710 Google? I've very little to give Google right in terms of value. I 281 00:18:15.829 --> 00:18:19.789 could try, but I'm always going to be the tiniest little speck on their 282 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:23.269 radar. Just not going to work right. So thin iding those companies that 283 00:18:23.549 --> 00:18:29.380 you could grow with as part of the operational process. Getting alignment with your 284 00:18:29.380 --> 00:18:32.619 team members something we talked about already. That's super important, making sure that 285 00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:37.180 everybody's on the same page. Having Regular Meetings as well with your stakeholder. 286 00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:40.700 So I'll have meetings with the head of marketing at a company might be partner 287 00:18:40.859 --> 00:18:45.170 with. Our CEO will have meetings regularly with their CEO or head of sales. 288 00:18:45.250 --> 00:18:51.410 They'll deep pipeline sharing the create shared dashboards, getting our cfos involved as 289 00:18:51.450 --> 00:18:55.450 well, something that people rarely think of when you think about like how do 290 00:18:55.490 --> 00:19:00.079 you scale a marketing effort? Be the best friend ever with your CFO right 291 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:03.680 be on the same page so that when he's reviewing a budget, when he's 292 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:07.319 reviewing you know, costs, a return on time, if you were using 293 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:11.109 a project management system, that he goes, Oh, no way, we're 294 00:19:11.150 --> 00:19:12.269 touching this. We've got to grow that. Right there, there, I 295 00:19:12.390 --> 00:19:17.390 know exactly what they're doing. Right there. It's something that's often forgotten about 296 00:19:17.470 --> 00:19:22.829 but incredibly valuable as to have your CFO aligned and have a plan, have 297 00:19:22.990 --> 00:19:29.180 goals. I think partnership marketing is ultimately about growing together with a company you 298 00:19:29.259 --> 00:19:33.180 know that fits and serves your ideal client profile and that's the operative thing. 299 00:19:33.220 --> 00:19:37.650 You're going together. Right we're not having calls to talk about how much revenue 300 00:19:37.650 --> 00:19:41.289 you've given to us. It's all about how are we doing this together? 301 00:19:41.329 --> 00:19:45.210 Are we winning together? And to have check points to make sure it's working 302 00:19:45.250 --> 00:19:48.609 out for both of you, because it's it's a Onesar sided relationship. That's 303 00:19:48.650 --> 00:19:52.240 not a partnership. Yeah, absolutely, and I love that we came back 304 00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:56.359 to that. That it's about value, it's about the mutual windwin. That 305 00:19:56.400 --> 00:20:00.279 we touched on several points throughout throughout this conversation, Jonathan, this has been 306 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:06.400 fantastic for anybody who has kind of been got me excited about this episode. 307 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:07.750 There there are two things I won't I share with folks. We did a 308 00:20:07.869 --> 00:20:14.269 previous episode on the shared metrics that really drive marketing and finance alignment. So, 309 00:20:14.630 --> 00:20:17.109 just going off of what you said there, Jonathan, night there was 310 00:20:17.150 --> 00:20:21.740 a fantastic episode with Jeremy Barlow from Diligent Corporation. Will Link to that in 311 00:20:21.859 --> 00:20:25.740 the show notes, and also Eric From Hawk media recently talked about there's a 312 00:20:25.779 --> 00:20:30.220 good bit of overlap here in the way that they approached their referral partner program 313 00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:33.420 in a previous episode, just probably about a week or song. Ghost will 314 00:20:33.420 --> 00:20:36.329 link to both of those. I think they are good add ons to what 315 00:20:36.450 --> 00:20:38.410 Jonathan was sharing here today. Jonathan, back over to you, man, 316 00:20:38.450 --> 00:20:42.650 if anybody listening to this has become a fast fan of yours, despite your 317 00:20:42.769 --> 00:20:48.170 default wallpaper on your phone, if that's okay with anybody, but the best 318 00:20:48.210 --> 00:20:51.359 way for them to reach out linkedin the best channel to stay connected with you, 319 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:53.319 man. Yeah, check me out on Linkedin, Jonathan poguet. You'll 320 00:20:53.319 --> 00:20:57.200 find me there easy enough. Jonathan. Thank you so much for putting up 321 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:00.559 with my curveball questions. Deliver and some value sharing what's working for you. 322 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.349 Guys. It's been a ton of fun and I really appreciate you being a 323 00:21:03.390 --> 00:21:07.789 guest on the show today. Okay, thanks for having me. Hey, 324 00:21:07.869 --> 00:21:11.390 everybody, Logan with sweetfish here. If you're a regular listener of BB growth, 325 00:21:11.589 --> 00:21:15.190 you know that I'm one of the cohost of this show, but you 326 00:21:15.349 --> 00:21:18.660 may not know that I also head up the sales team here, is sweetfish. 327 00:21:18.940 --> 00:21:22.019 So, for those of you in sales or sales ops, I wanted 328 00:21:22.059 --> 00:21:25.940 to take a second to share something that's made us insanely more efficient lately. 329 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:30.099 Our team has been using lead Iq for the past few months and what you 330 00:21:30.299 --> 00:21:33.490 us to take us four hours gathering contact data now takes us only one. 331 00:21:33.849 --> 00:21:38.650 We're seventy five percent more efficient. We're able to move faster without bound prospecting 332 00:21:38.890 --> 00:21:44.849 and organizing our campaigns is so much easier than before. I'd highly suggest you 333 00:21:44.930 --> 00:21:48.400 guys check out lead Iq as well. You can check them out at lead 334 00:21:48.480 --> 00:22:00.119 iqcom. That's Elle a d iqcom. Are you on Linkedin? That's a 335 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:03.349 stupid question. Of course you're on linked it. Here's so we fish. 336 00:22:03.390 --> 00:22:07.789 We've gone all in on the platform. Multiple people from our team are creating 337 00:22:07.829 --> 00:22:11.589 content there. Sometimes it's a funny gift for me, other times it's a 338 00:22:11.670 --> 00:22:15.710 micro video or a slide deck, and sometimes it's just a regular old status 339 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:19.900 update that shares their unique point of view on BB marketing leadership or their job 340 00:22:21.019 --> 00:22:26.059 function. We're posting this content through their personal profile, not our company page, 341 00:22:26.259 --> 00:22:30.049 and it would warm my heart and soul if you connected with each of 342 00:22:30.170 --> 00:22:33.089 our evangelists. will be adding more down the road, but for now you 343 00:22:33.130 --> 00:22:37.890 should connect with bill read, our COO, Kelsey Montgomery, our creative director, 344 00:22:37.930 --> 00:22:42.289 Dan Sanchez, our director of audience growth, Logan Lyles, are Director 345 00:22:42.289 --> 00:22:45.920 of partnerships, and me, James Carberry. We are having a whole lot 346 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:49.400 of fun on Linkedin pretty much every single day and we'd love for you to 347 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:49.960 be a part of it.
