March 21, 2023 marked the first edition of Crossbeam Insider, the new-and-improved version of our weekly newsletter.
And in just a couple of weeks, we're unveiling the next iteration of Crossbeam Insider — our new center for all of the Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG) insights you'll ever need.
Today, we're sharing:
What you can expect from our new center for ELG insights: "Crossbeam Insider"
Our 5 most popular Crossbeam Insider newsletters (so far)
— Olivia Ramirez, Managing Editor
Psst! New here? Subscribe to Crossbeam Insider, and be the first to know when our new center for all things ELG is live. Plus, Crossbeam Insiders will get all of the Supernode 2023 talks as soon as they’re ready.👇
Announcing the Next Iteration of Crossbeam Insider 🎉
Since 2019, we’ve been working hard on listening to practitioners, leaders, and superheroes in the Ecosystems space. Back then, it was difficult to find resources that break down the jargon, ops, tactics, and innovative practices that your industry peers were using every day.
We’re proud of what we’ve built on the Crossbeam blog and via the relaunch of the Crossbeam Insider newsletter. And we’re thrilled to see more industry leaders each year producing content that helps advance the careers and Ecosystems of people like you.
In mid-July, Crossbeam Insider will become the destination for all of our best stuff! Think of it as a one-stop-shop for ELG, including crowd favorites like The Partner Playbook, all of our webinars, and more — accessible to Crossbeam Insiders like you.
Here's what you can expect:
All of our articles, e-books, webinars, and more, thoughtfully curated by theme (not publish date), so you can easily find what you’re looking for and read/watch/listen to relevant media
Curated collections relevant to any go-to-market (GTM) stakeholder, so you can send them tactics, metrics, and more that directly speak to their workflows and goals
🎉 All 2023 Supernode videos in one place
If you’re subscribed to this newsletter, you’ll get access to Crossbeam Insider as soon as it launches (so keep an eye on your inboxes in mid-July)!
(And get a sneak peek at what the Crossbeam Insider experience is like in the screenshot below. 👇)
Our 5 Most Popular Crossbeam Insider Newsletters (So Far)
It's been four months since we relaunched our weekly newsletter as Crossbeam Insider. Check out our most popular reads to date:
#1: How Aircall Gets Buy-In From a Sales Team of Thousands
How should you start co-selling with your strategic partner's sales team? Should you enable multiple sales reps all at once, or should you build relationships thoughtfully over time? How do you get your partner's sales reps to care?
In this edition of Crossbeam Insider, learn how the partnerships team at Aircall began co-selling with sales reps at Salesforce and HubSpot. By approaching their co-selling process with great care, they expanded to new markets and increased their partner-sourced revenue contribution from 10-15% to more than 50% of new sales per quarter.
How they did it:
They asked for 15 minutes of some of their partners' AEs' time
They mapped their partners’ org charts over time
They celebrated the win and asked for an intro up
Now, they’re launching a global taskforce to invest in their strategic partnerships across their departments and global offices. Plus, they're shifting to a "mesh" network to co-sell at scale.
Read this edition if… Your new partner has thousands of sales reps and many global offices, you’re struggling to get buy-in with internal and external sales reps, or you’re currently using a “star” network for co-selling (think: your partner account manager serves as the liaison between your team and your partner’s team).
#2: How to Build Influence & Make Your Ideas “Joint Ideas”
At Supernode 2023, Maureen Little, VP of Global Strategic Alliances at Okta, shared how to pitch your biggest ideas and get real commitment from your internal stakeholders.
Want to invest in a tech partner program? You’ll need commitment from stakeholders from every GTM team. Want to build your first tech marketplace? You’ll need a dedicated Ecosystems Team consisting of stakeholders from product, product marketing, engineering, solutions engineering, and more.
In her Supernode 2023 talk, Little covers four main steps:
Identifying the Resources You Need
Gathering Data
Creating and Sharing Your Proposal
Getting Commitment (Not a “Soft Yes”)
Read this edition if… You're launching a new partner program, you need buy-in from other departments to launch a new strategic initiative, or you want to anticipate questions from other stakeholders and have your answers ready ahead of time.
#3: Three Bite-Sized Ecosystem Plays That Take Less Than a Day to Kick Off
In this edition of Crossbeam Insider, Noah Rahimzadeh, Head of Partnerships at Malomo, shared three bite-sized Ecosystem plays that are low effort and that elicit big rewards. As a result of these Ecosystem plays, Rahimzadeh has multiplied the leads Malomo generates with one of their biggest partners, and their partner program brings in more than 60% of all net new deals for the quarter.
The first play: Rahimzadeh updated every existing case study to include at least one partner.
Read this edition if… You’re a one-person partnerships team, you’ve been asked to do “more with less”, you want to get buy-in from existing partners, or you don’t have a dedicated partner marketer.
#4: What is Ecosystem-Led Marketing (With Examples)
Ecosystem-Led Marketing (ELM) is a strategy in which two or more companies collaborate on GTM motions using second-party data (or “partner data”) to generate leads, close opportunities, and drive integration adoption among customers via co-marketing and targeted messaging.
In this edition of Crossbeam Insider, we covered two ELM use cases. Use case #1: Develop targeted messaging that converts. For example:
Include tech stack insights in your email marketing campaigns
Or learn which content would resonate with your named target accounts and then initiate an account-based marketing (ABM) campaign to engage those accounts across the web
Read this edition if… Your key performance indicators (KPIs) include generating Ecosystem-Qualified Leads (EQLs), you'd like to get more targeted with your marketing campaigns using partner data, or you'd like to leverage partner data with little effort required of your tech partner.
#5: Hit the Ground Running in Tech Partnerships (Plus: a 30-60-90 Template for New Hires)
We've updated one of our most comprehensive articles to include everything your new hire needs to hit the ground running in tech partnerships.
What to expect:
A primer on ELG and how it fuels each GTM team
Podcasts to listen to
Slack communities to join
Conferences to attend
A free 30-60-90 template that you can customize to suit your org and partner program
Read this edition if… You're growing your partnerships team, you'd like a one-size-fits-all guide for new hires, or you are a new hire looking to get up to speed on the world of tech partnerships and ELG quickly.
