Partner-Led Growth: What It Is & Why 66% of B2B Companies Are Leveraging It

There's no doubt about it: We're at a major turning point for B2B growth.

Markets are oversaturated. Customer acquisition costs are skyrocketing. New technologies like AI are shaking up industries left and right. And companies are shrinking their team size and investment.

Against this backdrop, B2B growth teams are struggling more than ever with hitting quotas.

The numbers don't lie — In a recent LinkedIn poll, SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin found 58% of sales leaders agreed they are currently facing long, drawn-out sales cycles.

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In today's sales landscape, traditional go-to-market (GTM) methods are failing short. Buyers are ignoring emails and ads. They're no longer meeting salespeople. Content creation? With AI making it easier to make content, now everyone is doing it!

So how do you stand out in today's oversaturated market?

The answer lies in Partner-Led Growth.

What is Partner-Led Growth?

Partner-Led Growth is an effective strategy which can help you expand your business' reach, boost sales, and tap into new markets.  

Such a GTM strategy involves using third parties — affiliate partners, referral partners, resellers — to introduce your offerings to potential buyers.  

With Partner-Led Growth, relationship-building through trust becomes easier with the help of influential industry experts. Your sales team doesn't have to put up so much effort to penetrate through the noise surrounding your buyers.

Instead, you can use the collective voice of existing customers, experts, and influencers to influence your buyers to buy from you.  

By leveraging the collective voice of trusted connections and third-party experts, businesses can quickly generate leads, build relationships, and create a more extensive customer base.

How Partner-Led Growth Can Double Your B2B SaaS Sales

Here are a few reasons why maximizing partner-led growth is a smart move:

• Broader Reach: Channel partners can extend your reach into new markets or deepen penetration within existing ones. They often have established customer relationships and market knowledge that would be tough to achieve alone.

• Increased Sales Volumes: Since channel partners have their own sales teams, partnering with them can boost sales volume due to the expanded sales force.

• Cost Efficiency: Leveraging a partner ecosystem can make it more cost-effective to reach prospective customers, especially in new geographic markets.

• Speed to Market: Channel partners can get products to market faster because they already have established relationships, distribution means, and market understanding.

• Access to Resources: Partners often have valuable resources, including business contacts, established customer bases, and sales expertise that you can leverage for your business.

Partner-Led Growth is crucial for navigating today's ever-changing market. Once you have a system in place to automate the process, it becomes much easier. If you've got a product worth referring and customer service worth talking about, it's time to maximize those assets using your network of third-party influencers as a sales and marketing channel.

How to Implement Partner-Led Growth

Partner-Led Growth isn't a one-size-fits-all template or a checklist to tick off. It's a mindset shift, a fresh way of thinking about business growth. The beauty of it? These networks are already out there, waiting to be tapped into. A Partner-Led Growth approach involves nurturing, engaging, and activating these networks authentically.

What Does That Mean, Exactly?

Nurture

You've heard the saying, "It's not just what you know, it's who you know." Nurturing your networks helps you reach more people who fit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This increases your potential to acquire new customers and makes your network more valuable to those in it and those who should be.

Engage

Engaging your networks fosters deeper, more meaningful connections between your company and customers. It builds trust and rapport, leading to a better understanding of your ICP. This exchange of ideas and value results in a customer base that feels appreciated and taken care of.

Activate

Activation isn't just about making a sale. It's about converting customers into fans, co-creating content that converts others, hosting events for your brand, and more. Partner-Led Growth focuses on people over brands, building connections over broadcasting, and fostering relationships over chasing transactions.

Principles of Partner-Led Growth

Brands First → People First

Partner-Led Growth means seeing members or customers as people first, not just employees of their companies. People buy your product, not brands. This approach recognizes that people are more than just the brand and the company they work for.

Broadcast → Connection

Traditional communication is linear, broadcasting from the organization to the customer. In contrast, Partner-Led Growth aims to build relationships. The organization supports the infrastructure for individuals in their networks to connect and build relationships with each other, the organization, and its employees.

Capturing Demand → Creating Demand

Capturing demand relies on people who already intend to buy. However, this only applies to a small portion of the market. Creating demand involves educating and connecting with people in your ICP who may not even know they have a problem to solve.

Transactions → Relationships

Unlike chasing accounts to bring in revenue, a Partner-Led Growth company sees prospects and customers as more than just money. It creates an environment where teams intentionally build relationships and increase trust with the people behind these accounts, whether through community, events, customer success, or marketing.

Third Party → First Party

The old way of getting customers relied on buying third-party data, like email lists or social media followings. Companies with a Partner-Led Growth approach focus on building experiences, connections, and community. They nurture these connections and relationships to directly engage with and understand the customer, without needing third-party involvement.

Partner-Led Growth is about shifting your focus from quick wins to long-term relationships. It's about recognizing the value of people and connections in driving sustainable business growth. By nurturing, engaging, and activating your networks, you can amplify your B2B sales and build a strong foundation for future success.

Ready to take the next step? Get started with Expando today and watch your B2B sales soar!