An interview between Kevin ‘KD’ Dorsey and Sean Paulseth discussing go-to-market partnership strategies for early-stage startups. They cover identifying partner candidates (events, account overlap, ICP), grassroots IC-level outreach versus formal company partner programs, using free account-mapping tools, and practical approaches for building mutually beneficial partner relationships to accelerate early revenue.
Chapters
And I think that's the key, right, Is like, okay, there's people out there that are already going to my prospect.
When I had first started in the startup that I, that I was in, I was an AE at the time thinking, hey, how can I level up? How can I understand if we didn't have very many partners at the time, integrated or not, there isn't any mess. You can just move on. It's like a prospect, hey, you know, it doesn't seem like a good fit. Let's just move on because there are people out there that are going to be open to working with you.
So I love this as a topic because I consult a lot of early stage founders and often times I'm like, okay, you're trying to go from zero to three. Partnerships is where you start. Channel is where you start. There are already people out there selling to your prospects right now that you could tag along with. And so I love this as a topic. So how, let's start with just like how you cracked this or where this idea came from in terms of leveraging partners when you're going into these early stage companies.
Yeah, no, 100%. I think even with today's selling landscape and what's been going on over the past couple years, Covid, then we hear about a bad economy, then we hear about this and that it's becoming increasingly hard to reach our prospects. People are getting hundreds, thousands of automated emails. How can you stand out? And I started to think, if there's a startup and you're trying to get 0 to 1 or 1 to 3, there's already people out there that have done that. There's people that have connected with their customers. There's people out there, whether it's an integrated partner or not, or indirect direct, there might be someone that just sells into a similar department as you. So how can I, as a partner leader, sales leader, or even an ae, try to level up in a startup so I can get revenue faster, close deals faster, and leverage kind of the customer and customer base that they've already established and work together to win together ultimately.
Yeah, and I think that's the key, right, Is like, okay, there's people out there that are already going to my prospects. So start there. How do you identify a good partner? Like, what do you look for? How do I know? Right? I'm going into a new space. How do I identify a good partner? Someone who could potentially be a good fit?
Yeah, for sure. I think that starting off, when I had first started in the, in the startup That I, that I was in, I was an AE at the time thinking, hey, how can I level up? How can I understand that? We didn't have very many partners at the time, integrated or not, And I started using events. The reason why I bring up events is because if you're going in there and you don't really know what a good partner is because maybe it's not necessarily integrated technicals or technicality aside, if you start looking at events and seeing other people that are selling at industry events like you, maybe they're selling to the same customer base. Maybe it's worth reaching out and networking with these individuals that have a similar product or a product that's selling into a similar ICP or a similar department. And how you can figure that out is through networking, through events, going to these things, having conversations, reaching out. I think what Covid everything is virtual now. People are open to having conversations through LinkedIn. If it's another company, if it's another startup, there is kind of an in crowd there. If you're doing sales and to really identify a good partner, are they open to working with you? I think in this climate more than ever, working together is going to be, is going to be paramount to win. Um, and I think looking at events and looking at other companies that are emerging in your space, whether you're selling to HR or IT sales, maybe it's worth reaching out to their partner people. Maybe it's reaching out to another ae. You can just do that on your own and seeing if there's any overlap in accounts. So there's really good ways you can do that for free. If you don't have an established partner program and you're just going out there first, you can start reaching out and start account mapping. Gone are the days of using spreadsheets and sending these over and going back and forth. That is manual. There are free tools out there that can now account map. So if it's an AE to an AE at an event or a virtual event, or maybe you saw them at a webinar but you know they're in your space. Maybe they're selling the HR too, but it's a different element. I can then go and reach out to them and use free tools to understand, hey, these are my accounts. In manufacturing it seems like we have similar accounts. I just closed this one, but I'm looking to go this one. Maybe we can help each other. So there's ways to look at the data much faster to understand should I spend any time with this partner? Is there any Overlap. Is the ICP similar? And then you can move from there and build out marketing campaigns. Depending on how big the startup is. There's, there's things you can do to work together successfully after you understand, are you guys moving in the same direction, do you have the same goals? And it becomes kind of a, a win win process. But of course, partnerships is, is much more complicated than that. There's bigger partners, smaller partners and all that, but I think looking at the data definitely helps. And there's things now in this day and age that can help do that too.
So are you, are you recommending that like, ICs try to do this on their own versus like just like a company? Right, because obviously like companies may be focused on partnerships, but you're saying as an AE, reach out to potentially other AES that sell to your Personas and get these conversations going.
Yeah, 100% perfect.
Okay, so then now this, this splits because this gets a lot of fun. So let's go the IC route within the company route. How do I make it worth their while?
Right?
So like, all right, like I sell to sales leaders, you sell to sales leaders, I reach out to you and go, hey, let's see if we have, you know, accounts that overlap or whatever else. But like, you know, at the end of the day it almost always come, well, like, well, what's in it for the other person? Like, how do you make that work?
Right?
Were you just trading leads? Were you making introductions? Like, how, how do you actually start to form a relationship?
Yeah, no, great question. I, I think it starts with, okay, there's overlap check. We got, we're selling to the same icp, we're selling to the same department. That makes sense. Now is there any type of referral fee or anything in place right now with your organization to organization if there isn't, if I'm just an AE going out cold because we're a brand new startup, we have no partner program, nothing like that. Maybe you have to reach out to a number of them. I always say, hey, if there's like, if you're reaching out to SAP or a bigger company, there may be 10 people that tell you, hey, you know what, I don't really want to work with you, but there might be one individual, it usually seems to be one or two that says, hey, let's work together for this. So what's in it for them is understanding what's the metric that drives them? Maybe it's, maybe it's a referral fee for them. Maybe they do have a partner program. Maybe they're looking to hit their number and they need a referral from you. Because obviously, you and I both know referrals are much better in terms of booking that meeting warm, and they need that. So it's kind of building the rapport with them and understanding what their goals are and seeing if you can ultimately help them get there. So whether that's more customers, more meetings, maybe helping their BDR book more meetings, understanding and asking the questions to understand what their goals are in their specific role and maybe their specialization and to help them get there. And if there isn't any mesh, you can just move on. It's like a prospect. Hey, you know, it doesn't seem like a good fit. Let's just move on, you know, because there are people out there that are going to be open to working with you.
