And I like Jared a lot!

You’d be forgiven if you think #Nearbound has been Jared Fuller’s (linkedin.com) marketing campaign… because it is.

But it’s also *chef’s kiss* brilliant, and I love it 💕.

I mean it. Let’s talk about it…

Does your CEO care about “partnerships”?

Right now, the SaaS industry is under pressure to deliver cash flow positivity as quickly as possible. I’m sure most of you are feeling the stress of having to grow revenue, cheaper.

But can you imagine the stress your CEO is under? (I sure can. Holy $#@!)

The movement to elevate “partnership leaders” equal but separate from marketing, sales, and success has made it so much harder to impact revenue.

Everything derives from customers. I think it’s critical to stay inside the customer life cycle.

As the incredible Jaimie Fucillo (linkedin) wisely told me: the partnership team can end up like the Moon. The revenue teams may miss you when you’re gone, but they live on Planet Earth where the customers are.

That’s how this community started. A short story.

We didn’t start as a partnership community. We started as a cocktail party that grew out of control.

Starting in 2009, I organized the SaaS cocktail party at SXSW. Naturally, because I’m scrappy, I split the bill and the marketing with other SaaS companies.

That party grew like a monster every year because it worked and it was cheeeaaap. Eventually the bar bill hit $32k and we incorporated as a non-profit trade association.

Was that partnerships? Was that nearbound? Who knows, who cares! Not my CEO. He cared it was efficient and effective.

What’s the lesson? What is our job?

We grow revenue by going to market together with other companies.

Let’s refocus on how we can lower the stress level for the people we work for.

Nearbound lets you say to the other teams in your company, “I can help take the risk out of your KPIs. I’ll find other companies to split the costs and share the marketing with you.” For examples:

  • Event marketing. Split event costs with your partner companies.
  • Content marketing. Codevelop and copromote content with your partner companies.
  • Customer success. Get customers who need real services to adopt, expand, and retain by putting them in touch with solution partners.
  • Product. Fill product gaps with integration partners, and share the product marketing burden together.
  • Sales. Sell together complete solutions with partners.
A new direction for SaaS Connect

While Reveal and the Nearbound team are working hard on the Nearbound Summit, we need to rally too.

The Cloud Software Association has a new mission, 100% inspired by Nearbound.

  • SaaS Connect: Connecting SaaS companies to go to market together.

I’m working hard to build new services to make this easier, starting with SaaSConnect.ai. And more than that. But that’s for another newsletter. 🙂

Right now, go register for the Nearbound Summit.

Register for the Nearbound Summit

November 6-9, virtual.

The Nearbound team has done a lot of work to reintegrate the partnership function with the rest of core revenue. Hats off to them. It’s worth your time to register and explore this shift in how we go to market.

Register

November 6-9