Give them a client, lunch, a coffee anything before you ask them for something. That way you provided value before asking. Most of my sales come from partner referrals.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Talk to anyone from Verkatha - Im sure they cannot wait to tell you all about their partner program

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

I'd rather drink a gallon of cyanide.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

its basically the same thing

Flippinghubs

Opinionated

Account Executive

who is your cyanide guy?

UserNotFound

Politicker

Account Executive

This place makes me embarrassed that I love Verkada's product.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Verkada is just another company with an awesome product and nauseating salesforce.

UserNotFound

Politicker

Account Executive

Now that's a sentiment I can get behind! hahaha

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

Had someone today try and sell me on a 'we'll show you ours if you show us yours.'

No bitch, pay me for our data and you can do the work yourself.

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

This is precisely how I found out my wiener was bigger than others' in 2nd grade underneath the slide

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

Underneath the slide - A tale of Success by Paddy
Memoirs write themselves with that one

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

From underneath the slide to the showers.

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

From underneath the slide to the showers: A Nuremberg story

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

We have three partnerships that feed us business, and ~20 that are using us for the discounted rate we give them on our software platform. At least the deals from the big 3 are sizeable...otherwise, I'd shut down the partnerships page on our site.

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

If I ever leave sales, I’m going to go into partnerships because they truthfully do no work of substance, yet get paid fairly well. Our partnerships team gets to fly all over the world, go to nice dinners with partners, and get bonuses for setting up new partnerships. But they never actually do their job of delivering partner driven leads.

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

This is code for "send me warm leads".

SaaSguy

Tycoon

Account Executive

Approach partners like dating. You feel each other out in the beginning establish capabilities/pipeline gen and then you decide to get engaged or married.

TeddyRoo

@paddy the only way this works is if I make the first move or someone who I have helped/know gets me to someone they know with a very specific ask.. Can you get me a meeting with ___?” The best way to get business fed to you is give it out whenever and as often as you can.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

Wait I can make it an even 50. Want to partner and refer business to each other?
I too have received this question too many times this summer

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I get leads from time to time via established partners, but it's never the amazing, lucrative, partnership they tell you it's going to be.

UserNotFound

Politicker

Account Executive

Referral partners are insanely important to my portfolio- however, I partner with whole sales-teams and not just single contacts hoping to get access to my book. Fuck those guys.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

My favorite is some sort of statement that is similar to, “I don’t see a point in exchanging commission checks.” Whenever I hear that I hang up.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Our partner network has really changed over the last few years, and everyone is now looking after themselves.

We still have a few that are solid, but it's not the same....

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

In my most humble opinion... This is a product of Sales Managers trying to arm their reps with "ammo" but don't actually teach/show how to followthrough. All business is about partnerships and networking and attending Gong Webinars. Ok, definitely not that last one. But the point remains, people talk the talk but don't follow through on the walk. Its the new "can we set a few minutes to discuss how I can help you do XYZ", sounds appealing but filled with empty promises.

Money

Executive

Head of Sales

This only works if you have complimentary products you can both sell through to a client.

I have a partner that feeds me leads regularly. It works because they already have a relationship and adding on my service means they get to upsell one of their products to bring us in.

Anything other referral deals have always fizzled out.

BulkPony

Tycoon

Enterprise Account Executive

Not in SaaS, so may not apply across the board, but I have had success with these types of relationships. Over time we have been able to show real value to our partner's clients, so they continue to refer their clients to us. Not a 100% win rate, but always helps to have someone else working for you in a way.

UserNotFound

Politicker

Account Executive

That waaaaarm intro is always nice.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

✋We used to get good number of leads from partners (in my last company) with least effort and time to close the deal.

WomenWantMeFishFearMe

Politicker

I work in hardware, and often get software leads asking to leverage partnerships. It's been useful for us as a firm, and I got a referral bonus for one. I'm in a unique scenario admittedly, but it's cool

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

We often get people that ‘have ops’ that we could pay them once we get them on board. Ironically, each time that’s happened, we’ve got the customer and the original ‘referral’ has moved on. They are like…not very good recruiters in the SaaS world.

FromaBlankPerspective

Politicker

District Manager

Prior to my current role, I worked exclusively off of referrals from specific network of COIs. It's important to find people who actually align with your product and it has to be a two way street.

SiliconBBQ

Politicker

The Metal Rooster

Not from people I don't know. I have referred / intro'd colleagues into deals at my customers and vice versa.

But these are people I know and have worked with.

techsales

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Our channel partners make up a significant portion of our pipeline. From the partner side, it is successful is because partner reps retire quota for 100% of the dollar value of the deal we sell if they refer us the deal. There's even more sweeteners for them if they refer us a deal and the purchase goes through their partner marketplace. Good example of how partner programs only work if you appropriately incentivize reps towards the behaviors you want.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Partners are life sucking leeches that are often necessary evils unfortunately

ChrisSellsHisSoul

Fire Starter

Owner

I like partnerships as long as I'm getting something valuable in return.

Aside from sales, I make video content to promote my business and happily give referrals in exchange for free licenses provided the tech is cool.

If you want referrals from them, figure out who some of their clients are first. "Hey I know you do business with so and so. I was about to get in touch with him. Can I mention you thought this would be good for him?"

Panda4489

Politicker

Head of Some Shit

I have 3 Business Referral Agreements in place with partners. Those have generated about ~$130k this year. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

But that's just me.

NorthernSalesGuru

Politicker

Manager, Outbound Sales

I have referral partners that generate a lot portion of my revenue. We compensate them very well though if the business closes.

Flippinghubs

Opinionated

Account Executive

I have a handful that I like to work with, but its really on a rep by rep basis imo

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Yes, if you structure a partner channel with specific consideration for the referring party, it's worked rather well. Generally, you need to get your sales exec involved and find a way to have the partner do the heavy lifting and just be there to sling product.

CameFortheChips

Good Citizen

Senior Sales Director

In the 10+ years ive worked in sales I could count with the number of dicks I have how many good leads ive had from a partner… otherwise it’s nothing but “hey I spoke to this companies Security Directors Dog groomer and think theres a project which im going to register as a deal and then you can close it and I’ll take 30%”

GDO

Politicker

BDM

Yeah they propose it and then it s always a one way street

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

Press Careers

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.

paddy

"LEtS pArTNeR aND ReFER BusINESs tO EaCH OtheR"

43 comments

Related posts

Let's make golfing with clients a thing in sales again

Is it a mangers business to know if any their reps are involved with one another/in a relationship?