Partnership Unpacked – Details, episodes & analysis

Webinars are back.

According to a recent report from Crossbeam, webinar utilization is now back to pre-pandemic levels and continues to grow.

But as soon as I tell you that, you’re immediately reminded of the fact that your last webinar saw just 25 registrants and only a few attendees, right?

If everyone’s doing webinars again, they must be seeing some success, so how do we get there? How do we drive more qualified leads from webinars, and what’s their proper place in our funnel?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

A few years ago, I was tasked to run a series of webinars with partners for us here at Agorapulse. I’d been hosting large virtual summits with multiple speakers and sessions, but hadn’t really planned one-off webinars.

And it showed in the numbers.

While one of the webinars saw over a hundred registrants, the others were all well below that and were considered a failure. I turned my attention back to massive virtual summits and those work great, but I can’t do more than one per quarter due to bandwidth.

If you’re anything like me, you’re hoping that webinars can be a tool for bringing in new sales leads and funneling existing prospects closer to won-closed. How do we build a repeatable, scalable process for executing webinars that deliver on that promise?

That’s exactly what Justin Zimmerman is going to talk to us about.

Justin has spent years in the partnership world and saw there a huge gap - and potential - for brands who were underutilizing webinars and partnerships. He’d experienced the same pains we all have with underperforming experiences, and then cracked the code. He started seeing more and more success with his initiatives and began to share that knowledge and experience with others. He now consults big brands on their webinar strategy, has playbooks available for others to learn from that we’ll get into today, and regularly takes the stage to share his wisdom with the crowd.

I talked to Justin Zimmerman about:

♉️ Why brands should invest in partner webinars

♉️ How to leverage partners and webinars

♉️ What your webinars goals should be

Learn more about Justin Zimmerman

• Connect with Justin Zimmerman on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• PartnerPlaybooks.com
• Airmeet
• HubSpot
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/driving-more-partner-sourced-leads-from-webinars-w-justin-zimmerman/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Alton

Warren Buffet once said, “Partnership is not a legal contract between two equal individuals. It’s an emotional alliance between two people who are committed to each other’s success.” And that’s true, isn’t it? Whether you’re new to strategic partnerships or have been doing this for years, you doubtless understand that your most successful endeavors have been due to the relationships you forged with your partners.

But as the field of partnerships has grown in recent years, so too has the challenge to partnership leaders who are now tasked to support every aspect of a business.

How do you secure the right background for a successful career? And how do we develop the necessary skills to foster emotional alliances that achieve business results?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

When I left college after having studied History and Computer Science, my first salaried job was handling ERP support for Dana Corporation and helping our 80,000 employees deal with their questions about Baan, Lawson and Oracle. After a few years, I joined a local IT firm as Sales Manager and a few years after that, took a break from IT and sold swimming pools and hot tubs in Northern Ohio. Later I became an entrepreneur and started my own marketing business, The Social Media Hat, leveraged that into a role as CMO of Sitesell, and then shifted to Agorapulse where I’ve been leading partnerships since 2018.

While one could say that I’ve been in sales & marketing for over twenty years and that the majority of that time has been in the digital space, the reality is that my career has not been a straight line.

Surely it doesn’t always have to be like that. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a better understanding of what partnership leader roles today require in terms of skills, and how those can be developed and applied?

That’s exactly what Greg Rust is going to talk to us about.

Greg is the Senior Director - Global Holdco's & Digital SI Partnerships at Oracle and a 5 time Partner of the Year. He has decades of experience as a Global Strategic Alliance Executive that’s based on years working in sales, product management, and more. He’s established trusted relationships with key executives across multiple industries and verticals, and has just the diverse background and perspective we need to tackle this topic.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Greg about:

♉️ The ideal career path of a partnership leader today

♉️ The importance of establishing trust, both internally and externally

♉️ The role of communications and diplomacy in business partnerships

Learn more about Greg Rust

• Connect with Greg Rust on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Oracle
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/the-importance-of-trust-communications-amp-diplomacy-in-strategic-partnerships-w-greg-rust/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Alton

One of the key tenets of our podcast here is the fact that there are a lot of different kinds of partnerships out there. Affiliates, influencers, tech integrations… and of course sales and marketing.

Which means one of the challenges facing B2B businesses is knowing which kind or kinds of partnerships to pursue.

Wouldn’t it be great to learn how other B2B SaaS companies are leveraging partnerships today?

That’s what Kate Skerrett is here to help us with.

Kate is the Head of Partnerships for Calendly, a powerful yet simple automated scheduling platform that we love here at Agorapulse and I use every day for scheduling podcast guests and partnership meetings. Kate is formerly of Deel and GlassDoor and is passionate about creatively finding new revenue streams through partnerships.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Kate Skerrett about:

♉️Successful B2B SaaS company partnership options

♉️What makes for a great B2B partner

♉️Tools and tactics for B2B partnership success

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Learn more about Kate Skerrett

• Connect with Kate Skerrett on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Calendly

• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/finding-success-in-b2b-saas-partnerships-w-kate-skerrett/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Alton

In 2008, Apple launched the App Store for their iPhone product and for the first time, allowed 3rd party developers to build apps for their OS and charge associated fees.

In 2022, that ecosystem generated $1.1 trillion in developer billing and sales, and has driven hundreds of billions of dollars for developers. That ecosystem is now the most lucrative aspect of Apple’s business, and a model for partnership that many businesses would love to emulate.

How would something like that work for your business?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building... oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

While you may not be in a position to create the kind of ecosystem that Apple has built with their App Store, perhaps there are simpler, smaller scale approaches you might consider.

If you’re a SaaS tool like Agorapulse, you might find other SaaS tools who could integrate with your product and make those integrations available as apps, as HubSpot has done.

Or perhaps you might work with service providers who, in similar fashion, might offer their services in support of your product and the customers you serve.

In both situations, you’re creating an environment where you’re partnering with other brands in a way that’s different from any we’ve talked about before - marketplaces and ecosystems.

Where do we even begin?

That’s exactly what Jason Lampkin is going to talk to us about.

This Welsh soccer star-turned-partnership professional works for the world-leading freelancer platform, Fiverr, where he leads global partnerships for Fiverr’s cutting-edge marketplace. He brings years of partnership expertise to the fore and is adept at navigating the intricacies and nuance of a massive ecosystem and marketplace.

♉️ Why getting internal stakeholder buy-in is critical

♉️ How to identify and leverage internal stakeholders

♉️ What the real benefit to your external partners will be

Learn more about Daniela Garcia

• Connect with Daniela Garcia on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Triple Ten
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-approach-marketplace-amp-ecosystem-development-w-jason-lampkin/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton

Have you ever vouched for someone only to have them fall well short of the mark?

How’d that make you feel? Disappointed? Embarrassed?

How likely would you be to recommend that person again, and, worse yet, how would your recommendation be received in the future?

That’s the kind of problem that can occur when you don’t have buy-in from your internal stakeholders and your own organization when you kick off a partnership with another company. You might make promises on behalf of your company to a partner, only to be let down and embarrassed.

How can we avoid those situations?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I’m in the midst of implementing a brand new partnership motion at Agorapulse, nearbound. I’m working with our sales and revenue teams, operations, marketing, and customer success, to be able to leverage our partner’s client relationships to increase our own sales and retention.

I wrote an article about how I got buy-in for this initiative because it was about more than just the investment in new technology. It’s also my time, of course, but I also needed to get all of those other departments I mentioned aligned with the project. Because these kinds of partnerships cannot work if a bunch of the people involved don’t see your vision and aren’t investing in making it a success.

So where do we start?

That’s exactly what Daniela Garcia is going to talk to us about.

Daniela has just joined Triple Ten as Head of North American Partnerships and has spent years fostering partnerships and relationships in industries from cosmetics to B2B MarTech! She’s been featured by some of the top partnership publications and productions in the industry, and she absolutely embodies value-driven metrics and partner-led growth.

♉️ Why getting internal stakeholder buy-in is critical

♉️ How to identify and leverage internal stakeholders

♉️ What the real benefit to your external partners will be

Learn more about Daniela Garcia

• Connect with Daniela Garcia on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Triple Ten
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-get-internal-buy-in-for-strategic-partnership-success-w-daniela-garcia/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton

If you want to become a creator and influencer today, you have a tremendous number of options when it comes to platforms and formats.

Do you focus on short-form content on X or Threads?
Do you spend your time crafting vertical videos for TikTok or YouTube Shorts?
Or do you invest more time in long form video content for YouTube, or even podcasts like this one?

And regardless of which platform and format you choose, you will have an opportunity to reach a global audience and international brands to potentially partner with.

How do we make good strategic choices here?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

And we’ve talked a lot about influencer marketing, how to set up contracts, navigate developments in artificial intelligence, and even how the Hollywood strikes had an impact.

What we haven’t explored at all is the reality that social media audiences are global audiences, and savvy creators are aware of that and can even leverage those distinctions.

But how?

That’s exactly what Victoria Blinova is going to talk to us about.

Victoria has managed multimillion dollar budgets for C-level executives, has led digital marketing for the B2B business of Nestlé, and is the Strategic Partner Manager for YouTube. She’s a co-founder and consultant and has leveraged her experience in marketing, influence, and partnerships to help creators and entrepreneurs around the world.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Victoria Blinova about:

♉️ How creators can grow their community on different platforms

♉️ How creators can work with key international brands

♉️ How to build your influence across international borders

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Learn more about Victoria Blinova

• Connect with Victoria Blinova on LinkedIn
• Connect with Victoria Blinova on Twitter

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-grow-internationally-as-a-creator-w-victoria-blinova/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton

How is your revenue team doing?

Did they miss their numbers last period? Are they frustrated with a lack of qualified leads and pipeline?

Are they looking to partnerships, and to YOU, for help?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

Now I don’t know about you, but so many of the sales and revenue team members I talk to these days are hurting.

They’re struggling to get leads.
They’re struggling to close deals.

And guess what… they’re looking to us as partnership leaders to help! Whether that’s partnering with brands to bring in new marketing leads, or creating stronger channel partners who can resell or refer.

But what if you could bring partners to the table who could not only drive pipeline, but also increase those close rates and even drive up deal size?

Would that be beneficial to you and your revenue team?

That’s exactly what Allan Adler is going to talk to us about.

Allan is known worldwide as a Chief Ecosystem Officer and helps clients build partner ecosystems and accelerate their ecosystem flywheel. (I love that metaphor) He is the creator of the GoToEco framework that helps unlock the potential of Ecosystem and transform businesses for good by leveraging co-selling orchestration to achieve co-selling mastery. As the Chair of the Ecosystem Counsel at PartnerHacker and an Executive Member of Partnership Leaders, he’s immersed in the partnership world and the perfect guest to help us, and our revenue teams, today!

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked Allan Adler about:

♉️ How co-selling with partners works

♉️ What partner co-selling success looks like

♉️ How to find the right partners for co-selling

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Learn more about Allan Adler

• Connect with Allan Adler on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Digital Bridge Partners
• How To Develop A Strategic Partnership Into A Cornerstone w/ Sam Yarborough
• How to Create a Partnership Movement in Your Company w/ Jared Fuller
• Reveal
• Superglue
• Crossbeam
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-strategic-partnerships-can-rescue-your-revenue-team-w-allan-adler/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton

“The Sumo Advantage is… alignment with a major market force, capability, or accelerator with the intent to generate revenue and grow market share. It’s a partnership that drives momentum and revenue growth and is, most importantly, a clear and present danger to your competition.”

That’s a quote from Bernie Brenner’s book, The Sumo Advantage, and it describes a scenario where a smaller brand is able to forge a partnership with a much, much larger brand, that’s still mutually beneficial.

How do you find that kind of partner, and create such a relationship?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

And when I say that I like to pick the brains of experts, that’s not hyperbole. That’s exactly what I’m going to be doing today.

I’ve studied Bernie Brenner’s experiences with TrueCar, listened to Jared Fuller’s story of his time at PandaDoc, and marveled how they were able to secure partnerships with brands ten times larger than their own.

Wouldn’t you like to forge a partnership with some of the biggest players in your industry?

Well, that’s exactly what Samantha Yarborough is going to talk to us about.

As the SVP of Partnerships at PFL, she manages a partner ecosystem of ISV partners and a cornerstone partnership with Salesforce… only one of the largest technology companies in the world at $153 billion in value… Sam has built a company-wide strategy to embrace partnerships with all facets of the go-to-market motion. With a background in marketing, design and strategy, partnerships is an accumulation of her strengths and passions - bringing people together to creatively solve problems, approach technologies, and deliver mutually beneficial results.

She also co-hosts the terrific podcast, Friends With Benefits the business podcast about revenue generating partnerships, with her husband.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Sam Yarborough about:

♉️ What a Cornerstone Partnership might look like

♉️ How to go about finding a potential cornerstone partner

♉️ The tools and tactics brands should employ when partnering with big players

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Learn more about Sam Yarborough

• Connect with Sam Yarborough on LinkedIn

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• PFL
• Salesforce
• The Sumo Advantage
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-to-develop-a-strategic-partnership-into-a-cornerstone-w-sam-yarborough/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton

In 2022, Google announced that their Analytics product would have an entirely new version by Summer 2023, and that all brands would need to update and change. The year before that, it was announced that the mechanism most marketers used to track website visitor activity, cookies, would be going away.

In those instances, we had advance notice that change was coming. With disruptive technologies like AI, change is thrust upon us seemingly overnight, with CMOs and partnership leaders struggling to catch up by the light of the new dawn.

But change doesn’t actually occur overnight, so shouldn’t we be able to see what’s coming next?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

And this industry… it’s changing!

In past episodes we’ve talked about new networks like Threads, new laws and tools that are impacting influencer marketing and partnerships, and of course how AI is invading every aspect of our lives.

As marketing leaders, it’s incumbent on us to have the vision to see what’s coming around the corner and prepare for it. We need to know whether or not today’s hype is going to disrupt our very business tomorrow, don’t we?

Well that’s exactly what Mitch Joel is going to talk to us about.

When brands like Google, Starbucks, Shopify and GE want to decode the future, they call Mitch. We called him too.

Mitch is Co-Founder of ThinkersOne - a platform that empowers companies with personalized and bite-sized thought leadership from the best Thinkers in the world. His first book, Six Pixels of Separation, named after his successful blog and podcast is a business bestseller. His second book, Control Alt Delete was named one of the best business books of 2013 by Amazon.

And Strategy Magazine called him, "one of North America's leading visionaries,” which is why he’s here with us today.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Mitch Joel about:

♉️ How AI is impacting marketing and partnerships today

♉️ Why marketing & business processes are so susceptible to new technologies

♉️ How CMOs and partnership leaders can decode the future

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Learn more about Mitch Joel

• ThinkersOne
• MitchJoel.com
• Six Pixels of Separation
• Connect with Mitch Joel on LinkedIn
• Connect with Mitch Joel on Twitter

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-cmos-and-partnership-leaders-should-approach-new-technologies-like-ai-w-mitch-joel/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton

Just like launching a rocket into space requires a tremendous amount of initial energy to achieve lift-off, launching a new influencer marketing campaign with brand new influencers takes a tremendous amount of work.

But, once a rocket achieves a certain altitude, gravitational forces sheer away and the rocket can continue moving out into space on pure momentum. Influencer marketing can work the same way!

What if you could leverage ongoing relationships and amplify existing content and motions to keep… moving… forward?

That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Partnership Unpacked.

Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry.

And today’s certainly going to be another highly tactical discussion. Because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through the trouble to find an influencer, meet with them, bring them up to speed on our company and audience, and build a campaign with them… only to have to go through the entire process again with the next campaign or feature launch.

There has to be better, more efficient ways to find and work with influencers, right?

That’s exactly what Adam Rossow is going to talk to us about.

Adam has been working for decades to help brands understand how to test, create and optimize their marketing and communications. Group RFZ was founded with a similar charge in mind – to give the marketing suite the tools and insights they need to be successful, and their focus is on the influencer marketing space where they help brands and agencies get past vanity metrics and understand exactly how their marketing programs are impacting the way consumers think, feel and act.

Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Adam Rossow about:

♉️ How to truly measure the success of influencer marketing campaigns

♉️ Where marketers can invest in influencer marketing and achieve momentum

♉️ Why long term relationships with influencers are so important

Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar

Learn more about Adam Rossow

• Connect with Adam Rossow on LinkedIn
• Connect with Adam Rossow on Twitter

Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode

• Group RFZ
• Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar
• Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo

Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/how-brands-can-maximize-influencer-marketing-partnerships-w-adam-rossow/

Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution.

Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul)

Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton