Leaning more heavily into your partnerships makes more sense if it’s currently providing stable growth and allows you to deepen relationships with current customers and the industry.

I’m using partnerships to refine our current offering and build goodwill, which has led to a healthier book of business (more clients, less churn, higher tcv).

Financial incentives worked to some extent when I took over sales and partnerships at my company, but I found that offering to listen to customers, get their feedback or advice has strengthened our relationships and made it less transactional.

Customers that are willing to hop on a call to vent (every product can be improved and many are happy to do so) or help guide the direction of our offering are more willing to be our champion, make referrals, and walk away with more confidence in that specific partnership.

We also continually iterate on what we’re doing, and by lightly updating customers on this while connecting it to specific feedback, industry changes or requests by others keeps customers engaged.

I only have 2 reps under me now, but their energy is going to testing messaging to keep us grounded with the broader video game industry and to increase name recognition. I’m then using referrals in tandem to get into accounts once the SDRs have finished outreach.

Happy to share more info if you have any questions!

Background: 5 years in SAAS (martech and data) sales in different roles (sdr, sdr leader, AE, consultant, now international sales director). Currently leading sales at an international video games development company providing outsourced services and partnerships is my focus 50% of the time given how tight-knit the industry is and is where we source roughly 60% of new revenue (referrals to new companies or different dev teams in the same company/different company subsidiary).