Whenever I engage with fellow partnership leaders, I love sharing my journey. I’ve worked in partnerships for nearly a decade across various industries and countries around the world. For the past two years, I've been with Apollo.io, where I was brought on to build our partnership programs from scratch.
Joining Apollo and spearheading its partnership program was a pivotal moment in my career — the experience of growing and scaling a program built with my own hands was so satisfying — it only made sense to continue down this rewarding path. Looking back, I am proud of the strategies and tactics I’ve put into place before growing the partnerships team and carving out a strong indirect revenue stream. I encourage others to seize similar opportunities, as they can be incredibly fulfilling and rewarding.
Here is my advice to help guide your career in partnerships, including when to lean into opportunities, pitfalls to watch out for and more.
How I use partnership resources and community to level up my partnership IQ (and how you can do the same)
In the world of partnerships, there will always be new and growing knowledge to constantly learn and keep up with — especially as tech continues to get stronger and more specific. To bridge these gaps, it’s crucial to be resourceful by leveraging communities and learning from others who are also doing the work in the space.
My go-to resources have been Partnership Leaders, PartnerStack’s resources and Crossbeam’s blog. Content experts in SaaS have been publishing playbooks, white papers and other learning materials to support platform knowledge (and how to use it) while also keeping audiences in the know about what’s happening in the industry itself.
These resources provide a wealth of information, from best practices to case studies and they offer a community of like-minded professionals who are always willing to share their insights and experiences.
Being part of these communities has allowed me to stay up to date with the latest trends and strategies in the partnership space. It has also given me access to a network of experts who can provide guidance and support when faced with challenges.
Actively participating in these communities has been instrumental in the success of Apollo's partnership programs.
Strategically build out your dream team as a partnership leader
As a team leader, you may inherently become more of a generalist or T-shaped partner leader as you’ll need a broad range of skills that continue to expand as you and your work mature in the space. Like other leadership positions, having a broad look at the work and providing a strong vision is key to your partner program’s success. But when it comes to building your team, I urge you to consider hiring specialists who have a passion to dive deep in their roles.
These individuals, with their thorough understanding and expertise, can take ownership and run their partner programs with full autonomy. This strategic approach empowers your team and instills a sense of confidence and capability in your leadership.
Hiring specialists means bringing on board people who have experience and deep knowledge in specific areas within partnership management. Whether it’s someone with expertise in technology partnerships, agencies, affiliates, or startup ecosystems, having specialists ensures that each aspect of your partnership program is managed by someone with the right skill sets and experience.
This leads to more effective and efficient program management and allows you to focus on higher-level strategy and leadership.
In my experience at Apollo, building a team of specialists has been a game-changer. It has allowed us to create and manage robust partnership programs that deliver real value to our partners and our company. Assembling a high-performing team that’s invested in producing results and revenue success is key which is why I’ve built my partnership team with strong professionals including Jessica Casler, who leads our technology program; Darryl Yearwood, who leads our affiliate program; Lindsay Grindon, who leads our agency program; and Allie Shaw, who leads our startup ecosystem program.
Showcase the value of partnerships as an integral part of your organization
One of the challenges in building a partnership program is ensuring that other departments within the organization understand the value of partnerships.
It’s likely that other teams will not be aware of how valuable partnerships can be to their roles. Once you’ve built the foundation and are ready to start onboarding partners, it’s important to set up enablement and educational sessions with sales, product and customer support teams.
Allocating time at company-wide meetings is also a great way to get everyone aware of your programs and promote just how indirect channels lead to growth. By doing this, you can create internal champions who will keep partnerships top of mind and help drive new partners.
Teams like sales will understand the importance of partnerships and how they can benefit from them, leading to better collaboration and support for your partnership initiatives.
At Apollo, we have prioritized integrating our partnership programs into the broader organization. This has involved regular communication and collaboration with other departments, ensuring that everyone understands the goals and benefits of our partnership efforts.
We have a Partnerships Wiki in Notion with many different resources and a #partnerships channel in Slack, where anyone can join and ask questions or request help. By doing this, we’ve been able to create a culture that values and supports partnerships, leading to more successful and impactful programs.
Keep an optimistic outlook and continue to do the work
My journey at Apollo has been filled with learning, growth and success.
In two years, we’ve been able to drive 10 per cent of revenue, have over 5,000 partners — and we are just getting started.
I encourage anyone in a similar position to embrace the challenges and opportunities that come with building partnership programs. With the right approach and mindset, you can achieve great things and significantly impact your organization and career.
If you’re a partnership leader or aspiring to become one, remember that the key to success lies in continuous learning, building the right team and fostering a culture that values and supports partnerships. I look forward to connecting and hearing about your journey!
Jennifer Rhima will be a speaker at STACK’D Connect 2024, sharing her insights about The Evolution of Partnerships at Your Organization. To learn more about her talk and other notable speakers, read on for more about STACK'D Connect.
