The Top 3 Takeaways From our Discussion With Ed Sullivan

Ed Sullivan is a Partner Professional with over a decade in Silicon Valley as a senior leader & executive. He has managed all aspects of ecosystem & partner development and driven millions in revenue to his employers. Ed is a seasoned executive with proven results in building and leading successful teams. His primary expertise is starting programs from scratch or fixing broken partner programs. Throughout his various roles, Ed has managed: channel development, GSI/SI and managed services providers, agencies, tech integration, ISV ecosystems, corp dev, and business development (BD).

Ed was kind enough to share some incredibly valuable insights from his experience with our Marketswell CMO Accelerator cohort last week. Thank you Ed!

Here are our top 3 takeaways:

1. Ecosystem Development

You would never market without a marketing plan, so why would you build your partner ecosystem without a strategy or plan. In spite of that, companies often jump in and immediately build partnerships just to see what “sticks against the wall”. This can cause superficial agreements that don’t bring much benefit to either side of a partnership. Before running to market, it is crucial to do some ecosystem mapping in order to find natural allies to the company. This will create more intuitive partnerships that don’t waste time and resources, and will foster a relationship that is more productive. Working with partners should be easy and seamless because your ecosystems should have some sort of natural alignment.

2. (Partner)ship

There must be mutual gain from a partnership or else it's a waste for both sides. In spite that, many companies make the mistake of creating a huge list of partners that don’t have much context behind them. These agreements often don’t produce any real value to either party involved. While it can look impressive to have a huge list of partners on your company’s website, keep in mind that having five meaningful partners is better than having a hundred that don’t do anything for you. At the same time, it is also important to not rely too heavily on one partnership. Some partnerships may work incredibly well, and you may see a high percentage of your sales coming from that one partnership. While that is great for business, it can be dangerous, because losing this partner would be incredibly detrimental.

3. Be Honest

The mutual gain that will come from a partnership comes from execution. You need to be willing to step forward and be honest with your partners, and communication is much easier when you don’t have an abundance of superficial partnerships. Every partner who will be co-selling with you will only have a limited amount of time and resources, which will not be entirely devoted to your partnership. Keep in mind that in a successful partnership, it must be easy for your partners to work with you, and for them to sell your product without wasting either side’s time and resources. If that’s not the case, it may be time to reevaluate your relationship. 

As Ed has even more valuable information to share, we will be hosting a follow up session on July 28th. Thank you again Ed for taking the time to share your experience, we look forward to meeting with you again shortly!