Fullfunnel.io

At Fullfunnel.io we are growing B2B companies with long and complex sales cycles since 2006.

We were and still are “in trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, and bring to the table our 30+ years of combined experience and knowledge.

I've been selling and marketing B2B tech and services since 2006. 

What makes Fullfunnel.io different?

1. Ins and outs of selling to enterprise

Coming from the mid-market and enterprise world, I know all the ins and outs of selling to these segments: the research and evaluation processes, decision-making procedures inside the buying committee and the approval workflows.

We’ve been there, done that, and know how to generate opportunities with these segments and influence the decision-making processes.

2. Niche experience

While we could help many B2B business, since 2007 we focus exclusively on two verticals: high-value B2B tech (enterprise SaaS, blockchain technology, hardware) and service-based companies (software development, consulting, cybersecurity, DevOps as a service, etc).

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge.

3. Knowledge transfer and in-house operations

We believe that the real growth can only be driven in-house. You need to have people who are in the trenches every day, talking to customers, experiencing the sales hurdles, refining the messages and positioning.

We join your team as external marketing advisors, provide consistent support and training including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack and process maps.

As a result, you get an evergreen in-house growth engine.

Co-founder

Trenches - B2B marketing community

Trenches — a community created by B2B marketers for B2B marketers who are in the trenches every day getting their hands dirty in growing B2B companies with high ACV and long sales cycles.

We talk about ABM (account-based marketing), marketing-sourced pipeline, demand generation, lead nurturing, GTM strategy, buyer’s journey, and all other hot topics that are ignored in the sales communities.

Community is FOREVER FREE.

Co-Founder

6-Week ABM Playbook

An actionable account-based marketing playbook and training to consistently land sales opportunities with your dream clients in 6 weeks or faster. 

Cut through the noise and get busy decision makers to respond to your campaigns without spammy outreach, wasting money on enterprise tech stack or expensive ip-based advertising, and significant shifts in the company’s organization.

The account-based marketing strategy and campaigns we are sharing in this playbook can be executed by a team of 2 people (1 marketer + 1 sales) on a Ramen budget.

Author

Scale XL

Helping B2B entrepreneurs install a reliable process to predictably fill their pipeline with high-value clients. 

Scale XL process addresses the 4 critical challenges of client relationship building:

1. TARGETING: identify, target and engage with more of YOUR business’ ideal potential clients, not someone else’s. 
2. ATTRACTING: define, create and communicate compelling messages that cut through the noise and clearly establish your business as a natural answer to your ideal potential client’s problems.
3. QUALIFYING: qualifying which prospects are ideal for YOUR business and which of them are ready, and then applying different processes to sales-ready leads and those that need nurturing.
4. ROI: fix low return and underwhelming results of B2B marketing 

Scale XL relies on a process to build relationships with more key decision makers in your market by targeting, attracting and nurturing your ideal clients, not someone else’s.

And if your business is anything like 100+ niche B2B software and service companies I’ve helped before, it’s likely that my methodology could help you do just that.

To find out if this process can work for your business, feel free to get in touch here, or visit our website at scalexl.com.

Founder

Lean Startup Circle Brussels

We're a group of entrepreneurs taking lean startup and customer development techniques to practice in our startups. We're ready to talk implementation and share data from our experiments.

http://www.meetup.com/lean-brussels/

Every meetup addresses a different (lean) startup topic (minimum viable products, go to market, sales for startups, customer interviews...)

Most startups fail not because they fail to execute and build their product, but because they fail to build a viable business around it. Lean startup helps us validate our business model as fast as possible. Lean startup is a collection of techniques built around maximizing validated customer learning thought fast Build/Measure/Learn iteration loops.

*The Lean Startup is a trademark and service mark owned by Eric Ries.*

Co-Founder and Organizer

Growth Hacking Belgium

Your new business went online yesterday and you've got a marketing budget of zero. How are you supposed to create a movement around your product? How can you get to your first thousand - or million - customers? Starting from zero, it feels impossible. Enter the growth hacker. You may not have heard of growth hacking yet, but you've certainly used the billion dollar brands built by it: Hotmail, AirBnB, Facebook, Dropbox, amongst many others. This group is for people who want to adopt the growth hacker mindset. It is all about sharing hands-on tactics that bring you results.

Grant Snap

Grant Snap is an online service that helps you get your innovation funded by providing guidance in preparing winning R&D grant proposals.

€375 billion gets granted annually in the EU. Get your share.

Sirris

I help software companies in different phases of product development and innovation:
•	For entrepreneurs: to turn their ideas into viable product concepts by applying customer development and lean startup™ methodologies
•	For companies building product for early adopters: introduce flexibility needed to quickly respond to new opportunities and changing customer requests 
•	For companies shifting their focus from customer to market: to master product management
•	For companies established in a market: to deal with increasing product complexity and how to differentiate through innovation

Account Manager Software Industry

Development activities (middleware components of a distributed data storage system, test management system, framework and tools used for automation of system tests) 

Participating in introduction of agile methodologies in two R&amp;D teams and setting up test automation infrastructure

Senior Software Engineer

Sony

Participating in the transition of an R&amp;D team into a product development organization 

Development activities (several packages of DVB MHP standard for digital television, an integrated environment used for development, execution and automatic reporting of functional tests for digital television)

Setting up a test department (conceiving a test strategy and infrastructure, test specifications/reviews, recruiting, supervising and training of testing personnel)

Full-funnel ABM for B2B brands with 5+ figure deals | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

You need more pipeline that turns into revenue. But:
- Most marketing leads never convert to deals
- ⁠Outbound is in continuous decline 
- All the investments in trendy programs, agencies or tech didn’t move the needle. 

It’s time to try implementing full-funnel sales and marketing programs. 

Why? 

So you can:
- Accelerate this quarter’s revenue while building the future pipeline
- ⁠Convert 5-15% accounts to pipeline
- ⁠Bring marketing and sales teams together to drive the KPI that matters the most: sales velocity. 

We helped dozens of B2B tech companies implement full-funnel marketing and sales programs with 10%+ account-to-pipeline ratio. 

We will take your team by the hand and together, implement a scoped pilot program with clear milestones to prove the key KPIs, before investing in operationalization and scaling. 

To learn more or ask me anything, connect with me here or visit our website at fullfunnel.io



Vladimir Blagojević

No VP of Sales ever said: "I expect marketing to orchestrate our engagement playbooks". 
Yet this is what often happens with ABM:

Marketing:

- Creates multiple sales playbooks & engagement sequences
- Designs timeline
- Add best practices

Then, marketing shares with sales 87-pages deck and asks to implement.
One month later: "Sales doesn't use our playbooks and content".

This year we've interviewed two dozen enterprise B2B Saas VP of Sales to dive deeper into the challenges they want to solve with ABM and get marketing hands-on help.

Here are 5 core areas:

1. AWARENESS AMONG STRATEGIC ACCOUNTS

Awareness is not created by running more ads, drip personalized nurturing and outbound cadences.

Awareness is not created by creating more AI content nobody is going to read.

Awareness is created through the engagement with ICP ecocystem:

- High-quality thought leadership program with SMEs & execs
- Top-notch events
- Collaborations and direct engagement with the target accounts
- Constant engagement with the communities and thought leaders

2. CONTENT THAT CHALLENGES THE STATUS QUO

Modern B2B buyers don't need one more "How to cut your costs" whitepaper. Modern buyers want to see:

- Industry trends and stats
- Concrete practical examples and best practices: dashboards, workflows, templates
- How to challenge an internal inertia and status quo

In most cases, sales don't use marketing content because it doesn't fall in any of these categories. 

3. COMPLETE ACCOUNT ENGAGEMENT

Most organizations use lead handoff as a default function:

MQL generated -> assign to SDR.
Webinar signed up -> Assign to SDR

In 2026 to cut through the noise you need to have a holistic visibility:

- Who engaged with what content and ads
- What were historical interactions
- When was a spike in high-intent page visits
- Which events buying committee members has attended

This way sales move from desperate pitching to meaningful 1-1 account planning.

4. BUYER ENABLEMENT

You don't win deals with fancy pitch decks. You win when your Champion can sell your product at the next internal meeting.

Sales can create business cases showing challenges, cost of inaction, and recommended solutions.

But they need marketing's help with:

- Product screenshots that address specific buyer questions
- Relevant customer testimonials and references
- Data snapshots

5. CLEAR MESSAGING

Nothing frustrates sales more than prospects asking: "But what exactly does your product do?"

--- 

In many organization, sales ignore marketing, don't buy in for joint programs like ABM, and gate-keep access to customers. 

How to fix this:

- Make both functions revenue-responsible
- Get fundamental alignment on GTM strategy (ICP, buyer journey, value prop, metrics)
- Fix knowledge gaps through joint planning, involvement of SMEs
- Define a small pilot team on one market/vertical
- Run regular pipeline review meetings during the pilot
- Document and share results before scaling

Full-Funnel ABM and Demand Gen For B2B Companies w/ High ACV | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

Why Sales Ignore Marketing

What's marketing role in sales outreach and engagement?

A VP at Snowflake got this question at a sales summit:
"How can a rep get your attention with cold outreach?"

His answer: "You can't."

"I don't trust cold outreach. But if someone I trust vouches for the solution, I'll take a look."

This is the reality for most enterprise buyers.

They ignore cold outreach, skip your ads, filter out your nurture emails.

But they listen to their team, peers and trusted industry voices.

That's why your ABM team can't just target buyers.
(and why marketing needs to own part of the engagement)

Here's how to engage the entire ecosystem around your buyers:

1. Peer-to-peer multithreading

The other day I heard from a VP of Sales: "it's hard for a young SDR to get the attention from a senior executive".

Their solution? Their CEO and CMO regularly share thought leadership insight on LinkedIn, and book senior executives as guests on on their podcast.

2. Non-decision makers with influence

Back to the Snowflake VP: "The best way to get my attention is to have my team bring something to me."

Executives rarely care about the tactical problem your product solves.

Here's how it works: A power user experiences a problem daily (e.g. losing candidates to poor hiring experience). That problem impacts a business objective the executive does care about (e.g. slowing market expansion).

You engage the power user. They bring it to their boss when the problem comes up. 

3. Industry peers

People trust their peers more than they trust vendors.

Our buyers mention they discovered our content because someone from their network engaged or shared it. Often someone who will never buy from us.

The more you're present and connect to people from the industry, the more your brand or content get recommended.

4. Industry voices 

These can be leaders in renown companies, leaders from technology partners, or even local "micro-influencers" known in a city or a region.

We regularly host partner webinars, local partner events in target locations, and run an annual summit with people respected by our buyers. 

5. Niche media and communities

Event organizers, industry media companies, communities and podcasts. 

♜ Arthur Castillo shared: "The best community sponsorships weren't standard packages. They were custom programs: co-hosting research, integrated campaigns, or bringing community members to our dinners in key cities."

--- 

Cold sales outreach won't get you in the door with senior buyers.

But when the whole team builds relationships across the ecosystem, you become known, and increase the chance of ending up in their consideration set.  

That's the shift: marketing isn't just generating leads and providing air cover.

Marketing creates trust, presence, and recommendations in the networks your buyers already rely on.

P.S. Andrei Zinkevich and me are breaking down the role of marketing in ABM on our next Full-Funnel Live: 
https://bit.ly/48azQnB

ABM ≠ industry & persona personalization. This misses: 
- Actions matching buyer intent & awareness
- Progressive discovery & personalization 

Here's a framework that shows this more clearly. 

1. Level of intent (vertical axis)

- TAM*:  Any company that could potentially use your solution (e.g. My HR solution is used by companies 200+ employees)
- ICP*:  Companies matching your ideal profile (e.g. 200+ people tech companies who are actively hiring)
- Cluster: Priority segment with competitive advantage (e.g. SaaS companies with distributed dev teams, hiring remote developers)
- Need:  Validated problem that needs solving
- Buying: High-priority, can't postpone, actively looking for solutions

(* yes, I know that strictly speaking "TAM" and "ICP" are about fit, rather than intent - but look at my drawing skills, do you think I could draw a 3D diagram?)


2. Level of awareness (horizontal axis)

- Cold: No awareness of your solution
- Aware: Know what you do, no relationship yet
- Relationship: Active back & forth conversation
- Meeting: Discovery calls with buying committee members


3. Aligning actions w/ level of intent and awareness

ANY + TAM → Qualify. Do they fit our ICP?
COLD + ICP → Create awareness
AWARE + ICP → Research to uncover cluster and account insights
AWARE + Cluster → Build relationships, start progressive discovery
RELATIONSHIP + ICP or Cluster → Validate the need through progressive discovery
RELATIONSHIP + Need → Book discovery calls
MEETINGS BOOKED → Discover needs, priorities, stakeholders. Create the opportunity.

(In practice, we use a simpler framework with three lists:
- Cluster ICP: Researched accounts, unaware, unknown need. Goal: create awareness.
- Future Pipeline: Vendor aware, need unknown. Goal: validate need and build relationships.
- Active Focus: Validated need, established relationship. Goal: book discovery calls and create opportunities.)


4. Progressive discovery and personalization 

By progressive discovery, I mean: 
- Account research 
- Progressively gathering insider information, challenges and priorities shared by target buyers via
→ Content collabs
→ Webinar polls/Q&As/registration forms
→ Social and email conversations
→ Transcribed interviews and calls

With each new insight, personalization becomes better. 

--- 

The mistake? Assuming that industry and persona personalization is enough. 

In reality
- Same industry ≠ same challenges. Relevant personalization requires deeper insight 
- Most relevant insights come from buyer conversations 
- Outreach by unknown people gets ignored even when relevant

You have one quarter. 20% of content marketer's time. And you need to generate pipeline.

What do you do? 

1. Place smart bets

Look at your best recent deals and figure out WHY they purchased.

What was the underlying business objective? Why now? Why you?

Drill down to specific attributes, needs, pain points, events and situations so you can:

- Find other accounts with similar needs and priorities (=account cluster)
- Understand what will attract their attention

2. Plan an educational event 6-8 weeks into the quarter

The event (webinar, field event) should address a key challenge or transformation that accounts from the target cluster need to solve.

Why events work:

- Focuses the team on a concrete deliverable 
- Forces them to break down generic challenges into specific jobs to be done, problems, solutions and root causes — then connect them into a narrative
- Each element of the event narrative becomes a LinkedIn post
- Creates a natural milestone with a hard deadline
- Genuinely useful to target accounts

3. Turn the event into LinkedIn content for sales

Sales shares content directly from their profiles because
- They connect daily with buyers
- It creates opportunities to start conversations 

This also shortens the feedback loop: you see which content resonates and leads to conversations. 

4. Break content into three streams 

#1 Expert content (Goal: Nurturing). 
Infographics, templates, proprietary data, how-tos
→ positions sales as trusted advisors
→ each post becomes input for the event deck

#2 Curated content (Goal: Engagement). 
Collaborations, roundups, co-created posts
→ pulls in voices of buyers, peers, partners
→ lets sales use collaborations to start conversations and get insight from target buyers

#3 1:1 account content (Goal: Awareness). 
"Account love letters" and personalized content hubs tailored to specific high-potential accounts
→ guaranteed awareness at target accounts
→ works incredibly well to start conversations with buyers

5. Repurpose outputs

Each piece of content feeds into the next:

LinkedIn --> Event Deck --> Content Hub 
Content collabs (& webinar polls) --> LinkedIn --> Event --> Market research report 

--- 

This is the process we use with clients and for FullFunnel.

In Q4, we did it for a cluster of B2B companies struggling to prove marketing attribution to pipeline while juggling executive pressure to do more with AI.

Results:
- 12 new posts
- 1072 webinar signups 
- 160 people shared their top priorities and challenges with us 
- 52 accounts with deeper back&forth conversations 
- 2 new closed-won deals 

The step most companies struggle with?

Selecting a cluster where they have a highest chance to win, and linking it to a content strategy that will cut through the noise, and help sales start conversations. 

Andrei and me are  breaking this down in detail on the next Full-Funnel Live: 
https://bit.ly/4pSSPZN

"Can you give examples of 1:1 content? And the format you deliver it in?"

Here are three examples, along with a step-by-step how-to. 

EXAMPLE 1. Account Love Letter 

Example: "Here is how I'd optimize the new enterprise pipeline ABM strategy for multi-regional B2B tech company like Agicap."
(https://lnkd.in/ebUxaR6w)

Format: LinkedIn post + content hub + 1:1 messages. 

How to: 

1. Every week, check new engagement and intent signals for your target accounts 

2. Identify accounts that reach criteria to be promoted 
- From Cluster ICP to Future Pipeline list (e.g. repeated visits to high intent pages + 1+ named buyer engaged via social or newsletter or webinar)
- From Future Pipeline to Active Focus (e.g. provided insight about priority problem via progressive profiling)

3. Run account research and define blind spots 

- Map the buying committee, their responsibility and KPIs 
- Research information we need to know about the target account to create relevant content and a personalised offer (e.g. they started an expansion to a new region, challenges: lack of brand awareness in target regions, stronger local competition...)
- Plan touchpoints to get insider information (=progressive profiling)

4. Plan the activities you will use 

In this example, Andrei Zinkevich created the "account love letter" LinkedIn post, and used it to connect to the members of the buying committee. He also created a personalized content hub and used in in follow up (see below). 

EXAMPLE 2. Personalized Solution 

Example: "What do cycling and complex B2B SaaS have in common?"

Format: 1:1 letter sent in a parcel with a book about the prospect's hoby (Alpine cycling). 

How to (continued): 

5. Start mapping your value proposition with the identified KPIs, goals, and challenges of every buying committee member.
6. Write a 1-page personalized solution for target buying committee members. Include:
- Context
- How exactly your product helps to achieve their goals or solve the challenges
- Relevant social proof

EXAMPLE 3. Personalized Content Hub 

Example: in both examples from above, we created a personalized content hub. 

Format: deal room tools (e.g. we use Aligned), to quickly spin up 1:1 content hubs. 

How to (continued): 

7. Map content that can help demonstrate how you can solve the challenges identified in research, along with any relevant social proof, product information and answers to questions frequently asked by buyers 

8. 1:1 distribution of the content you've created to the buying committee members. 

---

BONUS EXAMPLE: Answer to Buyer's Question 

The first line of this post was actually a question we got during our last week's Full-Funnel Live. 

I decided to create this LinkedIn post as an answer, and use it to "show, not just tell". 

Next step: I'm going to share it with the person who asked.

Do reps even matter, if 80% B2B buyers buy from vendors they preferred BEFORE contact with sales? 

Here's what Jon Miller says (quoting Kerry Cunningham's update of 6sense's B2B Buyer Experience Report for 2025):  

1. SALES RELATIONSHIPS AS BRAND AWARENESS 

Reps are a critical part of building your brand preference and awareness. 68% of buyers *personally knew a seller* from the winning company before the buying process began (Kerry’s research).

We see this over and over again. The teams who involve salespeople early in the buying process always see way better results from their programs. 

2. PREVIOUS VENDOR EXPERIENCE > BRAND AWARENESS

95% of net-new wins came from *existing vendor relationships* - not just brand awareness. 

For new business deals: 
- 48% already bought from that vendor
- 13% used the vendor at a prior company
- 34% evaluated the vendor (but didn't buy)

And get this: less than 5% had no direct experience but were familiar with the brand.

The disheartening conclusion here: our efforts to build a brand have a very small effect (5%). 

Category leaders - companies with the biggest market share - have an enormous advantage. 

But what should the rest of us do? 

Jon's advice: 
✅ Hire sellers with experience selling to your core ICP
✅ Give them time and air cover to build relationships outside active buying cycles
✅ When you lose a deal, make sure you have complete notes, named champions, mapped stakeholders, and a clear path to reconsideration. Because that "loss" might be the reason you win the next opportunity

I'd add: 

☑ Double down on expansion and renewal programs 

And practically, in your net-new programs: 

PRIORITIZE accounts with: 
☑ Buyers who are a former customer 
☑ Existing relationships 

INCREASE "RELATIONSHIPS AS BRAND AWARENESS" by:
☑ Letting sellers work on future pipeline and relationships, too
☑ Increasing the footprint in target accounts by multithreading 
☑ Involve non-sellers (your subject-matter experts, executives...) with industry connections 

MEASURE:
☑ Don't only measure revenue from won deals, but also relationships, target account footprint, and ALL qualified net-new opportunities (remember: lost opportunities account for 34% of future won deals). 

Because, as Jon puts it, the deals you win next quarter were decided 6 months ago.

"We struggle with 1:1 and 1:Few ABM. We just can't figure out personalization at scale" - VP of Marketing shared on a call (and was laid off a week after). 

Here's the brutal reality in many B2B orgs:

- Teams pressured to "personalize at scale"
- Any "non-scalable" approach is disregarded
- Teams deploy AI research and/or AI SDRs
- Every prospect receives a "uniquely irrelevant message" (Jon Miller)

Teams get blamed. Leaders let go.

Why? 

Because they MISUNDERSTAND what personalization is.

Personalization ≠ "{first}, {some unique insight / signal}" followed by a pitch asking for a call. 

ABM personalization = matching account insights with individual buyer needs across the buying journey.

Here's how we go from manual personalization to personalization at scale.

1. Pick an engaged strategic account

Together with an experienced AE, define:
- Key questions and information you need to know about this account 
- Sources and platforms where you can find that information 
- Run an actual research on that account 

Save as an example of high-quality output.

2. Train AI with proper input

- Deep insights and research about the target ICP segment
- Always request quotes to prevent hallucination and preserve buyer language
- Give AI detailed prompt describing the research questions and sources 
- Show it what 'good looks like' with the example of high-quality output to use as a quality benchmark

3. Make account research a joint responsibility

AI research is complemented by:
- RevOps input on buying signals, engagement and intent data
- Marketing research of industry trends and competitive landscape
- SDRs research of the buying committee, and recent role changes

4. Include insider information 

The deepest insights you gain only from 1-1 conversations.

SDRs and AEs run regular 1-1 engagements with buyers to build relationships, understand where they are in the buyer journey, and their current needs.

5. Create a 360° account view

Create a holistic account dashboard with all collected insights.

6. Create account-specific content, not "personalized templates"

Match content with the buyer journey stages, buyer persona, and current needs.

Sales distributes it manually to target buyers and listen to their feedback.

Save successful examples validated by the buyers (with responses, engagement and calls). 

7. Feed the proven formats to your AI model to replicate them in the future. 

You'll then only need to polish and customize it.

Same principles: deep insight + playbook as prompt + quotes + quality benchmark. 
---
Personalization at scale is only possible when there is a proven playbook in place.

The only way to create the process and quality output benchmarks is MANUAL first. When you see what works, you can scale it with AI.

But it requires JOINT marketing and sales work, not just pushing your VP of marketing to find a solution to "personalization at scale".

Customer interviews are overrated. 
Use progressive discovery instead. 


1. Turn natural touchpoints into progressive discovery

Customer interviews = conversations you have with your customers, from the moment they are prospect through the whole lifecycle. 

→ First sales calls with prospects
→ Business case building with your champion 
→ Demos & discussions with other buyers 
→ The moment someone signs 
→ Onboarding sessions with new customers
→ Quarterly business reviews with existing accounts
→ Support tickets and feature requests

Even: conversations you have with prospects and customers on industry events. 

Where you make a difference: 

2. Ask the right questions at the right time

Good conversations always focus on their world, and ask the right question at the right time. 

E.g. 

- Business triggers, problems, how did they discover you → initial discovery 
- Cost of doing nothing → business case building
- Purchase criteria → consensus building & demos with users and buyers 
- Why us → when they sign 
- Value → post onboarding, reviews 
- General "out of buying cycle" topics → buyer research, customer events, social... 

3. Systematically process and develop customer insights

Interviews ≠ Insights. 

Record, transcribe, structure and process the input to get to real insight. 

Regularly review the insight and updates with the team. 

4. Turn the insight into action

Insights ≠ Actions. 

Lots of teams collect insight, and only use it to update their copy. 

You can do much more. Refine targeting, qualification and disqualification criteria, account research process, content strategy, buyer enablement... 

5. Voice of customer

Use their actual words. 

Not your positioning deck. Their language. Their pain points. Their priorities. 

--- 

Thank you Patrick Cumming  for starting this discussion. 

Patrick's workflow is brilliant: mine first sales call transcripts, extract the top 5-7 pains/gains, use their exact words in your ads.
He saw a 40% lift in SQLs with the SAME budget. Just "using their exact words to build ad content". 

Bottom line: customer research is not a project.

It's an essential, evergreen process that includes progressive discovery, structured insight collection and review, and continuously refining your GTM as the market and your understanding of it evolves.

Elena Zapolyanskaya

Head of Partnerships

B2B | Strategy | Partner-Led Growth | PARTNER2B

I build tools that turn partner programs into something you can actually point at and say “yep, that’s working”. 

I also advise B2B teams as a Fractional CRO with 17+ years of experience making ecosystems visible and not vibes-based.

I build and I guide so partners finally show up and perform.

Want to see the tools I’m creating for partnerships? Come say hi ✨ elena@partner2b.com

Strategic Marketing Consultant

Elena Zap.

If you lead partnerships, you already know the pressure. About 60% of partnerships fail, and it’s not because you’re not trying. It’s because the role quietly expects a whole mix of skills most people are never trained for.

The real issue? 

Most partnerships leaders are set up with one skillset when they need three.

Partnerships isn't just relationship management. 
It's not just deal-making. 
It's not just strategy.
It's all three. At the same time.

You need:

- Marketing background to position your brand and identify the right audience
- Sales skills to close and push deals through
- Strategic thinking to align incentives and build real GTM motion

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐬: 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.

I've been a partnerships leader. I've built partnerships as a CRO. That mix is what made it work.

Most people have one or two of these skills.

The ones who have all three? They're the partnerships leaders getting budget increases while everyone else is fighting for headcount.

If you're in partnerships and wondering why your wins aren't translating to executive visibility, look at which piece you're missing.

Because without all three, you're working twice as hard for half the credit.

B2B | Strategy | Partner-Led Growth | Ecosystems

Depth in one domain is valuable.
𝐖𝐢𝐝𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫.

Yesterday I had a call with Teodora, a strategic marketer who's worked across functions and geographies. One of those rare conversations that actually gives you energy.

She reminded me that if you're a builder, you build. And you stay true to who you are while doing it.

Honestly needed that. Thank you, Teodora 🤗 

I've spent 17+ years in B2B strategic marketing.
But I always knew I had to understand how the whole organization works.
So I worked across:

 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 taught me positioning.
 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 taught me what closes deals.
 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 taught me ecosystem thinking.
 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 taught me where leverage lives.
 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 taught me vendor dynamics.
 𝐋𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 taught me operational reality.

When you've lived across domains, you stop optimizing for one function.
You see the whole system.

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐬.

That's why I choose to work with people who've moved through different domains, segments, regions.

They're builders.
They get it immediately.
The best operators aren't specialists who went deep in one area.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲'𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫.

Partnership pros: you know that feeling when you're supposed to build an entire partner program solo? 

Map the ICP workflows yourself. Identify partner types yourself. Set the success metrics yourself. Recruit and enable partners yourself. Then prove ROI to the board yourself.

I've been there. I know that grind. 

And here's what I learned: the programs that actually work aren't built by one person working harder. They're built by cross-functional teams who each own a specific piece.

This playbook is what I wish someone had told me:

𝟎𝟏 - 𝐌𝐚𝐩 𝐈𝐂𝐏 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬 (𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 + 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠) 
Study how your customers work daily. Document their tools, workflows, pain points where integrations deliver measurable value. Not what you think they need, what they actually use.

𝟎𝟐 - 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 (𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 + 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐎𝐩𝐬)
Technology integrations, referral partners, resellers, strategic alliances. Prioritize based on ICP overlap and co-selling potential.

𝟎𝟑 - 𝐒𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬 (𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 + 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞) 
Define goals for partner-sourced pipeline, revenue attribution, CAC by channel, deal velocity. Build the dashboard with Finance before you recruit a single partner.

𝟎𝟒 - 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 (𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 + 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠) 
Targeted outreach to priority partners. Create enablement materials and value props that actually drive activation.

𝟎𝟓 - 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 (𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 + 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭) 
Make your ecosystem discoverable through a searchable marketplace. Track what works, scale it.

Every step needs a different cross-functional owner. That's not overhead, that's how you scale.

2026 is going to separate companies that think partnerships are relationships from companies that know partnerships are infrastructure.

Your marketing team optimizes every landing page for SEO. 
Your product team instruments every feature for analytics. 
But your partnerships team is still managing a 200-partner program through spreadsheets and quarterly business reviews.

That stops working the moment your buyers start researching integrations before they book demos.

Here's how to integrate partner ecosystems into your 2026 GTM:

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟏: 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞 
Google "[Your Top Partner] + [Your Product Category] integration" right now. If your competitor's partner marketplace ranks and yours doesn't exist, you're losing deals before your SDR team knows the account is in-market. Document every search where you're invisible.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟐: 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 
Your partnership program needs to exist where buyers look. That means individual partner pages on your domain that rank in search, not buried directories or PDF lists. If prospects can't find your integrations when researching solutions, those partnerships aren't driving pipeline.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟑: 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 
Stop treating partner influence as something you reconstruct months later from CRM notes. Every touchpoint with your ecosystem should capture data on how partners drive pipeline. Partner attribution should be automatic, not archeology.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟒: 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 
Your team shouldn't be the bottleneck for partner content updates. The programs growing 20-35% in partner-sourced pipeline built self-service systems where partners control their own listings. Stop doing work that should be automated.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟓: 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 
Partner data needs to flow into the same systems your CFO and CRO use for forecasting. If ecosystem performance lives in separate dashboards that leadership never sees, partnerships will always be treated as nice-to-have instead of revenue critical.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟔: 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐐𝟒 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐐𝟐 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 
The companies launching visible partner ecosystems right now will own category-level ecosystem SEO by mid-2026. The ones waiting will spend next year explaining why partner revenue missed projections while competitors close deals through discoverable partnerships.

HubSpot generates 45% of revenue through partners because their ecosystem is visible. Stripe makes partnerships central to their value prop. Your buyers expect the same.

Which company are you building?
_____

P.S. We're running free pilots at Bonobee for companies building visible partner ecosystems. DM me if you want to see if your B2B qualifies.

"A piece of advice from the Universe: rest more." Fortune cookies are random. We all know this. Some machine somewhere is stuffing paper into cookies, and what you get is pure chance. But here's what's interesting: 

it doesn't really matter.

What matters is: 

→ Do you choose to see it as a sign or dismiss it as noise? 
→ Do you let a random message make you smile or just crumple it up?

The same goes for everything: 

• That song that came on at the perfect moment 
• The book recommendation that appeared when you needed it 
• The random conversation that shifted your perspective

𝐍𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬.

We get to choose what we pay attention to. Choosing to see the good stuff, even when it's probably just coincidence, makes life a lot more fun.

So if the universe (or a fortune cookie factory) is telling you to rest more this Friday, maybe just take the advice.

What's the worst that could happen? You feel better?

Happy Saturday ☕

Do you still think of a partner marketplace as a static partner directory?
Bad news: Not only are you wrong, but you'll be losing to competitors in 2026. And they're already winning deals because of it. Why? 

Because 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔.

Here's what actually defines a partner marketplace now:

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 is the foundation, but it needs to be dynamic. Browse, filter, and search across partners by categories, regions, and specializations. All partner pages are SEO-optimized for organic discovery and user navigation. Not a static PDF your team emails on request.

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 means built-in forms on every partner page. Automated inquiry routing. No more "let me forward this to someone who might know" handoffs. Your prospects go directly to the right team.

𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 show which partners drive actual value. Track visits, page views, submissions, engagement trends. Unified performance data. Not gut feelings about who your "top partners" are.

𝐀𝐈 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 identifies high-performing listings and opportunities without you manually digging through spreadsheets. Continuous SEO improvement, content suggestions, smart recommendations.

The shift: 𝐁𝟐𝐁 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐬. They're comparing your integrations, your partnerships, your ecosystem depth against your competitors' right now.

By 2026, invisible partner programs lose deals to competitors with discoverable, measurable ecosystems.

Build yours now or watch others win your customers.

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Elena Zap.

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