Leveraging Technology in Partnership Development

A 'quick' customer call on Friday revealed something fascinating about their Value Added Reseller (VAR) business. Less than 18 hours later, I drove 4 hours to Dallas through the rain. Because when you sense a partnership that could reshape both businesses, you don't wait for Monday! As I reflected during the drive, I couldn't help but think about how tech partnerships have evolved. While running partner programs at Zoho I saw firsthand how partnerships weren't just a channel – they were the foundation of growth. The tech giants understood this decades ago: Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, SAP, Cisco, Citrix , IBM, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Atlassian, AppDynamics, HubSpot – they all built partner-first empires. But 2024 showed us something revolutionary happening in the partnership space. Through customer (agencies/partners) conversations at Layerpath, I'm seeing three massive shifts: 1. The Rise of Partner-Led Innovation ↳ Service providers aren't just implementing anymore – they're becoming product innovators ↳ Small agencies are building sophisticated, AI-powered platforms ↳ Traditional consulting firms are transforming into software companies ↳ Solo practitioners are scaling to enterprise-level operations 2. The Democratization of Partnerships ↳ AI is lowering the barrier to software development ↳ Partners are building proprietary solutions on top of platforms ↳ White-labeled, automated workflows are replacing manual services ↳ The line between service provider and software vendor is disappearing 3. The Power Dynamic Shift ↳ Partners are closer to customer problems than big-tech ↳ They understand industry-specific workflows deeply ↳ They can move faster and adapt quicker ↳ They're building moats through specialized knowledge + technology Most founders miss this: While everyone's debating AI agents and the "death of SaaS," they overlook a fundamental truth—partnerships are being reimagined. Your biggest threat isn't the incumbents or the next AI startup. The thousands of partners could build competing solutions if you don't enable them first. The next wave of successful startups won't just build better software – they'll build better partnership ecosystems. They'll understand that in 2025: - Partners can be product innovators, not just implementers - Small companies can build powerful partnership programs - Technology + domain expertise + distribution is the winning formula After today's meeting, I'm more convinced than ever: the future belongs to companies that understand this partnership transformation. For founders building in 2025: How are you thinking about partnerships? Are they just a distribution channel, or could they be the core of your strategy? Let's discuss. P.S. Sometimes, the best strategies come from real conversations, not board rooms.

Revolutionizing Sales & Partnerships with AI: Introducing the AI Sales and Partnership Leadership Series I'm incredibly excited about the potential of AI, particularly tools like Google's NotebookLM, to transform how we approach sales and partnerships. Imagine instantly summarizing key insights from client calls, proposals, and market research, empowering our teams to focus on what truly matters: building strategic relationships and closing deals. This isn't just about streamlining workflows; it's about uncovering hidden opportunities and driving significant customer success and revenue growth. To explore this potential, I'm launching the AI Sales and Partnerships Leadership Series, a platform for sharing and learning best practices from our community. Let's dive into a powerful use case: Use Case 1: Unlocking Strategic Client Insights with AI-Powered SWOT Analysis Imagine having a comprehensive understanding of your client's business, including their competitive landscape, strategic opportunities, and potential gaps. And imagine also being able to get the insights you need to assess your team's ability objectively and coach them to drive strategic partnership impact over time. With NotebookLM, this is now achievable. Here's how: 1) Client-Centric Notebooks: Create a dedicated NotebookLM page for each key client in your portfolio. 2) Capture Every Interaction: Ensure all client conversations are transcribed (consider using Gemini for this!). 3) Centralize Key Documents: Upload all relevant source materials: meeting transcripts, joint business plans, external publications, market reports—everything that paints a complete picture of the client's business. 4) Time-Stamped Insights: Crucially, ensure all documents are date-stamped to track relationship evolution and emerging trends over time. 5) Strategic Prompt Engineering: Experiment with targeted prompts to extract valuable insights. Here are some examples: "Provide a SWOT analysis for this customer/partner." "How are they competitively positioned in their industry?" "Evaluate our team's ability to consultatively sell growth opportunities for this client. What coaching opportunities exist for our managers?" "Where can the Google team double down on what's working with this client?" "What are the client's key pain points that we haven't addressed yet?" "Evaluate our relationship quality with this client (1-10 scale). If less than 10, what steps can we take to improve it?" "How does our team stack up against the competition? What are our strengths and weaknesses?" 6) Maintain and Iterate: Keep your NotebookLM pages updated. The more you use them to uncover insights, the more valuable they become. Share your learnings too; Let's unlock the future of sales together! #AISalesLeadership #SalesEffectiveness #SalesLeadership #AI #SalesTools #Partnerships #NotebookLM #GoogleAI #Innovation

AI is rewriting playbooks, turning partnerships into the 🎯 cornerstone of business strategy. When Microsoft partners with OpenAI while competing with them, and Amazon doubles down on Google-backed Anthropic, you know the rules have changed. When a single model like last year's Gemini Ultra costs $190M just to develop, even tech giants with deep pockets can't put all pieces of the puzzle together alone. Just think about all the layers of the stack, product use cases, and distribution channels. "Cross-ecosystem collaboration is critical to mobilizing the investment and capabilities that different ecosystem participants require to innovate and facilitate broader adoption of gen AI," a recent Accenture analysis reveals. The telling proof? A striking 65% of $32Bn invested in foundation models (2019 - mid 2024) is partnership-led. But it's not just about training LLMs or building data centers. Partnerships are critical across all six layers of the AI Stack. 📊 AI Stack's Key Dependencies (examples): Applications Layer needs: Foundation model integration Application-specific data Distribution channels to reach users Tooling Layer (model hubs, data orchestration) needs: AI frameworks and code libraries Synthetic data generation Foundation Model Layer need: Massive compute resources Large-scale training datasets Distribution channels Data & Storage Layer needs: High-quality structured/structured datasets Scalable infrastructure and Interoperability Cloud & Networking Layer needs: High bandwidth networking Customer relationships (distribution) Chips Layer needs: Compute for chip design Supplier and Customer relationships 💡 4 Key Partnership Types Emerging in the Ecosystem: Chips + Cloud Chip makers gain cloud integration expertise and broader market reach Cloud providers get access to high-performance AI chips Clouds + Foundation Models Cloud providers gain cutting-edge foundation models (eg. GPT) Model developers get infrastructure for broader deployment and scaling Data/Storage + Foundation Models Data companies expand market reach by supporting AI workloads Model developers get access to scalable data and storage solutions Foundation Models + Applications Model developers reach new markets through AI-driven applications App developers get Foundation model integration capabilities 💎 What makes AI #partnerships unique is how they've created incredible incentives for deep collaboration. Unlike previous tech waves where companies could succeed by controlling key parts of the stack, AI's complexity and resource demands force even the largest players to seek complementary capabilities. Tech companies are aggressively pursuing multiple parallel alliances rather than (while?) trying to fully vertically integrate. It's about creating an #ecosystem where innovation happens through collaboration and co-competition. What's your take? ✔️ Follow for more insights & check my newsletter on Cloud GTM https://lnkd.in/er4haEq2 Partner Insight