Alexandra Sasha Blumenfeld

I think the skills are analogous: 1) Customer storytelling Have a compelling customer story to lean on makes my job infinitely easier 😅 Especially if you have a technical product or solution and may not be a technical product marketer, having the customer tell that story themselves can help engage your audience with the language/visuals they expect. Plus, it's great social proof and gives sales and customer success collateral to help close deals and give current customers ideas on how they can broaden the use of your product. The caveat is that the story needs to have substance. A compelling story should dig deeper into the 'how' and 'why' while also providing tangible business results. (One of my favorites is this G-loot customer webinar) 2) Messaging and positioning Partner product marketers need to not only be an expert within their product, but you also understand how partner products fit into their solution/ecosystem and bring those two values together. An example that comes to mind of a great joint value prop clearly stated is the Slack and Zoom integration - They have clearly stated the 'better together' and value props of why using the two solutions is better than one. 3) Cross-functional leadership Partner marketing not only requires cross-functional work within your internal organization but also requires cross-functional work externally. At any given time a partner marketer can be found working with external counterparts and executives within BD, marketing, product, and sales. These many different touchpoints require being able to adapt how you communicate context to the partnership/initiatives in relation to their roles/company and why they should care/work with you (all while doing the same with your internal stakeholders). 4) Data-driven decision making Being able to think analytically and tie metrics to your decisions helps to get buy-in for partners and activities you work on. Especially if you are trying to prove the value of this function, it's important to consistently track and share progress on metrics your cross-functional stakeholders care about (eg product adoption or pipeline)

Great question! At my former company Segment, there were two categories of partners: * Technology (ISV) partners * Solution (SI/agency) partners The go-to-market is slightly different for those two categories, but a few lessons learned that are relevant to both are: 1) Incorporate the voice of your customer in everything you do. Building a compelling joint narrative is key to successfully going to market with partners. The best way to do this is through mutual customers. Anecdotally, our most successful campaigns are when a customer webinar or event is at the center. 2) Align to partners sales motions (and make sure they align to yours). It might seem obvious, but as you build out GTM plans and think through prioritization, pick the partners with sales motions that align with yours. This makes getting buy-in from key cross-functional stakeholders easier and accelerates GTM efforts. 3) Deliver value to their sales team. The most successful partnerships I've seen are those where the partner sales team is excited about your solution to the point where they start bugging marketing and execs to do more together. Partner marketing can influence the relationship by building out customer stories or taking the initiative to create enablement collateral that then is shared with the field. When the partners' field team starts paying attention to your solution and have unlocked the value your solution provides to both customers, but also their sale (eg answering 'what's in it for me' - does it accelerate the sales cycle? increase overall deal size?) then you will typically see the rest of the GTM pay more attention to you.

I typically see the partner marketing team tracked on pipeline numbers and opportunities. That said, I think it depends on your partner marketing strategy and your marketing/BD team goals as well. Ideally, we try to balance activities that will influence in-quarter impact where we will see an immediate impact on pipeline (eg digital events, gated content) with activities that are more strategic/longer-term that will see an outsized impact a few quarters (or years) out. eg working with larger partners where you have to establish the foundation, build relationships, build strategic product capabilities/integrations etc.

The way that I have done this in the past is by showing repeatable impact to our bottom line. First, I recommend setting up a process to ensure you are diligent in reporting and have accurate attribution in place. Then you can start testing out the different levers as you look for repeatable pipeline impact. I suggest working closely with your cross-functional counterparts such as BD, product, and sales to ensure you are all working on the same initiatives to see an outsized impact.

Build joint customer stories and clearly showcase the value you + partner deliver. It might seem basic, but the way we've found to get buy-in and attention from the partner's sales team is by 1) Driving joint wins (this is typically done in partnership with the BD team) 2) Documenting those wins in the form of case studies or customer webinars where you highlight the joint solution and how it unlocked business impact for the customer 3) Providing enablement via one-pagers or lunch and learns on how the partnership will help the team reach their goals faster (does your solution help speed up the sales cycle? remove friction from the buying process? provide a fix for a product gap? increase deal size? etc) 

It depends on what the campaign or asset is. As a platform, we try to be as tool agnostic as possible. That said, there are certain times where adding a partner adds value/context to the narrative or campaign. Things to consider: * Can the partner provide subject-matter expertise and enhance the narrative? * By positioning your brand alongside this partner can it provide credibility to your campaign? * Will the partner unlock additional reach with the target audience? An example where it made sense to include partners was our Platform of Independent’s campaign. The inclusion of partners bolstered our narrative AND extended our reach.

To align storytelling with key business objectives in a way that feels authentic to your target audience, the first step is making sure your KBOs are aligned with broader business goals. In my experience, this only works when the whole business is focused on the same priorities and knows how to weave the story into their own content and conversations. Next, it’s helpful to know exactly which audience segment the story applies to. This is where shared messaging guides come in handy—they help keep everyone on the same page around who the product is for and what it solves. For example, if the goal is to boost revenue for a specific product line, I find it useful to answer these basic questions first: * Who is the target user? * Jobs to be done: What problems are they trying to solve? * Pain points: What challenges do they face with current solutions? * Your product’s solution: How does it meet their needs? * Differentiation: What makes your product stand out? * Value delivered: What benefits do users get? Once I have those answers and the team is aligned etc., the next step is the hard part—making sure the message is actually used/woven throughout the customer journey in a way that feels natural and not forced. Here are some ways I’ve seen work well: * Top-of-funnel content: Create educational content focused on the pain or common problems your users face and walk through a solution, with your product mentioned as a side note. * Customer or internal dogfooding content: I’ve seen success with these in blog posts, videos, social posts, and industry events. The focus should be on a user talking about a specific problem they encountered and how they solved it using your product (with the user as the hero and the product as a side note). * Working with sales: I’ve found it helpful to align on the right discovery questions with sales first to identify fit. Then, tailor demos to focus on the pain points that matter most to your audience, only showcasing the product if it makes sense. The key is that while we may be focused on pushing a specific product, if the user doesn't feel the pain, it doesn’t make sense to push it. Focus on solving the pain they do have, and the opportunity to expand will come later. By keeping everyone aligned with consistent messaging, the story feels authentic and relevant across all touchpoints—whether it’s in content, demos, or live conversations.

It depends on the audience, medium, and the main goal of the story you’re telling, but a very basic framework I use—and one that I’ve found to be the most effective for business storytelling—looks like this: 1. State the pain/challenge – What’s the core problem or need? This draws the audience in by addressing something relatable. 2. Present the solution – How are you solving it, and what makes your solution different from others? This is the heart of the story where the value is communicated. 3. Highlight the benefit/results – Why does it matter, and what’s the impact? How is your approach better or more effective than alternatives? 4. End with a CTA – What’s the next step or action the audience should take? This framework is simple yet powerful because it hits all the critical elements: it identifies the problem, communicates a clear and differentiated solution, proves the value, and provides a call to action. It’s flexible enough to be used across formats—pitch decks, customer stories, blog posts, or internal presentations—while ensuring the message is clear, focused, and impactful.

Driving buy-in for a new narrative style with the sales team shouldn’t happen in a marketing vacuum. It starts with working closely with sales leaders—and, depending on your organization’s size, your CRO should advocate and drive buy-in from the top down. While it might seem like a no-brainer to introduce a new process, timing is critical. If the sales team is focused on other priorities, pushing a narrative shift won’t gain traction (and unfortunately, you'll waste a lot of time spinning your wheels in the process). Once you have buy-in from sales, collaborate closely with sales enablement (if you have it). If not, start by defining the key components with a few select sales leaders. Once everyone is aligned on the format and framework, bring in key stakeholders from across the organization—product, SEs, and sales ICs—to test, gather feedback, and refine the narrative. By involving them early, they’ll feel like they have a stake in the process and will understand their role in shaping the new direction. The more involvement and ownership each group has in shaping the new narrative, the more likely they’ll adopt it and naturally incorporate it into their conversations with customers.

The short answer is: talk with customers. The storylines come from them. When you’re starting from scratch with a new product, I like to focus on finding at least three key use cases. These use cases show real problems the product solves, and you can use them in docs, content, demos, and conversations. To bring those stories to life, I gather insights from beta customers to make sure those use cases are real and relevant. Their stories add credibility. From there, we’ll then create short, point-and-click demos or 60-second videos showing how the product addresses a specific problem and delivers a solution. Ideally, these examples come directly from customer experiences, but internal dogfooding videos/written content works well too. By sticking to real customer problems and solutions, your story feels natural and connects with your audience from the start.