Sales models are under increased scrutiny as organizations face stagnating sales and struggle to find innovative ways to relieve this intense pressure. While direct sales has traditionally been the cornerstone of revenue generation, this past year we've seen cracks in the foundation, and the old notion of growth at all cost isn't working.
Despite ramping up efforts—hiring more sales reps, expanding territories, and increasing spending on tools —the return on investment on direct sales has dwindled. Rising customer acquisition costs (CAC), longer sales cycles, and a disconnect between buyer preferences and sales approaches have created a perfect storm.
"This is the first time in my 20 year career history that the talk around partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems has been at the forefront of the conversation", says Craig Gleason, Principal at PartnerIQ.
The truth is that direct sales teams are facing diminishing returns with customers demanding personalized, frictionless buying experiences and solutions tailored to their complex needs. These challenges are fuelling a pivotal shift: to Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG). Unlike direct sales, which emphasizes individual transactions, ELG prioritizes collaboration across a network of partners, customers, and platforms to create value for all participants. This approach leverages the collective strengths of an ecosystem to deliver outcomes at a velocity that a standalone sales team cannot achieve.
On January 8, 2025 we'll be exploring this shift in depth in an upcoming webinar for partnership leaders. This webinar is part one of a six part series where we'll walk through a real-time case study that highlight the tactics, challenges and opportunities with this new approach. With The Hard Truths About Your 2025 Partner Program and How To Unlock Its Full Potential, we'll create the playbook for what successful Ecosystem-Led Growth looks like.
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The benefits of adopting an Ecosystem-Led approach are significant. With the flywheel effect of leveraging partnerships, scaling quickly becomes possible again. It also offers a lower-risk way to test new markets, provides mutual growth opportunities and delivers more value to customers faster.
But adopting a new approach comes with its own set of challenges. Sales teams may push back and siloed departments can hinder progress. Getting buy-in from the executive team is critical in the early stages of this shift as is close monitoring, and evaluating all of the various elements of your go-to-market.
"There are lots of little things that don't get talked about...how does pre-sales change? How does product change? Is pricing different? What does our go-to-market look like, our value proposition. All these little things that never get thought about, often get done too late. That's really what this whole webinar series is all about", says Gleason.
People get excited about building a partner business, but often there is little focus on what they are hoping to achieve. These are the types of early mistakes that are important to get ahead of. Aligning the goals of a partnership org. with the overall business goals rather than having a separate set of parter goals, sets everyone up for success.
The shift towards Ecosystem-Led Growth has already started. It's time for partner and channel leaders to dig in, assess if it's right for their organizations, and elevate their status within the organization as a key contributor to sustainable growth.