3 + 3 = Success: The Lessons I’ve Learned from Scaling with Partners

Back in September of 2018 I was encouraged to join the world’s largest ABM community, @FlipMyFunnel. Once I set up my profile, I poked around on the message boards and saw a question from the community organizer:

That is when I first learned that one of the hottest topics in Account Based Marketing at the time, and arguably still today, is “how do you scale ABM.” And, at the time, it was also one of my hottest challenges.

Heading into the #FlipMyFunnel conference one of my key objectives was to learn how to improve the efficiency of our campaigns, and ultimately how to scale our #ABM execution. That’s when Abhinav Sahai reached out to me to set up a meeting at the event. He wanted to talk to me about how his team could work with us to augment our capabilities and help us get more done, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that he did. 

After taking home the Best Demand Generation Campaign award from 2018, I spent a fair amount of time learning about the supporting technologies like Bombora, LinkedIn’s Peter Weinberg's thoughts on why you should target junior staffers, and some pretty neat ideas from PFL. But all of that said, nothing has impacted the way I think about executing ABM more profoundly than my time with Abhinav and his team at Niswey. 

I’ve worked with several offshore partners in my career, from Tata Consulting, to Zensar, to Salesify, and had countless more quote work and/or execute projects. Dig deep enough and you’ll find that I’ve also worked with some of the biggest names in MarTech consulting stateside, like The Pedowitz Group, LeadMD (to name some of my favorites), and many others. Some of these projects were incredibly successful, and others maybe not. In every case, my goal was the same: I had a project that I needed to get done, I wanted to learn how to do it for myself, and I had a tangible business objective tied to the work. Nothing too special there.  

After all of that, here is what I’ve come to value most in a partner:

1.      Flexibility: As basic as it may seem, partners that are willing to break out of their standard way of doing and meet me where I am are gold. Whether that is using my workflow tool, or meeting me on my payment terms, or working with my complicated schedule, it is all valuable. There have been more times than one that I’d be dead-in-the-water if not for the incredible flexibility of our partners. If you’re partner is not bringing flexibility to the table, you might be shortchanging yourself.

2.      Uniqueness of Scope: Many times, vendors want to sell you a package that neatly fits into an existing offering. A workshop, a service offering, a specific objective. And, sometimes this is exactly what you need. However, a vendor that will go outside of the box and scope something with you that has never been done before, a pilot, a unique idea, an alternate approach, that is where magic happens. Some of my best work has been on a hunch, and having partners that let you explore that without knowing exactly what to expect is incredibly valuable.

3.      Honesty: Flexibility and uniqueness of scope can be an absolute mess if it is just a bad idea. If you want to move at #LudicrousSpeed and not blow up the ship, you need partners that will unequivocally tell you that your bright idea is, in fact, dumb. You don’t need a team that will smile and nod and do what you ask every time. While there is undoubtedly a time and a place for that, you need partners that are ready and willing to check you. And, you need to respect that. If you don’t have that type of relationship, then you might want to consider moving on. 

You might think that claiming a “profound” impact is a little dramatic, but honestly, I can’t think of a better word. As I think back to my first conversation with Abhinav, I can’t help but think about Malcom Gladwell’s book, “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.” Sometimes you just know.

But, if you want more than that, here is why I say that finding Niswey was one of my crowning achievements in 2018:

1.      Speed: I’ve long held the believe that Marketing is a zero-sum game, where time is the most valuable resource. Having a partner that works as fast as I do, and does it while I am sleeping (because they are in India), delivers a significant competitive advantage vs the alternative. Being able to assign a lengthy project, the day before I need it, and then having it done on time, is the kind of speed I need. It is incredibly powerful in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment.

2.      Bench: The ability to assign work across the spectrum of Integrated Marketing, from design, to production art, to email templates, to company newsletter execution, to ABM ad sets, to account discovery, to list creation, to SalesForce campaign attribution, to WordPress maintenance is like having an endless supply of staff on your team. Powerfully empowering.

3.      Cost: If you’re offshoring strictly because you want inexpensive work, I think you’re making a mistake. I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for, and if you’re just looking for cheap work, you’re going to get cheap results. But, if you can find a quality partner to execute quality work, and they happen to be offshore, you can reduce your costs by an order of magnitude. And who doesn’t want more money back in their budget? 

Offshoring is not the final solution to all of your Marketing challenges. And not all partners are equal. Today, I have 8+ partners that I am actively working with on a wide variety of work. Those partners are incredibly valuable to me, and I’d not trade them for any number of staff on my team. But with a plan, and a workflow process, a partner like Niswey will change your life.

Don’t believe me? No problem, you can try it for yourself. I dare you.

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Abhinav sent me an email and asked me if I’d be willing to say a few words on his behalf based on the work we’ve done together. When I sat down to do that, I realized that I had a lot to say. Thanks for reading.