Understanding Different Partnership Motions

In this podcast episode, Marco De Paulis, Director of Ecommerce Partnerships at Ryder, shares his insights on building and managing technology partnerships in the SaaS ecosystem. He discusses the evolving role of partnerships in SaaS companies, emphasizing how even smaller startups are now prioritizing this function early on. Marco highlights the importance of timing when hiring for partnerships, cautioning against investing too early without strong sales and customer success foundations.

Key topics include:

• Understanding Partnership Motions: Marco explains how the nature of a SaaS product—whether it supports service ecosystems or is consumer-facing—dictates the partnership strategy and investment levels.
• Competing for Partner Mindshare: He shares creative approaches to stand out with partners, such as gamified presentations and personalized engagement, while stressing the importance of delivering value by driving leads and revenue for partners.
• Lifecycle of a Technology Partnership: Marco outlines a structured approach to partnerships, from alignment and stakeholder buy-in to integration development, go-to-market strategies, and ongoing enablement. He emphasizes the need for detailed mutual success plans to ensure both parties stay aligned.
• Integration Analysis Framework: Before committing to integration development, Marco describes a thorough evaluation process involving customer alignment, technical feasibility, and ROI projections using "back-of-the-napkin" calculations. He stresses the importance of collaboration with product teams and incorporating customer feedback early on.
• Challenges in Integration Development: Marco reflects on overlooked aspects like internal education for product teams, extensive testing across APIs, and creating robust internal and external documentation. He underscores the long-term impact of well-executed integrations on customer retention.

Listeners will gain actionable advice on navigating the complexities of technology partnerships and integrations while fostering collaboration between product, engineering, and partnership teams. Marco also offers resources like his Mutual Success Plan for those looking to refine their partnership strategies. Connect with him on LinkedIn for further insights.

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This podcast is hosted by Pandium, the only embedded integration platform that facilitates faster code-first development of integrations, allowing B2B SaaS companies to launch integrations at scale without sacrificing customization and control.

Learn more about Pandium here: https://www.pandium.com/

To access more resources and content on technology partnerships, integrations, and APIs, check out our blog and resources page below.

Blog: https://www.pandium.com/blog

Resources on Technology Partnerships, Integrations, and APIs: https://www.pandium.com/ebooks