I remember the first time I encountered Crossbeam—it felt like everything changed in my world.
At that time, I had just started in a role as an Evangelist. No, not the kind you're probably thinking of! My official title at the technology company I worked for was "Evangelist." My job was to build a reseller relationship and enable one of the largest telcos in the U.S. I had no real playbook other than picking up the phone, hopping on planes, and talking to people.
And it worked. Until it didn’t.
COVID-19 may have played a role in this shift, but there was another reason.
My role evolved, and with that, came an opportunity to focus on partnerships, specifically technology integrations. Another leader, Justin Zimmerman, once said, “Integrations are not partnerships.” We had plenty of integrations, but very few partnerships.
So, I was tasked with building genuine partnerships. That's when I dove headfirst into the partnership world—and encountered acronyms everywhere.
Then Crossbeam came along. Crossbeam’s marketing materials was the lifesaver I needed when I quickly found myself barely above water. Their marketing gave me the framework and language I needed to understand the complex world of partnerships. Their platform offered a whole new way to vet and align with partners.
For those unfamiliar with Crossbeam, it’s a partner ecosystem platform that helps companies securely share data to identify overlapping customers and prospects with their partners. According to their website, “Crossbeam connects companies to uncover hidden opportunities in their partner ecosystems.” It’s a powerful account mapping tool that enables businesses to see where their existing customers and prospects overlap with those of their partners, helping to identify shared opportunities, validate the value of partnerships, and measure the tangible impact of joint efforts.
In short, Crossbeam helps you identify where partnerships can drive mutual growth, providing actionable insights into how your partner relationships can expand your customer base and grow revenue.
The data and insights Crossbeam provided accelerated my partnership career. But I soon realized something was missing. All the data in the world wouldn’t help if I didn’t have a clear plan for actually building partnerships.
People don’t partner just because there’s overlap. There’s more to it than that.
That’s when I started manually tracking partnerships in Google Sheets and project management boards. There’s a lot more to creating a successful partnership than just finding overlaps. There’s planning, vetting, asking the right questions, handling legalities, managing integrations, and of course, marketing. Building a partnership is a lot like building a business—data is essential, but it’s not everything.
That’s where CoPort comes in.
CoPort is a SaaS tool designed to help partner teams strategize and track the effectiveness of their partnerships over time. It allows you to build a go-to-market plan with your partner, perform tasks like: Crossbeam overlaps, analyze data, set up Slack channel, track the outcomes of joint activities and campaigns.
CoPort becomes the template for using Crossbeam data more proactively. It becomes the single hub where you can track the effectiveness of your go-to-market strategies with partners. It’s where you can see your entire partner ecosystem, prioritize your time, and identify which partnerships are most fruitful.
CoPort also helps you manage your partnerships long-term. Whether it's onboarding new partners, deciding when to retire partnerships, or activating dormant ones, CoPort is your go-to platform.
Want to learn more?
Check it out at coport.co and schedule a call today!