Building a Partner Ecosystem-First Sales Strategy

Matt Green's career path is far from typical. He describes his transition from finance to tech sales as a "Forrest Gump" theme, where he simply bumped into opportunities that shaped his professional life. A key thread throughout his entire career has been his role in a client-facing or sales capacity. His decision to leave finance and enter the tech world was a conscious choice he made despite facing unemployment at the time. The inspiration for Sales Assembly came from hosting monthly coffee meetings with other sales leaders in the Chicago tech scene. They discovered that the leaders faced the same common problems regardless of their companies' products. This insight was the genesis for Sales Assembly, which was initially built as a community-first model that offered little training.

The network became the core product, allowing revenue leaders to exchange ideas, best practices, and troubleshoot problems. This community-driven approach is deeply embedded in the company's DNA and has been a key driver of its growth. As a bootstrapped organization, Sales Assembly relies heavily on referrals, introductions, and word-of-mouth from its network. The success of this model proves that a strong community and partner ecosystem can be a powerful engine for growth, even without extensive outbound sales efforts. This strategy resonates with the modern B2B landscape, where building a valuable network is often more effective than traditional selling methods.

Matt argues that a community is valuable for any SaaS company, regardless of its product or target audience. He recommends that companies find existing communities of their buyers and get heavily involved. Adding value to these sub-ecosystems allows a startup to break through the noise and differentiate itself from larger competitors. This approach of being a part of the ecosystem, rather than just selling to it, allows for a more authentic and impactful presence in the market. It's not about a well-thought-out plan but about recognizing and acting on the opportunities that arise from actively participating in your industry's community.

The rise of AI has raised questions about what parts of sales it can automate or replace. Matt believes that specific human skills, such as curiosity, trust, and empathy, cannot be adequately replaced by AI. These soft skills are becoming even more critical, especially in mid-market and enterprise sales, because they are the key differentiators between a company and its competitors. While the foundational sales skills remain the same, their deployment changes depending on the sales motion. For example, in a product-led growth (PLG) model, a sales professional might focus on expanding an existing relationship. In a sales-led motion, the focus is on establishing the relationship from scratch, going from "zero to one".

The skills needed for sales are consistent across different segments like SMB, mid-market, and enterprise, but how they are used changes. For a lower mid-market or SMB sale, a salesperson might craft a single compelling story for one decision-maker. In a complex enterprise sale, the same storytelling skill must be adapted to address multiple stakeholders with different motivations. For instance, the story told to a finance professional should not be the same as that told to the CTO or sales leader because they all care about different things. This highlights the importance of multi-threading in today's sales landscape, where the challenge is navigating a world of remote work and opaque buyer identities.

Matt emphasizes the importance of effective research to overcome these challenges. All the necessary information is available if a salesperson is willing to do the work to find it. A salesperson can manually find key contacts on platforms like LinkedIn by inferring information from similar companies and identifying traditional stakeholders. A BDR, for instance, needs a different set of competencies than an enterprise AE, as they are tasked with standing out in a "sea of sameness" and breaking through the noise. This blending of digital and soft skills is crucial for success in a world where AI is automating many of the tactical aspects of the job.

The conversation explores how sales are evolving and what the future holds. Matt points out that sales are changing, with more businesses adopting a "B2C-ification of B2B". Companies are now selling high-value products without ever talking to a prospect, much like buying a car on Carvana. In this new environment, skills like relationship-building and storytelling will become even more valuable because they differentiate a salesperson in a digital-first world. He believes that those with liberal arts backgrounds, who are skilled in communication and conversation, may have an advantage as the market shifts.

The discussion then turns to the post-sales cycle and the increasing commercialization of customer success teams. Organizations are realizing the potential revenue expansion within their existing customer base and are tasking their CSMs to drive it. This requires CSMs to learn sales skills like negotiation and more effective discovery, even if it falls outside their traditional comfort zone. The tech stack for sales is also becoming increasingly complex and expensive, with an average spend of $8,500 per salesperson. Matt believes the current state of sales tech is "messy" due to companies adopting too many inexpensive point solutions. He advises leaders to start small with new AI tools, focusing on specific, micro-level problems before scaling the entire organization.

Finally, the conversation concludes with advice for CROs on where to invest. Matt suggests that companies with around $10 million in revenue should allocate about 3-5% of their sales budget to training and enablement to keep their teams fresh and skilled. He highlights two key tech investment areas to watch in the next 12 to 18 months: leveraging conversational intelligence to create compelling business cases and using AI for in-depth pre-call research. These tools can help sales teams translate insights into tangible, shareable documents and equip them with a unique point of view, which is essential for differentiation.