The partner marketing role requires a rare blend of skills. A successful professional must develop strategic business plans with partners while also managing granular details like booking venues and uploading leads. This dual capability is a critical hiring filter for this often-undervalued position.
Related Insights
The most effective operators, dubbed 'dolphins,' can fluidly move between altitudes: operating strategically at 10,000 feet with founders, managing at 5,000 feet, and executing tactically in the weeds at 1,000 feet. This ability to oscillate is a key trait to hire for, especially in advisory or early-stage leadership roles.
A leader's value isn't being the expert in every marketing function. It's identifying a critical problem, even one they don't fully understand, and taking ownership to push it forward. This often means acting as a project manager: booking the meeting, getting the right people in the room, and driving action items.
To shift from reactive 'order takers' to strategic advisors, partner marketers should first document their sales counterparts' specific goals (e.g., net new logos, deal registrations). This 'working backwards' approach aligns all marketing activities to sales objectives, building trust and ensuring marketing serves as a strategic partner, not just an execution arm.
Before launching any partner activity, define target customers, tactics, and follow-up processes with partners and internal teams. This pre-alignment is the key to achieving and proving ROI, moving beyond just tracking spend after the fact.
Marketing leaders often fail when hiring for functions they don't deeply understand. Success comes when you've done the job yourself first, like Capsule's marketing lead who ran events before hiring a specialist. This first-hand experience allows you to know precisely what "good" looks like and evaluate candidates effectively.
To break down silos between sales, channel, and field marketing, partner marketers act as a central hub. This is achieved by operationalizing transparency, establishing a formal communication cadence that replaces informal check-ins, and conducting blame-free reviews focused on future actions.
Look for a marketing partner who will educate you and your team, not just execute tasks in a black box. The most valuable agencies explain the 'why' behind their strategies, leveling up your entire organization's marketing knowledge and fostering a more collaborative, effective relationship.
Generalists' broad skillsets allow them to communicate effectively with sales, product, and rev-ops. This 'multi-lingual' ability is critical for gaining the buy-in necessary for complex strategies like ABM, giving them an edge over siloed specialists by getting them into more strategic conversations.
The goal of an agency partnership should extend beyond task execution. A key qualifying question to ask is, "What will you teach me along the way?" A great partner aims to leave the client more knowledgeable and capable, empowering them to make better marketing decisions independently in the future.
When interviewing, ask founders about their perspective on long-term brand investments versus short-term pipeline goals. Their answer reveals if they understand marketing's true value beyond being a sales support function, indicating the strategic role you'll be allowed to play.