Growing a Partnerships Team: Q4 Spotlight

This has been a big year for partnerships professionals! As a relatively new function, partnerships is starting to gain traction and notoriety as a valuable asset for SaaS companies.

During our Spring 2021 check-in, we saw that 74 members had changed roles or organizations. In our recent Fall 2021 check-in, 66 members changed roles or were promoted and 55 members changed companies. Our Q4 spotlight will dig into best practices for growing your team, landing the partnerships role of your dreams, and excelling in your career.

Land the Role of Your Dreams

We recently launched our Partnerships Career Progression Playbook, which explores the different paths professionals can take into partnerships. The playbook divides the partnerships career into four key roles, breaking down the necessary skills and experience for landing each position.

This quarter, some of the individuals who shared their journeys for the playbook will join us to take a deeper dive into their careers & strategies for growing their teams. Below are some of the trends we’ve noticed and insights we’ll be digging into deeper over the coming weeks.

Hiring Advice from the Pros

While each professional has their own methodology and best practices, there were a few key pieces of advice we took away from all the interviews.

Partnerships Experience isn’t Everything

Many interviewees highlighted that having experience in past partnerships roles isn’t a necessity. In fact, there’s a lot of value in seeking candidates with experience in other functions, like sales, marketing, and product.

Additionally, partnerships skills are easy to train on. Meanwhile, soft skills like relationship building, empathy, and cross-functional collaboration aren’t as trainable. Professionals recommend looking for candidates who already possess those personal qualities.

Involve Other Departments

Getting insights from sales and marketing can be helpful when selecting your candidate. Since this individual will likely work closely with other departments in the organization, it’s a good idea to give them the opportunity to interview the candidate as well.

Get Tactical

Don’t shy away from asking hard questions. When you’re in the later stages of the interview process, dig into how the candidate plans to begin executing strategies. What will they do in the first 30, 60, and 90 days? Dig into where they feel change needs to happen and what they plan to do first.

Learn More From the Experts

There’s more to come by way of hiring advice yet this quarter. Each Tuesday, a partnerships professional will join us to share their insights and best practices on growing a team. Follow us on LinkedIn to make sure you don’t miss any updates.

Take a deeper dive into the partnerships world in our Career Progression Playbook, which digs into the four key stages of a partnerships career and the necessary skills to land to each role. Browse and share open partnerships positions on the Partnership Leaders Job Board. Interested individuals can also submit their resumes to be highlighted as job seekers.

Partnership Leaders elevates the role of professionals through an engaged community of hundreds of professions and unparalleled resources. Professionals in all stages of their partnership careers join Partnership Leaders to connect with other professionals working through the same problems they’re solving. Apply to join now.