Navigating Executive Alignment for Strategic Partnerships

Justin Gray, author of the brand new The Go-to-Market Cheat Code and Co-Founder of In Revenue Capital joins Hosts Matt Amundson and Craig Rosenberg to share how to build more effective and efficient B2B partnership programs, why nothing seems to be working in marketing, and his cheat codes to go-to-market success in B2B. Justin explains how and why LeadMD evolved from being a competitor to building an extremely strong partnership with Marketo. There’s also a great discussion about what VCs and other investors look for in founders when investing in startups and how this has changed in recent history.

Also, Matt vehemently opposes accusations of being hyperbolic and Craig recants on one of his ill-concieved New Years resolutions.

Critical Takeaways

• The success of any partner progam depends first and foremost on executive alignment. Without buy-in from leadership, 99% of B2B partnerships will fail.
• No matter how good your content may be, you still have to earn the right and access to get your content in front of your target audience by building strong relationships.
• Stop looking for copy and paste playbooks to use that are being used by everyone else in the market. If you don’t you’ll just be adding your content and brand to the endless pile of lifeless, gray ooze of things that get ignored. Take a risk and you’ll at least have a chance of sticking out.
• Any partner motion begins with building a relationship with one person. Find the right people to focus on and start one at a time. This is a much quicker way to build real relationships and trust than trying to boil the ocean and make a play for everyone at once.

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Chapters

00:00 Introducing Justin Gray

00:50 The Origin Story of LeadMD and how they Partnered with Marketo

09:55 The Go-To-Market Cheat Code Book

16:47 Craig makes fun of Justin’s Office

18:12 Lessons on Relationships from The Wild West of the Payment Processing Industry

30:26 The Cycle of Innovation and Imitation

32:09 The Importance of Knowing Your Buyer

40:34 What Venture Capital looks for in Founders

46:50 Building Effective Partnerships

1:05:02 18th Book Plug of the Episode

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Epic Quotes

• “ What's working is what has always worked which is trusted relationships” - Justin Gray
• “Innovators look for ideas” - Craig Rosenberg

Connect with Justin

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inrevenue/ 
• The Go-to-Market Cheat Code (Book): https://inrevenue.capital/cheat-code/ 
• Order The Go-to-Market Cheat Code on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4hjtrbA 
• In Revenue Capital Website: https://inrevenue.capital/ 
• The GTM Cheat Code (Podcast): https://inrevenue.capital/insights/?article_category=podcast 

Shoutouts

• Essentials/Fear of God Clothing: https://fearofgod.com/ 
• Focus
• MAAS Impact
• Chris Selland: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cselland/ 
• LeadMD
• Marketo
• Bill Binch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-binch-302a4a2/ 
• Margaret Hoogerbeets: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhoogerbeets/ 
• Amy Guarino: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyguarino/ 
• Phil Fernandez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-fernandez-6902881/ 
• Scottsdale Princess: https://www.scottsdaleprincess.com/ 
• Josh Wagner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshwagneraz/ 
• Jon Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonmiller2/ 
• Jon Miller’s Post about the Tragedy of the Commons in Marketing: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jonmiller2_mpb2b-b2bmarketing-marketingautomation-activity-7262460572032483328-hs0J? 
• Dirty Money, Season 1, Episode 2: https://www.netflix.com/us/title/80118100?s=i&trkid=258593161&vlang=en 
• Bessemer: https://www.bvp.com 
• Nick Mehta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmehta/ 
• Marc Beniof: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbenioff/ 
• Founder’s Fund: https://foundersfund.com/ 
• Asher Mathew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashermathew/
• AWS Marketplace: https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace 

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