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Brian Weinberger is the Chief Revenue Officer at Sisense, a leading analytics platform helping companies embed intelligence into every product experience. With over 30 years in sales leadership across New York’s tech scene, Brian has built and scaled go-to-market teams at every stage—from early-stage startups to category-defining giants like Yext, Segment, and Salesforce.
Discussed in this episode
- The evolution of partner selling — from VARs to SIs to ecosystems
- How to know if partner selling fits your GTM model
- The delivery-first mindset that drives retention
- Direct vs. partner motion: Microsoft vs. Salesforce
- Why enablement is the #1 green flag for partner success
- Partner marketing: how to make resellers self-sustaining
- Using AI to power future-ready GTM models
- The case for hybrid work in high-performance sales cultures
Episode highlights
00:00 — The “year four” moment when partners are selling for you
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=0
01:07 — 30 years of selling through partners in New York
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=67
03:22 — Start partner strategy with delivery, not distribution
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=202
06:32 — Why partner selling creates “superhuman” sellers
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=392
09:59 — Salesforce vs. Microsoft: direct vs. reseller — and why the future is hybrid
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=599
12:13 — The startup hack: sell delivery on your paper, subcontract partners
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=733
17:16 — A 90-day playbook for integration partnerships
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=1036
21:39 — Hiring the right people to build a partner business
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=1299
27:18 — How Sisense runs delivery partners and an Australian reseller
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=1638
29:55 — White-labeling Snowflake: using resell to get the giant’s attention
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQGv-uvyZhM&t=1795
Key Takeaways
1. Start with delivery.
The foundation of any partner motion is how your product is delivered. If implementation is complex, external expertise is your greatest asset.
2. Enablement drives success.
The faster a partner can become an expert in your product and category, the faster you’ll unlock revenue.
3. Do both: direct + partner.
A hybrid model (direct sellers for speed, partners for scale) is the new standard for SaaS growth.
4. Sell on your own paper.
Startups should simplify buyer experience by owning contracts and subcontracting delivery partners.
5. Think long-term margin, not short-term cost.
Partner ecosystems require upfront investment but reduce CAC and churn dramatically after year three.
6. Feed your partners.
The best partner programs drive pipeline to partners, not the other way around. Incentivize with meaningful margins.
7. Marketing is part of the motion.
A self-sufficient partner that markets independently is worth its weight in ARR.
8. AI makes partners stronger.
AI shortens feedback loops, tightens collaboration, and opens new revenue streams in implementation.
9. Culture beats model.
The most successful partner networks are built on trust, transparency, and shared success, not just contracts.
10. Hybrid work builds loyalty.
In-person time accelerates learning, builds camaraderie, and cements the cultural glue behind high-performing sales orgs.
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Follow Brian Weinberger
Recommended Books
- What Great Salespeople Do by Michael Bosworth & Ben Zoldan — The power of storytelling in sales
- The Power of Nice by Linda Kaplan Thaler & Robin Koval — Why kindness compounds in business
- Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson — Coaching and leadership lessons from the Bulls dynasty
Referenced
- Sisense: https://www.sisense.com
- Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com
- AWS: https://aws.amazon.com
- Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com
- Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com
- Accenture (SI example): https://www.accenture.com
Host links
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi
- Website: https://gtmnow.com/
- Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com
Where to Find GTMnow
- Website: https://gtmnow.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnow
- X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_now
- Podcast Directory: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast
The GTMnow Podcast tells the stories of how the top 1% of operators, founders and investors build, scale and invest.
Each week, we uncover the pivotal moments, bold decisions, and go-to-market strategies that turn ideas into breakout companies.
GTMnow is the media brand of GTMfund – we are an early-stage venture fund made up of 350+ go-to-market executives from the fastest-growing companies.
Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes, The GTMnow Newsletter editions, and other content.
GTM 171 Episode Transcript
Brian Weinberger: 0:00
You wake up one day in year four and you’re like, oh my god, like I’ve built this entire ecosystem that’s basically selling, marketing, delivering, keeping my customers for life.
Sophie Buonassisi: 0:11
Most teams never get to that moment because partner selling isn’t a shortcut, it’s a system, a system built quietly over years through delivery, enablement, and trust. And when you design it right, it becomes part of your go-to-market engine that compounds faster than your direct team ever could on its own. Few people understand that system better than Brianberger, zero of science and a leader who spent 30 years building partner ecosystems across VARs, size, and cloud marketplaces. In this episode, we break down how to build a partner selling system. All right, let’s get into it. Brian, welcome to the podcast.
Brian Weinberger: 0:56
I’m excited to be here.
Sophie Buonassisi: 0:57
It is great to have you here. And we’re gonna dive into all things partner selling. But first for the listeners, give a little bit of context to your background and why we’re sitting here today talking about partner selling.
Brian Weinberger: 1:07
Absolutely. Yeah. So I’ve worked in this city, New York City, for 30 years. Um, and it’s been an incredible journey. I think uh partners have been a part of every organization I’ve worked at. I mean, it’s it’s kind of been threading throughout everything I’ve done in sales leadership. In fact, I was like thinking back. So I started at One Penn Plaza, ADP, uh, great place to start my career. And I actually got my second job. It was referred to me by at the time was a partner. Uh, we used to partner with accounting firms that basically would take us to their clients for payroll. So this firm was Winnix Sanders, uh, amazing firm. They basically introduced me to Infinity Info Systems. About a year later, I went to go run sales at Infinity. Um, so yeah, partner and Infinity was a partner. So you we were a value-added reseller. So back in the day, it was called a VAR.
Sophie Buonassisi: 2:08
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 2:08
Um, and so yeah, partners are a part of like my entire fabric for selling.
Sophie Buonassisi: 2:14
That is incredible. Yeah, deep rooted. And partner is such a misunderstood, nuanced word. How do you think about actually defining partner in the context of partner sales?
Brian Weinberger: 2:25
Yeah. Well, we were talking about, I mean, it’s complex.
Sophie Buonassisi: 2:30
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 2:31
So, I mean, you can have a tech partner, right? So there’s partners that you integrate your product with. Um, and that’s like your entire value proposition is this integration. You could also have partners that deliver your solution, so implement it. And then the decision is do you want partners to co-sell with you or do you want them to resell? So there’s a lot of um options. So I think that’s exciting. And I hope to help people like walk through like how you make decisions on determining like how to go to market with partners.
Sophie Buonassisi: 3:10
And there are a lot of if then what decisions to be made around partner selling. How does it fit into the greater go-to-market kind of context for anyone listing?
Brian Weinberger: 3:22
So I I like the first thing I think about is your product. Like how technical is your product? And it’s okay. Like it doesn’t have to be technical or not or uh or not technical. But the reason I think about that is like really the delivery. Because at the end of the day, you can build the greatest sales organization. But if your product doesn’t stick and you don’t have customers for life, which is what um we always say, uh I said since Salesforce. Uh but basically if the implementation is super technical, then who’s gonna deliver it? Is it are you gonna hire professional services, which it turns a lot of companies off that you have to hire a whole staff to deliver it, or do you want to find um these implementation partners, you know, SIs, system integrators, subject matter experts, I don’t know, consultancies to actually help you deliver. I think that’s the first question.
Sophie Buonassisi: 4:24
Delivery. Yes.
Brian Weinberger: 4:26
What’s your delivery model? And then you can work backwards from there.
Sophie Buonassisi: 4:31
Got it. Got it. And then what are the green flags that partner selling is a good motion for me? And what are the red flags that maybe I should not build a partner motion on?
Brian Weinberger: 4:45
The the word that comes to mind is enablement. Okay. So I always think about um, as I think about delivery, how technical it is, then you go back to how easy is it for um, I’ll say this, an average person to do like sort of an ordinary person to do extraordinary things, which is kind of what selling is about. And so how easy it is, how easy is it for a person to pick up this category? I mean, so let me give you examples, right? I spent time in the FPA space, financial planning and analysis. And we’re asking people early in their career to basically get on the same side of the table as like a 20-plus year financial like guru, veteran. So that’s the question like, how quickly can you enable sort of a seller to be an expert at that category and your product? So, and their industry. So there’s a lot of factors there. So I tend to think about maybe um why not do both? Why not um build a direct sales team? Yeah, think about how your product’s gonna be delivered, but then de-risk by finding a couple of consultant consultants, consulting firms that actually are almost like a one-stop shop.
Sophie Buonassisi: 6:19
Yeah, and they can kind of do it end-to-end. Almost to to back up a little bit, like why should somebody consider a partner selling motion? What’s the value in building that?
Brian Weinberger: 6:32
There’s a ton. Um There’s a ton. I mean, look, you take your car, your car breaks down, you take it to an auto mechanic.
Sophie Buonassisi: 6:40
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 6:41
Typically, you want to go to an auto mechanic that actually knows more about your car than you ever would imagine. That’s how I think about these. Are they better at your field than you’ll ever be? Um, so that’s valuable. Yeah. Right. Because you want, um, I always know that you, when you meet with a prospect or a client, you should know more about your product than they do. So that’s the goal.
Sophie Buonassisi: 7:07
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 7:08
These consultants’ partners may know more about your product than you do and the customer. So that’s valuable. They can help you. Um, you always want to bring in like an SMA, a subject matter expert. They can help you win deals for sure. They can help you keep clients forever. Um, and that’s also the goal. You don’t want to just build a sales motion that’s transactional. And, you know, a year later, you got to go find more customers because these are leaving. So, you know, you have to think about the entire I c I kind of talk about the entire cycle from top of the funnel all the way to customer for life.
Sophie Buonassisi: 7:45
Let’s say it makes sense and someone’s bought into the the concept of partner selling. I think a lot of people aspire to build a partner selling notion because from a first principles approach, it makes a lot of sense. But like you said, it’s not always the correct path for certain companies. And that question of what is your delivery is that North Star in terms of directing someone, whether it’s the right path for them. But let’s say it makes sense and someone wants to explore it. We’ve hit the kind of areas that we’d want to hit on the delivery question. It sounds like if you were to summarize what those things are, almost like a checkbox on the delivery side. What would the core parts of that be? Technical?
Brian Weinberger: 8:28
Well, I mean, delivery is a big word, but there’s usually like call it five, six different steps that need to happen with delivery.
Sophie Buonassisi: 8:37
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 8:37
So that’s the question. Like, how many steps in your delivery? Like, do you have to do like a kickoff that has a deep analysis of what you’re trying to accomplish? Then you have to basically sort of architect it, spec it out. Then you have to go, you know, build it. Yeah. And you have to go sort of test it, deploy it, et cetera. Uh, beta test, quality assurance, all these things. Um you got to figure out what are those steps. I mean, right? Because the and and it’s not one size fits all because the world, if you’re a startup, you’re also like, I’m gonna be PLG, I’m gonna be product-led growth. And so if you’re product-led growth, you’re trying to eliminate all of that delivery. You want it to be self-service.
Sophie Buonassisi: 9:25
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 9:25
So that in itself probably lends itself to a direct sort of motion. But if you’re not, and you’re in a category like uh data, yeah, which is a big category, right? Data can mean a lot of different things, but like that in itself is an entire sort of ecosystem. And so you you may want to consider having a co-selling motion or a reselling motion or a delivery motion. I’ve spent a lot of time. Well, I’ve sp my my 30 years has been at all different size companies.
Sophie Buonassisi: 9:58
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 9:59
Um, which is interesting. And what I think about is building an incredible scalable software company. And I think about the two most prominent software companies in my time, which is Microsoft and Salesforce. Interesting, because they’re completely different from top to bottom. Yeah. Microsoft basically has a complete reselling distribution model. And Salesforce had a direct selling model. And so I’m like sitting here, I’m trying to build the next Salesforce or the next Microsoft. What do I do?
Sophie Buonassisi: 10:36
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 10:37
So I think a lot of companies tried to copy, like they went all in on either one, and I think the world now is a hybrid. That’s kind of where I’ve landed. And so I like, so I’m at the helm, CRO, we got to figure out how to scale the business. So scaling the business is to keep it simple, you want to have a repeatable process. So I’m not even talking about the marketing aspect, but when it comes to selling, you want to have a repeatable model and delivery is also part of that. So I think a good balance is be able to get your product off the shelf quickly. If that’s a direct seller, great. If you want to experiment with resellers, I like going to areas where I may not have coverage. So, like, let’s just say you build out a North American team and then you want to go uh internationally. Yeah. You may consider a reseller. But then at the end of the day, too, I go back to how technical is your product? Do you have your own delivery people, or do you want to actually leverage the world of SIs, system integrators, partners? And here’s here’s like a nuance.
Sophie Buonassisi: 12:05
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 12:07
So I was talking about Salesforce. A lot of companies try to copy Salesforce.
Sophie Buonassisi: 12:12
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 12:13
Myself included. So me. Yeah. So I I’ve learned that Salesforce would, we sold direct and then we would bring in amazing partners and they would sell on their paper. So we had Salesforce paper, we had the partner paper. That in itself is pretty complex. So I’m for startups out there, I actually like the idea of if you’re going to have a delivery model that’s not your company, like Salesforce did, then why don’t you sell the delivery on your paper? So you sell the software, you sell the delivery, and then you subcontract the partner. And the reason why is when you’re a startup, it’s hard enough. Prospects don’t even know who you are necessarily. And now they’re going to meet you and another company they’ve never heard of. I think that makes it even harder. So I like the idea of, hey, let’s just sell our product on our paper and we’ll sell the implementation. Because you cannot sell product again, depending on how difficult your implementation is. You can’t sell it without onboarding services and then sub it to these people and they’ll be happy because you’re feeding them.
Sophie Buonassisi: 13:26
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 13:26
And it’s not even about making money, top-line revenue for your company. It’s about actually keeping the customer for life.
Sophie Buonassisi: 13:34
That’s the North Star.
Brian Weinberger: 13:36
Yes. Absolutely. I mean, uh churn is like it’s everywhere now because we’re on the backside of the software revolution. We all enjoyed the software revolution. Um, and now it’s like more value, right? Stickier, more value, keep them for life. And so a lot of that is you can’t have software sitting on the shelf that wasn’t delivered correctly. So that’s where it’s coming from.
Sophie Buonassisi: 14:05
Yeah, we’ve kind of seen the pendulum swing over to reduction in churn, customer success, really leaning into that in the past few years. Yeah. And that undoubtedly has shine a light on that part of partner selling. Yes. Quick pause because it’s event season and this is a game changer. At GTM Fund, our portfolio companies, our LP operators companies, we’re all planning events right now, as I’m sure you are. Sales kickoffs for next year, company retreats, conferences, you name it. It’s a lot of work. Planning these company events has been made simple, though, with Boom Pop’s AI-powered platform and event planners. They handle everything from venues to experiences, so you can create an incredible event without being bogged down by the planning process itself. And as a listener of GTM Now, you’re eligible for an exclusive discount, full service event planning for just $99 per person. Terms and details are on the webpage in the show notes, which is Boompop.com forward slash GTM fund. Head there to start planning your next offset. And you mentioned SIs, resellers, you know, there’s so many different types of partners. What are the core ones and what do they mean for anyone kind of wondering what those acronyms truly mean?
Brian Weinberger: 15:14
So let me try to break it down and not confuse people. But basically, like let’s just stay on the technology side. So um AWS.
Sophie Buonassisi: 15:28
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 15:29
Uh that’s that’s a city that we’re all building our own buildings in that city. So AWS is sort of this platform, tech partner that we’ve leveraged quite well where I am today at SciSense. I can get into that. But that’s like a um, I would call them like a technology alliance. Then you have like tech partners where your product relies on, like they integrate with it. So let’s just say um you mention like a whole ecosystem.
Sophie Buonassisi: 15:59
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 16:00
Let’s say your product does one thing in that entire ecosystem. Then you’re going to want to integrate technically with these other products. And to me, that’s a big partnership, right? Because you’re you’re sort of all trying to work together on this ecosystem and you’re all trying to get like a piece of that ecosystem. Yeah. So the best way to do that is to actually not compete, but to partner. Um so that’s the tech side. And I’m sure I can even go deeper on that because there’s tons of integration, right? Like if you have an integration strategy, um, should I give an example?
Sophie Buonassisi: 16:41
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 16:42
Because financial planning and analysis is in the center of many different systems.
Sophie Buonassisi: 16:48
Okay.
Brian Weinberger: 16:48
Because you have your financial system, your accounting system, ERP.
Sophie Buonassisi: 16:52
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 16:53
You have your CRM system, and you have your HR system. FPA sits in the center of that. So of course you need to feed data from these other systems. So that’s a tech, that’s an integration partner strategy. There are hundreds of accounting systems.
Sophie Buonassisi: 17:09
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 17:10
There are a few CRM systems, and there are a lot of HR systems.
Sophie Buonassisi: 17:15
Okay.
Brian Weinberger: 17:16
So what do I do? Here’s what you do. You need to do one of each of these amazingly well. And to me, it’s a 90-day process. So, okay, let’s say we take ERP1, so Net Suite.
Sophie Buonassisi: 17:34
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 17:36
30 days, we build out integration. Our product is lockstep. We got Salesforce on the CRM and we have workday on the HR side. Build these out 30 days, go market them for 30 days, and then go sell them for 30 days. You need to be disciplined. I’ve companies try to do too many things all at once. Do one really, really well. If you have to go to six months, go to six months. Then rinse and repeat. Do it again. So that’s that’s like more on the tech partner side.
Sophie Buonassisi: 18:10
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 18:10
So that’s a definition. Um we’ve talked about delivery. So delivery, uh, the names have changed throughout the years. Like I was a VAR, a value-added reseller, which sounds like it’s so old school, but it’s such a like a mom and pop name.
Sophie Buonassisi: 18:26
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 18:26
But I loved it. Um, but yeah, that’s basically a delivery partner became an SI. And the reason it became an SI, I think because all the big players came into the game. Um, so if you read like Accenture, right? Like they’re one of the biggest SIs in the world, and they have every tech in the world in their bag to deliver, and they’ve made uh a huge business out of it. So SI was the other word for delivery partners. I also say delivery partners.
Sophie Buonassisi: 18:52
Right. They’re all synonymous.
Brian Weinberger: 18:54
Implementation partners, yeah. So it’s all synonymous, but um and then like then you the world of reselling it opens up a whole other dictionary.
Sophie Buonassisi: 19:06
Yes. Yes, I’m sure. And and would you define reseller as a category enter itself? Obviously, there’s a lot under it, but people are thinking about aligning that spectrum.
Brian Weinberger: 19:16
Reseller, yes. It that’s we started there with the whole mechanic. Another example.
Sophie Buonassisi: 19:24
And what does it make sense for a company to start experimenting with a reseller team? Because I know you’ve entered a Series A company and started to build out that motion. Like at what stage does it make sense for companies?
Brian Weinberger: 19:36
Early and often.
Sophie Buonassisi: 19:38
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 19:39
Yeah. I mean, if I you’re, you know, early early days at software companies, you’re experimenting with a lot of things.
Sophie Buonassisi: 19:47
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 19:48
In in all the go-to-market uh categories. I mean, you’re experimenting with marketing. Do you do, you know, do you do in-person events? Do you do webinars, et cetera? So I think it’s very similar. Um you you need a strong sales leader for sure to be able to manage, you know, both those processes. Yeah. Another thing I think about is how long will it take to get this seller at your company to be an expert at your product? And it typically takes a lot longer than you think. It could take a year plus.
Sophie Buonassisi: 20:24
Okay.
Brian Weinberger: 20:25
And then do you go to a firm that’s been in this space for 30 years and try to get one of them to also resell while you’re training some direct sellers? So I think you do it early. Finance people at your company will love you if you can get a reseller because your cost is going to be it may be more upfront when you’re recruiting and training, but over a long period of time, you can actually drive your cost acquisition down.
Sophie Buonassisi: 20:56
Considerable. Yeah. Which is why it’s such a big incentive for companies and why they’re they’re certainly interested in it. What does a upfront experimental investment look like?
Brian Weinberger: 21:08
I think it’s exciting.
Sophie Buonassisi: 21:10
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 21:11
Because you wake up one day in year four, um, hopefully sooner, but you wake up and you’re like, oh my God, like I’ve built this entire ecosystem that’s basically selling, marketing, selling, delivering, keeping my customers for life. I mean, that that’s powerful.
Sophie Buonassisi: 21:32
Always play the long game. And so if companies don’t think about building that early, who is the right person to bring in to help make sure that happens as a sales leader? What should companies be looking for, whether it’s founder or a different CSV executive who’s looking to hire and build that out?
Brian Weinberger: 21:51
It’s a big question.
Sophie Buonassisi: 21:53
Brian, obviously.
Brian Weinberger: 21:54
Uh no, I I mean, it’s so funny you said that. There’s one person who’s one of the best partner people I’ve ever worked with. Uh and so I hired her at that SI um reseller, yeah, Infinity. And I hired her right out of college. And then she, when I left to go to Salesforce, she left to go to Exact Target.
Sophie Buonassisi: 22:19
Okay.
Brian Weinberger: 22:19
Do you remember that company?
Sophie Buonassisi: 22:21
I sure do. Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 22:22
Um, so and she built out their partner model because basically Exact Target was email marketing. So it’s very uh agency marketing create creative. Yeah. So she built out this entire ecosystem of agency partners. And when I think of building out a partner business, I think of her. Okay. Her name’s Nikki Bonacorsi.
Sophie Buonassisi: 22:46
Shout out to Nikki.
Brian Weinberger: 22:47
Shout out to Nikki. Um, and so she is someone that could help sort of create the structure. And then you would need business development people like these Pams. Um, PAMs are um similar to sales, uh, but like a little bit more entrepreneurial. Um, and they have to play the long game.
Sophie Buonassisi: 23:07
Always play the long game. Okay, super helpful. And then how do you know if this experiment is working? Is there one metric, for example, that should be waterfalling down and you should notice and know, okay, this is working? What are the early indicators?
Brian Weinberger: 23:24
Well, I mean, it’s I think it’s similar to a direct selling model. It’s a tamin.
Sophie Buonassisi: 23:28
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 23:29
So you’re gonna have you you’ll have to assign quota to this. Um I think quota would be it’s so when you think of a direct seller, you always think of OTE times whatever. Um, let’s say it’s three, four, or five. I think with a reseller, you’re probably thinking smaller. Um you have to figure out what’s your average, what’s the average deal size?
Sophie Buonassisi: 23:53
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 23:53
And then basically like what’s the margin? So what are they getting? What are we getting? Um, and then do some sort of calculation. Like um I guess I should give you examples, but like let’s just say it’s $25,000 ASP. Um, how many deals are people internally doing a month, or how many do you expect them to do? Uh it’s a math equation times 12. And then basically I would do a crawl walk run. So I would put like $300,000 that a partner has to do in a year, and then maybe double it the next year, and then, you know, just build out a model that slowly over time increases it. I don’t I don’t think there’s a silver bullet.
Sophie Buonassisi: 24:32
Mm-hmm. Got it. Okay. So really treat them like, if I’m hearing this correctly, treat them like a salesperson, give them the quota and then measure it based on quota attainment.
Brian Weinberger: 24:44
Yes. I think I think a little bit more lenient than a salesperson because you’re not you’re not paying their medical benefits.
Sophie Buonassisi: 24:52
Right.
Brian Weinberger: 24:53
You know, it’s like a little bit different model that way.
Sophie Buonassisi: 24:56
Yeah. What are the other important factors when building out the partner ecosystem for a company? Are there core areas that we missed?
Brian Weinberger: 25:08
Absolutely. There’s the whole marketing side of it, right?
Sophie Buonassisi: 25:14
Tell me more.
Brian Weinberger: 25:15
Yeah. So when I was at Infinity, we had a mindset. There’s the cultural aspect.
Sophie Buonassisi: 25:25
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 25:26
So when you have a strong software company that bleeds their software, like they’re just rah-rah, all in, running through a wall, the partner model becomes interesting because then you, you know, you want to you sort of feel like, how do I fit in? At Infinity, we almost had like the opposite. We were like, we always felt like more confident and more spirited and more positive than the actual software publisher. So I think that’s an interesting mindset. And we put a lot of investment into, we wanted to be self-sustainable.
Sophie Buonassisi: 26:07
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 26:08
So I think what happened was back to Salesforce, I think they drove the market to be partner fed. So comp people were just building these partnerships, like, come give me leads and waiting. So I think that if you can have a partner that’s thinking about marketing and getting their own food, that is an incredible like dynamic. So then everything the software publisher gives is gravy compared to like, I think where the world is like, hey, I’m waiting for my next lead from you. So I think marketing is a big topic. So at Infinity, we invested a lot in marketing. We did a ton of events.
Sophie Buonassisi: 26:50
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 26:51
We did a ton of top-of-funnel uh demand gen uh email marketing back in the day. Uh, we did a lot of client events in person. And I think it’s unique. Like you just don’t see a lot of these SIs, especially the boutique ones, doing a lot of that.
Sophie Buonassisi: 27:07
Interesting. That’s a great tip for anyone. So you built out partner motions at past companies and you’ve been out partners. How are you doing it at SciCenter?
Brian Weinberger: 27:18
Yeah.
Sophie Buonassisi: 27:18
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 27:21
Um and we’re still we’re still doing it.
Sophie Buonassisi: 27:23
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 27:23
Um, so where we are right now is uh we have a direct sales team in the US, we have a team in Europe, and basically I have a reseller in Australia. So he’s working with a handful of resellers that understand our category, which is uh analytics platform as a service, basically embedded analytics, um, which is a technical offering. And so we have resellers there and it’s working out really well. So um I want to take that to other areas we don’t have direct sellers, like Southern Europe. You know, they speak Italian, they speak Spanish, so that helps too. Because if you can find resellers that speak the language, that helps. I am thinking about it a little bit in the US, and I can explain how, but basically in the US and in Europe, we actually have delivery partners. So we now sell everything on our paper, including onboarding, and then we subcontract these delivery partners. I think that’s working really well. Actually started.
Sophie Buonassisi: 28:29
Okay.
Brian Weinberger: 28:29
The data warehouse market has skyrocketed. When Sciense started, there was no concept of Snowflake. Yeah. Okay. Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks, they’ve all like, they’re crushing it. So when you have a data analytics platform, data is the key, and data warehouse is huge because you basically are connecting directly to these data warehouses. Yeah. And we build a data model. Okay. So about a couple weeks ago, I was like, how do we get the attention of Snowflake? Snowflake, like Salesforce, like Databricks, these are amazing companies that have huge sales organizations that really um I always think of them as like the bulldog, and we’re like, you know, small software companies like a chihuahua.
Sophie Buonassisi: 29:20
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 29:21
You know, jumping over. So I’m like, how do we get the attention of the bulldog?
Sophie Buonassisi: 29:24
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 29:24
And here’s how. Why reinvent the wheel? We why not resell? In this case, Snowflake. So we actually have our own flavor of our own data warehouse. We call it Elastic Cube. And basically, Elasticube is powered by Snowflake. So every time we sell a new customer, we’re also selling Snowflake. That’s why label? Yeah.
Sophie Buonassisi: 29:54
Interesting.
Brian Weinberger: 29:55
Yeah. So so in my mind, let’s just do that for a long time. time and show Snowflake that, hey, we’re also reselling your product. Oh, that’s cool. That that gets the attention of a lot of executives. Yeah. And now I also think it ties to marketing. So instead of just going to like a snowflake event just to have a booth there, let’s go to a snowflake event that says uh a SciSense client powered by SciSense, because we’re a white, we’re white labeled by our clients.
Sophie Buonassisi: 30:30
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 30:30
And we’re white labeling Snowflake. So why can’t we just say client powered by powered by SciSense or powered by Snowflake? So that like when we’re at a conference, a Snowflake conference, it’s we’re, we’re basically selling their platform.
Sophie Buonassisi: 30:45
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 30:46
So that is where I am today with SciSense. That’ll be the next 12 to 18 months.
Sophie Buonassisi: 30:51
Mm-hmm. Sounds like you’re really leading with value to build out these relationships.
Brian Weinberger: 30:56
Absolutely. Get the attention of the get the attention of the got it.
Sophie Buonassisi: 30:59
See for Apple. And you touched on before that you touched on you got folks internationally and you mentioned where you don’t have direct sellers. Yes. How does reselling or any other partnership form come into the go-to-market strategy when you think about the geography overall globally?
Brian Weinberger: 31:19
I mean uh simple enough hiring hiring is not easy.
Sophie Buonassisi: 31:24
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 31:25
Hiring talent and then you have management you need locally language barriers. Yep. Are you in office? Are you remote? You know, those are all factors.
Sophie Buonassisi: 31:36
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 31:38
And I go back to we have a partner in Australia that imagine your company taking a great marketer, an amazing seller, an amazing sort of technical consultant, um, an amazing CSM and putting it into one entity. That’s what my partner in Australia does for me. Like so I get all of that. Yes, I’m paying them margin when they sell it, but I’m basically getting I’m it it’s not even about the margin really, it’s uh it’s about making a stickier experience. So the customer sticks around and I have uh a better approach, better reach extension over there. So that’s why it’s amazing.
Sophie Buonassisi: 32:30
Got it. Build a customer for life, as you said. Yeah. It sounds like you can use different geographies strategically and partner strategically where you don’t necessarily have coverage or if it just creates a better customer experience. So you mentioned it’s not too different from building out a direct selling motion, building out a partner motion in terms of the investment up front, you are going to get the long tail effect from the partner program, but what did the actual margins look like? Or how should people be thinking about forecasting those mergeries?
Brian Weinberger: 33:00
So first step is definitely partner with your finance game. Get really aligned with FPA if you have that or your CFO, director of finance, whatever size company you have I think the first question for that cost and margin is the contribution margin. That’s usually the first margin that you want to think about is what does it take to run your software on AWS? And do you want to make 80% margin? Do you want to make 70, 60? That’s a big decision for a CRO or head of sales because it kind of talks to how you’re going to discount your software. And then you can apply that to the partner model. So margin and then figure out I tend to be a little bit more generous. Of course I’m a revenue leader but I would be more generous. If you’re bullish on having a reseller model, then why be chintzy on how much margin you’re going to give them so Infinity we were making from day one we made 50% on the dollar. Wow then we had a chance to make 57 points I don’t think we went above 57 but we would sell a $100,000 deal to Panasonic. We made $57,000 so that’s huge for the culture it’s it was huge for our company and it allowed us to be we were the top reseller five years in a row for Sage software which so and and a lot of that was margin. So like if you’re going to go all in, go all in. It’s kind of similar to finding sellers you know how many startups want the founder seller, the founding seller that’s a really important spot. So you’re going to have to pay for that person. That’s how I think about partners don’t go go all in or don’t and if you’re going to go all in then you know maybe it will take a little bit away from your margin but you’re going to build a very thriving ecosystem.
Sophie Buonassisi: 35:22
That’s fantastic.
Brian Weinberger: 35:23
And there’s like three books in that jump out in my career. So one book changed me um while I was managing at Salesforce. So I basically just got promoted I’m uh running a team that uh we’re going upmarket. So I came from like SMB to upmarket. Yeah. And I was like, oh my God, like this is a little overwhelming. What am I going to do? And I came across this book and it’s called What Great Salespeople do. And that changed everything I thought about. So it really dissected why do 20% of your sellers do 80% of your sales?
Sophie Buonassisi: 36:01
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 36:02
And that was like a whole thing where um you had a lot of out uh underperformers and and basically they dissected these 20% and what it came down to was the ability to to actually tell stories. Uh stories have been the history of life. People sit around a campfire, they listen and basically like stories beget other stories. So I tell a story, then you’re like, oh, that reminds me of a story. So the art of selling is that getting people to open up right because if you’re trying to solve a problem, you want to really know what the problem is. So anyway, that was a game changer for me and we ended up bringing in the author of the book we ended up bringing him in. We did 200 workshops at Salesforce. Wow yeah it went so it started in like my world and went all the way up to like the largest enterprise teams and I became a facilitator of this it was it was phenomenal. So I was a game changer. This other book it’s everything I smile when I think of it it’s called the power of nice.
Sophie Buonassisi: 37:08
Okay.
Brian Weinberger: 37:10
It’s another famous business book. Yeah. And it’s really actually to tie it to the partner it’s about being nice to people in business like how that just is a more sustainable long term um being friendly and it talks about like being friendly with like the doormen in buildings because in New York when you you know when we used to sell in New York we it was vertical. So you had to get into a building and then go knock on every door. So to do that you had to be friends with like everybody in the building. Yeah. So the power of nice is another one that I just take with me.
Sophie Buonassisi: 37:44
Yeah.
Brian Weinberger: 37:44
And then the third Yes. Uh I think it’s someone I try to be, but I’m not even close but Sacred Hoops. So I’m a big basketball fan, but uh it’s Phil Jackson’s book. And it’s, you know, basically dissecting when he had to coach the greatest player to ever play Jordan and get him get Jordan to basically buy in to the entire system and the program. So like there’s a lot of psychology behind it and that is like the coaching side for me.
Sophie Buonassisi: 38:16
Yeah. Super super interesting okay I love it. I love it. I was just listening to uh I’m trying to remember his name right now. It’s the it’s the it was the manager of a basketball he’s pretty new on the block. Anyways he was his like an agent yes I’m gonna find the name for you later before dinner tonight. How do you know what player? I’m drawing blank on his name because he was somebody new but he’s got a couple I was gonna find his name anyways I looked into it and it’s cool I was like ah I think you’d love it but a size point. Those are fantastic book recommendations. Thank you.
Brian Weinberger: 38:57
And where can people find you if they want to follow along I’m you know I kind of wish I was more visible. Actually I was just talking to um the woman who runs social at SciSense. Yeah and she she just told me that everywhere I am to start recording myself. You should and basically send it to her yeah and then like so you know I’m I’m quasi active on LinkedIn.
Sophie Buonassisi: 39:25
Yeah. But if people want to follow your journey at SciSense building or get in touch LinkedIn is the best place.
Brian Weinberger: 39:30
Yeah absolutely absolutely yeah well that will be in the show notes.
Sophie Buonassisi: 39:34
Ryan thank you for the been fantastic really appreciate the breakdown of Parker selling 101 in a way I feel like this has been a comprehensive maybe a 101 plus 102 lesson for everybody.
Brian Weinberger: 39:45
I mean look it’s therapeutic for me because now I’m like always thinking about building. Yeah. And so like there’s a lot of options and it’s exciting time.
Sophie Buonassisi: 39:55
Very cool. Well thank you.
Brian Weinberger: 39:57
Thank you
