3 Pillars of Evolving through Strategic Partnerships with Tipalti

When it comes to B2B, collaboration is everything.

Two years ago, we partnered up with Tipalti to help our clients streamline their partner payment processes and we haven’t looked back. We’ve been looking up and to the right ever since.

The recently valued $2B unicorn is one of our most valued partners. We sat down with Evan Heby, Senior Manager of Partner & Industry Marketing, to get the scoop on how they’ve skyrocketed to their powerful leadership in the space, and leveraged partnerships like ours to get there.

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Here are some of the main pillars of their continued evolution through partnerships:‍
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Collaboratively Creative Messaging‍

To get the most value out of a partnership, it comes down to going to market with a shared message and creating content that helps you do that. Define the joint value proposition you’re underscoring and identify case studies of clients that have reached their own relevant goals. See if you can amplify similar victories across different industries.

Figure out where your target markets overlap, and find ways to broaden your messaging. Traditionally, live events are great opportunities to feature joint marketing efforts like this. Today’s social climate may force you to get a bit more creative in your delivery, but it will be well worth it.

• Identify mutual clients who can vouch for both partners and invite them to share their stories. Real life clients can be your best advocates for effective messaging. As long as the story and the message is genuine, you can be creative with the format of the presentation.

• Connect with a thought leader who can speak generally, as an expert, and tells an inspiring story. When their story highlights the joint value proposition you’re pushing, you’ve found a unique way to humanize the partnership. ‍

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‍Building Alliances‍

It’s paramount that the sales team is familiarized with the partner, and that they can conceptualize their expertise. They need to understand the partnership well in order to pitch it intelligently. At Tipalti, Alliance Managers help with championing partnerships and working with sales to cover any and all bases the partnership can serve.

Evan is working towards driving 33% of all new customers through leveraging partnerships in 2021 as a proven fundamental pillar of their growth:

1. They receive a constant flow of new opportunities from partners.
2. They actually win more competitive deals by bringing in partners and their solutions to solve prospects needs and be another voice of influence on the value of Tipalti. 
   

Taking this a step further, Evan reminds us that referrals are the best, most effective avenue to finding prospects. A solid B2B partnership serves as a well-oiled referral engine that will provide a reliable flow of leads, regardless of the economic or social climate.‍

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Turn Your Customers Success Into Stories‍

Tipalti is designed to serve businesses looking to scale significantly. Although there are countless benefits to using their product, rather than focusing on cost, they focus on sharing stories of their customer’s growth. Evan told us the following story:‍

Zola, a leader in the wedding website/registry space, was experiencing an extreme growth spurt. Prior to evaluating Tipalti, they had planned to quadruple their accounts payable team in order to manage the influx of business. Once they realized that Tipalti would allow their current staff to thrive, without needing to hire additional staff, they realized the massive cost-savings was an added bonus to the scalability they were experiencing. 

Zola’s success is now in the playbook for Tipalti, giving them a powerful story to share with their clients and be shared by their partners.

Tipalti is looking to double their partnership initiatives in 2021 with clean, calculated processes for onboarding and enabling new partners. It’s important to continue honing in on internal processes and always be paying attention to the ways in which you can improve. The key is to find the right formula to put your partnership in a position to thrive.

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As with almost anything in life, it’s better when shared. Keep in mind that fostering the right partnerships at the right time takes hard work and dedication on both sides. However, the payoff of a good partnership will continue to present rewards long into the future, if handled with proper care.