61 - The Bow Tie Effect: How Partnerships Can Drive Customer Advocacy - Will Taylor

Will Taylor introduces the concept of the "bow tie effect.” It focuses on maximizing the value of partnerships throughout the entire buyer's journey. 

He explains that partnerships should not be limited to pipeline generation and revenue, but should also aim to create brand ambassadors and advocates. 

Will discusses how including partners at every stage of the bow tie journey can enhance the customer experience, drive more value, and increase alignment between teams. 

He emphasizes the importance of mapping out the different stages, partners, activities, and KPIs to create clarity and better internal efficiencies.

**Key Takeaways:**

- Partnerships should focus on maximizing value throughout the entire buyer's journey, not just on pipeline generation and revenue.
- Including partners at every stage of the bow tie journey can enhance the customer experience and drive more value.
- Mapping out the stages, partners, activities, and KPIs creates clarity and better internal efficiencies.
- Partnerships can help create brand ambassadors and advocates, leading to increased word-of-mouth referrals and business growth.

**Quotes:**

- "Partners will play a role at every stage throughout this bow tie journey." - Will Taylor
- "Partnerships are not just about pipeline generation and revenue, but also about value generation across the lifecycle." - Will Taylor
- "Including partners in the entire buyer's journey allows for better alignment and increased effectiveness." - Will Taylor

****************Chapters****************

00:00:00 Introduction to the podcast and topic of the bow tie effect
00:01:22 Importance of planning and customer advocacy in partnerships
00:05:21 Explanation of the bow tie effect and the buyer's journey
00:08:56 Enabling partners to enhance value generation across the lifecycle
00:09:54 Questioning the fit of certain partners in the value journey
00:10:43 Considering how partner teams can fit into the right side of the bow tie
00:11:15 Lead sharing as a way to generate more value for customers
00:11:46 Including partners in the journey to create brand ambassadors
00:11:46 Importance of including partners in the customer journey.
00:12:41 Partners can enhance value and engagement for customers.
00:13:38 Brand ambassadors can promote partnerships and company.
00:14:44 Partnerships improve KPIs and alignment across teams.
00:17:01 Mapping partners to each stage of the bow tie.
00:18:55 Different activities for each stage of the buyer's journey.
00:20:28 Communicating value to internal teams using KPIs and activities.
00:21:37 The bow tie approach is more organized and effective.
00:22:14 Partners benefit from campaign focus and alignment with teams.
00:23:33 Including partners in business planning and amplifying partnerships.
00:23:46 Including partners in business planning and amplifying partnership
00:24:29 Creating clarity and setting expectations with partners
00:25:19 Tailoring the partnership approach to different partners
00:26:15 Helping partners achieve certification and set goals
00:26:53 Increasing clarity and effectiveness with the bow tie approach
00:28:01 Mapping out the marketing calendar and identifying KPIs
00:29:28 Offering assistance in creating a partner mapping document
00:29:41 Discussing the possibility of a bow tie approach
00:29:54 Wrap-up and invitation to explore the bow tie approach
00:30:02 End of episode

Transcript

Will Taylor: 0:00

Everything you do should be focused on the buyer.'cause the customer is your boss. If you only think around pipeline generation and revenue generation you're going to miss 50% of the journey that your buyers and customers are going through, there is so much potential in our customer bases for activating that word of mouth where you are creating these loyalists and these brand ambassadors, and that's going to be the customers. And when you bring them success, they're going to talk about that success and that's going to bring you more business.

Tom Burgess: 0:38

Howdy partners and welcome back to another edition of the Howdy Partners Podcast, where we give you tactical information to take away for your everyday work life, personal life, whatever life balance, and how it can help you in partnerships and other organization or other features or teams of your organization. I am joined today by my esteemed co-host, will Taylor. Will, how are you doing?

Will Taylor: 1:07

I. Am doing well. I have been in deep thought mode thinking about how people can best plan for 2024. Been having a good amount of conversations with people and it's been feeling good to add clarity to everything. And then outside of that life is pretty good, all things considered. How about you?

Tom Burgess: 1:26

Yeah. Is that. I'm doing well. I would say that I am in the same same mode, same mentality. We're heading towards the holiday season, which on one side, typically We all know reduces a lot of the external communications, but I think it also ramps up on maybe the internal planning. So I've been deep in preparation there. And that kind of leads us into our topic today, which is, would you call this a brainchild of Will Taylor?

Will Taylor: 1:58

I don't want to take credit for the, the idea, like the fundamental idea, but I have just been thinking about yeah, how it can be applied. So, I don't think I've, I've heard about it applied to, to partnerships and so that's where I think there's an opportunity for discussion. I.

Tom Burgess: 2:14

Sure. So let's get that patent branded towards your name and your like. So today we are gonna talk about what we or Will is calling the bow tie effect. Now will, before we kind of dig, dig into like what the bow tie effect is, talk to me a little bit about why you started to build this out. Because I think it's tied back to what we were talking about earlier, which is planning.

Will Taylor: 2:37

Yeah. So, it's been racking around in my brain just like this idea of how your customers, your boss, and Jill Rally talks about this. Jill Rally 100% is behind this and has inspired this within me, where, you know, everything you do should be focused on why does it impact the, the buyer. Of course the customer.'cause the customer is your boss. And so when thinking of engaging with partners, if you only think around pipeline generation and revenue generation you're going to miss 50% of the journey that your buyers and customers are going through, which is, you know, once they're onboarded, how can partners continue to play a role? And the reason that I think this is more important than ever is because. You know, we talk a lot about word of mouth being so powerful and there is so much potential in our customer bases for activating that word of mouth where you are creating these loyalists and these brand ambassadors, and that's going to be the customers. And when you bring them success, they're going to talk about that success and that's going to bring you more business. And really good example of this is one of the businesses I, I used to work with. 70% was of their net new revenue was through customer referrals. And word of mouth wasn't necessarily a partner program, it was just their loyal customers saying, I love this company. They take care of me. And so, if again, we're thinking only as partner people through that new revenue generation or pipeline generation, then I think we're missing a lot. Especially in this economy where Instead, if you can apply partners and your relationships there too, what we'll get into is the other half of the bow tie and make customers advocates. Then you are going to tap into those network effects even further.

Tom Burgess: 4:37

Uh, that's unreal. It's, it, it makes me think about, a lot, but I'll use like a really bad analogy. It's like, how can you expect, like if you're a partner professional, and I'm talking about the idea of, hey, I am really just, I'm, I'm here to generate leads and generate partner referred revenue. Well, what that means is that's gonna be, that is going to be the main focal point of your conversations with partners. Whereas like if I'm, Hey, if I tell Will my friend To go play hockey. Like, Hey, I want you to play hockey. Go play hockey. Well, what if you don't know how to play hockey? Right? Like, what are you doing out there? And then you're also saying, Hey, will go tell all of your other friends to play hockey and play at this arena using this equipment. I. Once again, if they don't know how to do it, how can you expect that to be like a, a very promo, a very like strong or confident type saying. So all that to tie back together, the idea around building evangelists and building brand advocates through action is really important versus like telling them what to do. So let's, let's get back into the actual meat of this instead of me going off on a stupid hockey tangent. What is the bow tie effect?

Will Taylor: 5:51

So the the bow tie effect is you. As a company will try and maximize your reach, which is going to be at the start, or rather the left side of the bow tie. And this is all focused on the buyer's journey and how they engage with a company throughout the lifecycle. So the first step is to attract them. And so you want as much reach as possible so you can attract them into this side of the, the bow tie. And then you're going to nurture them where you're going to move that attraction into being nurtured. And they're, you know, if you wanna think about it like a traditional funnel, it's moving them down a stage in, in the funnel. And then you are converting On that nurtured prospect and the buyers. Getting more and more attracted to your business, nurtured towards your business, and converted into, you know, taking action on the strategies that you're talking about. And eventually, of course, engaging with the sellers. So that's like probably the most common understanding of, you know, the one side of the bow tie is basically your traditional funnel. However, after purchase there is. The reverse where, you know, if you think of the funnel, it gets smaller at the bottom. The other side of the bow tie, it starts small because you are now customer that just made a purchase, doesn't know as much about the value they made the purchase, and they're starting to realize the value. And so the level of engagement and advocacy that they have at the start is going to be a lot smaller. But as you go, as you prove out value, as you help them realize the ROI of buying your tool, and then you, you know, Have them see success in a continued fashion. You know, six months down the line, they start to become an advocate, and that's where the other side of the bow tie starts to get more expansive because they're going to start talking about your platform more. They're realizing more value, and that's going to encourage them to bring that up with their peers or, you know, if you ask them for something, they're going to be more likely to say yes. And the ultimate end goal is they become a brand ambassador where you are not even really needing to ask them for things. They're just going out there and talking about your product organically. And that happens, you know, you, you've probably come across a situation like that or at least seen a situation like that where there's just a customer that loves the company they work with. Not for, but you know, they purchased a contract, they're a customer of this other company. They love them so much that they're happy to bring them up in conversations or even publicly shout them out. Or if they're on stage speaking, then they'll bring up the tool organically. You don't have to pay them necessarily. And that's the ultimate end goal. And so the reason that I think organizing this journey in the partner person's mind is really important is because. Partners will play a role at every stage throughout this bow tie journey, and the best part is it's not. A funnel, it's like a funnel. The only in a conceptual manner, but you shouldn't be treating it like a funnel because you're not moving the buyer through your stages. They are organically going through these stages. All you can do is enable them at each stage. And once you get to, you know, the brand ambassador level, then you can see results like the example that I shared and the best way to accelerate that. Even from the left side of the bow tie all the way through to, you know, making a purchase and then through to becoming a brand ambassador. The way to enable that and enhance that is including your partners across that journey. And so that's where I've been thinking more and more about this bow tie model, so that it's not just the pipeline generation and revenue generation, its value generation across the lifecycle. And the really interesting thing is. You know, we've worked with a good amount of partners and it got me questioning, why are we working with, you know, x, y, Z partner? Because I don't see them fitting into this value journey. I only see them fitting into this pipeline generation aspect of partnerships. And so that, that's where I'm like having this light bulb moment where I'm saying, okay, I should talk about this because people may also have a similar reaction.

Tom Burgess: 10:27

Yeah. I think like the, the very black and white, or like, easiest way to to think about this is like partners. If you're, if you're. In partnerships and you're working to enable your partners. It's pretty much like everything on the front side of the bow tie or the, the, the flipped sales cycle or sales funnel. But you know, when you talk about something like lead sharing, which I'm sure comes up in a lot of organizations, you're kind of touching on that other side of the bow tie, but it's just like. The, it's one idea in kind of like the grand scheme of things. So I'm like really curious to see how you think, like, not so much on the, the left side of the bow tie, but on the right side of the bow tie, how partner teams can layer in there. Because like before, before you even talked about partnerships. In the bow tie effect, I see marketing playing a role. I see sales playing a role. I see customer success and customer onboarding, playing a role, but didn't really think about partnerships to now kind of get into the, the meat of where partners do fit in on that second half,

Will Taylor: 11:28

Yeah. So on that second half the, the way that I've been thinking about it is one we already mentioned, you know, the, the lead sharing. So which of my customers are your prospects for my partner? And the reason that I would ever bring in a partner into my customer base is because it will generate more value for them. And so. Again, as you're thinking through this bow tie journey, it is additional value to the existing client on the right side of the bow tie that will get them to a point where they will become the ambassador and or at least advocating, if not the further state, which is becoming the brand ambassador for you. The only way that you're going to effectively do that is To include partners because if it's just siloed to your tool, I would venture to say that it's much less likely that they're going to think, yeah, I'm gonna talk about this, because they would have the ability to talk about all their other vendors. So why would they choose yours? Well, if you are showcasing your partners throughout that journey on the right side of the bow tie, then it makes so much more sense for them to say. Hey, here, here's my expertise on this subject, and however they're being an ambassador, whatever environment they're able to competently talk to the overall tech stack and how it all works together versus these singular pieces where they're just not gonna be incentivized because they won't think, yeah, this is the main thing that's giving me so much value. I doubt any person will say, this one tool is the main thing that's given me all this value. I bet you there's at least a connection to the CRM or you know, another tool that they're using. And so if you are guiding them to realizing that value, again, they're going to be more likely to become that ambassador and they're going to be more engaged with your partners, which ultimately you want as well. And the main piece here that I also put into my model is. oNce you have that advocate or brand ambassador It's a, a client that's seeing value, you will then not only have a joint value story to tell with your partners, so your partnerships are just gonna get better regardless. But you are then able to bring that person and their team back to the left side of the bow tie where you can use their story. To then promote the partnership or promote your company and again, build more awareness, nurture more people. And you have this brand ambassador where it's not just you and your brand talking about you and your brand. It is some real person who can speak to this in real world examples. And so, you know, partners don't necessarily need to be at every single point along that journey, but I'd venture to say that the KPIs associated there. I Mark, I'm, I'm marking this.

Tom Burgess: 14:37

Okay.

Will Taylor: 14:39

The KPIs associated at every stage are going to be enhanced when partners are involved. And so mapping that process out will not only allow you to pinpoint which partners can I work with at what stage, but also what KPIs being impacted. And then of course when you bring that to the other teams, there's much more alignment and you know, sales knows exactly what the CTA can be and what KPI's being. Impacted by this program. And so the benefits here, especially from a partnership's perspective in summary, is the value's gonna be a lot more, so it's going to be a lot better to, or a lot easier to drive that brand ambassador and grow that brand ambassador. It'll inform the partnership even further when you're generating more pipeline and more revenue together and it'll drive more alignment across both where you can include your partners and the rest of the team and why you would be doing these programs.

Tom Burgess: 15:36

Yeah. Yeah. Good, good. I'm happy that you, you kind of brought that full circle because. To your point, the bow tie then starts again. So it's kind of like that accordion gets bigger and then smaller. And it's funny because when you were talking about the idea, like it's sometimes important to realize that partners might not fit in certain stages of that bow tie. I'd almost argue that if you're, if you're like trying to get as much product productivity out of your program. Then you need to find a way to include them in every, at every part in the bow tie. Like building, building confident partners on the front side that can essentially do the sales process. You know, like reducing a lot of the overhead there. It's funny'cause I had a conversation with a partner today where we're talking about like sandbox counts partners having access to your product. And it's funny because. At some point, like a sandbox account becomes redundant. Like unless they're able to actually use it and see the value and have that aha moment for them, you're never gonna get to the second half of that bow tie. And another example is like in in partnerships or partner management, when you're, when you're laser focused from the top down on revenue and referral revenue and partner generated revenue, the problem is you're, you're, you're pretty much foregoing the first half. Of that bow tie to literally just focus on squeezing out like volume and, and you're doing yourself a disservice. So I'm, I'm bought into it. noW let, let's go back to the idea of like the internal, like internal department buy-in here. One, how do you do that? And two, how do you think the bow tie effect builds better internal efficiencies?

Will Taylor: 17:20

So I would say the main thing that people are going to care about is the KPIs and whether or not it's their KPI. So for example, if I have a program that's very far left on the bow tie and it's more focused on attracting prospects then what's going to happen is, you know, that's maybe. Page views and clicks and maybe subscribers however you're measuring that, you know, more quote unquote top of funnel metric that's going to then say, well, marketing caress about this. So they're going to be more aligned and more likely to engage sales, not so much because they're not going to really engage there. And so, the KPIs at each specific stage, which again you can think of in more of a traditional funnel way. And how each stage is being impacted or rather how each stage is impacting these different KPIs will then help you say, Hey, we have these programs going on and here's how it's valuable to you. Salesperson, marketer, whoever it is. So here's what we're going to do and here's how we're going to help you achieve. You know, your KPIs based on how this is impacting, this program is impacting that. And the best way to do that, and this is the exercise that I did, was so I mapped out the bow tie. I started thinking about the types of partners that at each stage, so a really good example is like communities or media companies could be on the attract. Side because they're much more like build awareness. And then, you know, as you move through the funnel, I was thinking through, well, a newer partnership probably needs a little bit more awareness driving. And we need to build that better together story. So it needs to be a bit more marketing focused, of course, on any low hanging fruit that we already have of shared clients and so on. And then as we move further down the, or further to the right in the bow tie, the Inclusion of let's say service partners, consultants, or the tech partners that you already work well with today that are, you know, longer standing partners. They're much more well versed. Your team is likely much more well versed on the partnership, and so including them closer to the purchase is going to be more beneficial because people understand it and they're going to take action a lot quicker because, you know, they either have experience with it or the partners can just help more at those stages. So mapping the different partners to each part of the bow tie then allows you to start thinking about, well, what kind of activities can we apply to each stage in the bow tie? So for example, it could be let's do a story piece or a narrative piece for the awareness side or the attract side. And then as we move down the funnel, it could be things like product marketing. Or it could be a webinar it could be tactical resources because that's where people are becoming, the buyer's becoming more problem aware and they're actually taking action. And so what I'm essentially mapping out here is the different stages of the buyer's journey in this bow tie funnel. The partners that can be associated at each stage, and then the activities that could be associated at each stage, and then the KPIs that are impacted from those activities. So when I go to the marketing team, I can say, Hey, quarter over quarter, I. You're already doing this, or we should be doing this, and here's exactly where partners can fit in. I can plug in a partner to this book that you're creating or this tactical resource, or we have this, you know, product marketing release coming out, which is again, closer to the purchase side, let's say. So let's engage our consultants to, you know, talk about it or do a demo of it and you know them talk about it through their own lens. And so From there, it leaves very little room for people to ask, why are we doing this and what's the value to me and my department? And it also organizes the information for you as a partner team to then say. Hey, here's the CTA and here's the KPI impacted. And of course, when you're tracking all of this, you can then do a report on, Hey, when we engage partners, this is what happens. This is the impact that we had on these different KPIs. So it's really good for organizing everything and then allows you to then easier communic, more easily communicate to the rest of your teams because it's, it's so clear. Awesome.

Tom Burgess: 21:48

Awesome. Do you think like thinking about partnerships from a more traditional sense. Do you think the bow tie has the same level of, kind of like what's in it for the partner or like what are, how does the partner benefit more than you know, your, the old ways to do things? I, I kind of wanna dig a little bit deeper'cause like, it seems like it would be very easy to showcase this to internal teams and, and get their buy-in and, and show at least like the roadmap, efficiency, success, et cetera. Like how, how, do you layer that into showing the partners like Why this is important, how they're gonna win from it,

Will Taylor: 22:24

Yeah, so I, I would say that it is much less haphazard. Where, where it's like, you know, most teams are probably not too great with a campaign focus with their partners. Maybe it's a, a one-off campaign that They're, they're trying, but how much alignment is there really with everything else going on? That's where you can say to your partners, Hey, we have this, you know, quarter over quarter program or campaign, or we have this slot for this campaign that we can run. And when it comes to the effectiveness, and I actually am in conversation with partners right now where I'm, I'm saying this directly to them, where I'm like, We have this campaign focus. What this is going to allow us to do is work specifically with a specific message, specific people on the team. And, It's going to be aligned with everything else. So there's going to be all this other momentum with all of our other partners and you know, all these other teams. And so the effectiveness of what we're going to drive in this partnership is going to be increased because we have that alignment. So for. It's like they do less thinking about what's the value they do. The partner does less thinking about you know, where can I actually fit in this other business?'cause you've already done that exercise and you can tell them versus asking them because they don't know how they fit into your business. And so everything's super clear and the best part about all of this is, again, if you have a menu of activities, then it allows you to have a review with your partner and maybe you already have an idea. Where you can fit them in and the type of activity. But you can also say, and by the way, here's what else we have time for in the month, over month or the quarter over quarter. So let's talk about how we can amplify our partnership and where we could fill in some potential gaps. But regardless, it's you including the partners in your overall business planning. So that They feel like they're an important part of your business and it adds all of that clarity. And again, like I said, it'll only increase the effectiveness. And I would venture to say that the level of clarity, especially with the KPIs, would then allow you to say to the partner, Hey, I know what we're going to try different next time, now that we've run this program and we know the impact on the KPI. So, if anything, it's only a benefit to the partners because they don't know your business. You're telling them how they fit into your business.

Tom Burgess: 24:44

I really, I really like that approach for a couple reasons. One, you know, when you think about it like, let's take a, a channel program per se. Well, you're, you're attracting channel agencies, consultants, in, but like, they're all very different. So like trying to send them down the same path or like really just focused on this more linear enable produce, enable produce, whatever it becomes. It can be monotonous. It can be redundant. You're trying to fit an agency or someone in a partner into a category that they might not fit in. Rather, when you approach it like the bow tie and you show them, here are the different verticals or avenues that we think that are gonna drive our success from speaking with you. Here are the. Two or three categories that I currently see you in one, it just makes it laser focused, right? So then you have the activity that's associated. They get buy-in, show the KPIs. And then furthermore, let's say, you know, ex-partners like, well Yeah, I'm a new partner, so I'm, let's say I, there's a certification course that they have to go through before they're able to implement your product with customers or implement their product with their own customers. They wanna get there, so like help them get there. So there's like the second side, which is you can help dictate and formulate where your partners fit in the bow tie, currently speaking. And then you have the ability to set goals and milestones around, okay, I know this partner wants to become certified. So like that's the second half of the bow tie where they can really do that lead sharing and implement and be a certified accredited partner. Help them get there. And I think that's a really, really cool way to think about it. So thank you for telling me about the bow tie

Will Taylor: 26:21

Yeah, it's been just going through my mind over and over because I don't know, for me it makes just too much sense and yeah, like you said there, it allows you to create those milestones. Whereas, you know, let's say with your other partners, they get certified and then. They're like, what's next? And maybe you're like, oh, well we're gonna do this 30 day thing and it's not aligned with whatever else is going on in the company. And like, maybe it's effective, maybe it's not. It allows you to then say, okay, you're certified. We now need to wait. You know, I. Three weeks before our next sprint in marketing to help you go to market with us. It at least will give them an expectation of what's next and why they may need to wait, or of course, what kind of resources they can start planning for that as well. So yeah, the clarity is just insane. From, from that.

Tom Burgess: 27:09

It can influence them. Like if they don't wanna wait three weeks, then, you know, help us do it. So I think there's a lot of like leverage and, and, and stuff there. And the last point I'll make too is, you know, through that entire discussion right there at the end, it seems to reduce a lot of the gap. yOu know, like when you think about the, the, the, you know, sales and marketing, they're always disconnected. HubSpot always says that, and we're trying to bring them together. The same could be said for like, let's say you have a channel program and an in like a tech partnership or integration program. You're always trying to find ways to build consistencies and build a program together. It's really hard to do. I think the bow tie effect probably brings that a little bit closer together, where you're breaking down some of those barriers because each partner is a partner. You're not necessarily an integration partner, you're not an influencer, an affiliate, you're not a certified channel agency like you're all a partner and let's find where everyone fits together. I love it. aNy last pieces or what would be your takeaway?

Will Taylor: 28:03

My takeaway would be if you're laying all of this out, even if it's, I, I did this in a spreadsheet and I have like some visuals and whatnot, and it's, it's not the cleanest thing, but it at least has given me this ability to create something like a menu and map things across this journey and have everything, you know, In one column of the partner type, the partner example, the KPI during that stage, the type of program, and it, it allows for this like mental organization. So my, my takeaway, my tactical takeaway here is just start mapping out what your team has going on from a marketing calendar to the sales programs that are going on to, you know, what does onboarding look like? And. Identify those KPIs that you can impact across the buyer's journey, and then it'll allow you to start planning. Okay. Well, marketing has a lot going on over in the branding side. They're creating a lot of things to build awareness. Great. Maybe I should get my partners involved because there's so much momentum already there. It'll help you align. So map it out whatever's existing today. And also if you're curious, I'm happy to show I have like a, a An example with no specific information. I'm happy to share that. Again, it's not the the cleanest thing, but I can walk you through that and then you can make your own version and I'll be cleaning it up as as we go. So if you want some help, then reach out to me and I'm happy to go through it with you. I

Tom Burgess: 29:31

Yeah, and I would take it and turn it into a bolo tie.'cause I've never worn a bolo tie, but I really Onto. So just for next episode,

Will Taylor: 29:38

do think they're more stylish, so

Tom Burgess: 29:39

but yeah, it, we could argue about that. But anyway, thank you Will for another great episode. I'm really fascinated by this, so I wanna see it in action and I'm sure a lot of our audience does too. So in the audience, if you're curious, to Will's point, he's happy to share something. But aside from that, we will catch you on another episode of Howdy Partners soon.