By Bob Moore

May 18, 2022

Today we kick off Supernode, our inaugural in-person conference for those who grow and scale partner ecosystems. I was thrilled to open the festivities by sharing a vision for the future — one where partner ecosystems become the most prolific and efficient growth lever that businesses can build.

For this to take place, however, something else must happen first. The work of partner teams needs to connect more fluidly to the work of sellers. From their data to their workflows to their sources of truth, these teams need to be, well, partnered. Today we share some exciting news that will accelerate our path to that vision.

Crossbeam has acquired Partnered, the beloved Account-Based Networking tool for sales teams. Founders Adam Michalski and Tim Sherwood have spent the last several years building Partnered into a value creation engine that allows sales teams to enable partner-powered co-selling at scale. Now, we’ll be combining that functionality with the Crossbeam platform and our network of 8,500 companies (and counting). Soon, you will be able to map accounts, facilitate introductions, and easily attribute your partner-sourced deals all within Crossbeam. 

This is only the beginning of the journey. The full Partnered team will be joining Crossbeam to push our unified product vision forward together in the years to come.

Why Partnered? Why now?

This is a natural step in the evolution of Crossbeam. Since our founding in 2018, we’ve envisioned the benefits of a Partner Cloud that allows data from our network to be consumed by other platforms. This focus on extensibility has allowed us to amplify the impact of our network through our own ecosystem. It then allows us to buy, build, and partner to ensure that we never miss an opportunity to serve those who can benefit from Crossbeam the most. 

Our acquisition of Partnered, which has been building on top of Partner Cloud for the last several months, is proof of this strategy in action. It will seamlessly expand our value into the workflows of sales teams, amplifying the impact of Crossbeam and those who use it to a whole new persona.

And now is the perfect time. The way SaaS companies sell has transformed over the past few years: The ad market is suffering due to the waning ubiquity of cookies, third-party data is under regulatory scrutiny, and prospects are increasingly jaded by cold outreach. The future of selling is through your partners, and it’s time your tools kept pace. Consider:

• 90% of B2B buyers instantly trust referrals from people they know

• 77% of companies that co-sell see a direct increase in sales

• 63% of businesses leverage co-selling to reduce the amount of time their salespeople have to spend in the never-ending prospecting grind

It’s clear to us that the road to the future of sales goes through the Ecosystem. 

Get Early Access

Existing customers and potential new users can sign up for early access to our integration here for a taste of what’s to come. 

If you’re an existing user of either or both platforms, here’s what you need to know today:

• Keep logging into each separately for now — the experiences you know and love are all still there. 

• Long-term, the Partnered product will be incorporated into a single experience inside of Crossbeam alongside a wealth of new features and experiences. Stay tuned to our product newsletter and in-app notifications for frequent updates!

I’ve said for many years that we’re “still in the first inning” here at Crossbeam. This exciting acquisition marks the top of the second. There’s still a whole ballgame ahead of us, and we’re grateful to our team, our community, and our partners for all the hard work behind us and the excitement that’s still to come.