By Andrea Swangard, Kelly Schermer

Image by Julianne Medenblik

In B2B tech, a robust partner network is invaluable—a community of brand evangelists selling your product can significantly boost your ROI. But your partners’ success depends on their ability to build a strong pipeline and convert leads. That’s why co-marketing is an essential piece of partner onboarding. The trick is balancing high-touch support for potentially valuable partners with the need for efficiency as you scale. 

Here are some popular signs that your partner co-marketing strategies might be ready for a remodel: Partners are asking the same questions repeatedly; self-serve resources are underutilized and overlooked; internal onboarding teams overinvest in partners who don’t bring in leads; and scaling the existing onboarding process is unsustainable. Sound familiar? 

A recipe for successful co-marketing 

2A collaborated with a major cloud provider to create an excellent experience for ISV partners while removing the internal team’s manual lift. The client restructured their co-marketing onboarding program to empower new, smaller partners to build co-marketing plans at their own pace. The updated program provides context on the overall process and anchors the available resources within it. It also uses a journey format, with activities that help partners strategically organize messaging and co-marketing tactics. 

Using the cloud provider’s guidelines, 2A helped create the onboarding structure, as well as build all supporting assets. We transformed interviews with partner co-marketing experts into content and created a course syllabus and webinar decks with talk tracks. These assets helped partners self-serve and ramp up on co-marketing initiatives without the help of a dedicated partner marketing manager. Through our collaborative, inquisitive approach, we helped the client bring a scalable onboarding program to life.  

While building this content, we discovered key strategies that help make partner programs more effective: 

• Explain benefits and how to make the most of them: Develop clear criteria for partner tiers and incentives, and outline how to use benefits like MDF for co-marketing purposes. 

• Create self-serve resources and tools: Establish a centralized repository for quick, easy access to marketing and sales materials. Develop clear, easy-to-follow guides for product positioning and selling, and templates and frameworks for sales and marketing activities. 

• Provide training on co-marketing and co-selling strategies: Outline effective partnership techniques and provide best practices for joint marketing efforts. Showcase successful outcomes with examples! 

The impact of effective partner enablement 

The goal of this co-marketing program was to empower partners to act independently while maintaining alignment with the client’s brand and sales objectives. By implementing a program like this one, you can significantly enhance your partner relationships, boost sales effectiveness, and create a more scalable partner ecosystem. This can save you time and resources, and lead to more motivated and successful partners, ultimately driving growth for your business. For example, CrowdStrike recently made history as the first cloud-native cybersecurity ISV to earn more than $1B in annual sales from AWS Marketplace. (And yes, we did marketing work for CrowdStrike!) 

Have an idea for a partner co-marketing program, but aren’t sure what assets you need to make it a success? Let us talk you through options! 

By Andrea Swangard, Kelly Schermer

Image by Julianne Medenblik

Call scripts are a key component in the sales enablement toolkit, providing a strategic framework that enhances the performance of even the most experienced sales teams. While seasoned sellers may have extensive product knowledge, call scripts ensure consistent messaging and keep the focus on customers’ needs. They offer a structured approach to sales interactions so reps can confidently address objections, guide conversations effectively, and close deals. 

Scripts vary depending on where customers are in their buying journey, but a well-crafted script can enhance your sales team’s performance at every stage. 

Here’s how: 

Call scripts across the sales funnel 

Awareness: At the top of the funnel, call scripts focus on creating awareness about potential solutions to a customer’s problems. The goal of these calls is to find someone who is interested in the product and wants to continue the conversation. The result of the call might be a follow-up email with more info, an invitation to a webinar or event, or a hand-off to a sales rep. This script should help introduce your product or service at a high level and pique the customer’s interest and curiosity about what’s possible. 

Tip: Tailor the narrative to address your audience’s pain points. Ensure your scripts can identify and speak to the unique challenges of your customers. The rep using this script may not specialize in the product, so you’ll want to provide context about the solution and the strategy behind it. This background info can help them understand and be more empathetic to customer challenges.

Consideration: As customers move into the consideration stage, call scripts shift to ensuring they’re connected with the right person and qualifying leads. This script should focus on generating deeper interest in the solution and addressing specific needs and concerns. Help the customer identify and prioritize their most compelling and immediate use case. The sales rep can then assign technical resources to help build a plan and accurately scope the project. 

Tip: Balance structure with flexibility. Here’s where you might shift from a call center to an internal sales team that may or may not have expertise speaking to the customer’s specific use case or pain points. While scripts provide a framework, you should still allow room for personalization and natural conversation. This can be especially helpful for experienced sellers who know how to adapt to different situations.

Decision: In the final stage of the funnel, call scripts become more sophisticated, focusing on addressing concerns and handling objections. At this point, the customer likely has a pricing quote, proposal, or statement of work. You need a script to help knowledgeable sellers quickly surface and address concerns, objections, or reservations. This may involve comparisons with competitors, so sellers will need to know how to discuss competitive advantages and handle highly specific and technical questions. 

Tip: Incorporate third-party insights. Whenever possible—but especially in later funnel stages—include relevant statistics and analysis from reputable sources such as analyst reports. This can add credibility to your arguments and help address specific concerns. Make sure your scripts stay relevant by keeping them current with the latest market trends and competitive insights.

Script your way to success 

Using well-crafted call scripts across the sales funnel can help your team communicate more effectively, address prospects’ needs more precisely, and drive better sales outcomes. Need help putting together the right call scripts for your teams? We can help! 

By Kelly Schermer

Image by Nicole Todd

I’m the type of auntie that loves to give a holiday bundle—from Bomba’s mix-and-match socks to monthly KiwiCo STEM boxes—there’s something special about giving a gift that keeps you top of mind with the ones you love all year long. (Not to mention, I really despise shopping, so anything that makes it easier and less frequent is my jam.)  

Recently, many of our clients have started to adopt the bundle approach to marketing assets too. It’s a great strategy that takes a lot of the hard work out of planning, improves ROI through asset reusability, and helps drive toward a well-defined goal. Just think: With one SOW, you get a clearly defined plan for the quarter (or year) and a timeline for putting it into motion that you can easily share with your leaders and colleagues. It’s a great way to get budget allocated to your projects early and complete your goals on time without having to start fresh with every piece.  

Take for example, a PMM who came to us and expressed their interest in establishing a few key personas as industry thought leaders. We developed a bundle centered on a podcast series. It includes a podcast name and logo, social GIFs, podcast-based blogs, and email summaries.  

Not exactly what you had in mind? Not to worry! We’ve developed a number of bundles based on popular themes we see among our B2B tech clients. Each one addresses the sales lifecycle of the target customer while maximizing the shelf-life of the hero assets. Some of the more dynamic bundles are *ahem* bundled to better curate the target customer’s experience.  

Here are two you may wish you had gifted yourself before the big event season we just finished:  

Keynote bundle 

Get them there 

• Promotional social cards or GIFs 
• Invitation to event, email 

Wow them in person 

• 1-min keynote hype video/animation  
• 60-min presentation deck  
• Speaker talk track 

Ride the momentum 

• Summary and highlights, email 
• Deep dive into offerings, ebook 

Event booth bundle 

Put your best foot forward 

• Booth graphics 

Draw them in to talk 

• On-screen booth experience 
• Product demo video 

Earn space on their desk 

• Swag 
• Digital datasheet via QR code 

As you start planning for the spring, let’s talk about how a bundle can help you be more efficient and focused.  

By Katy Nally, Kelly Schermer

Image by Nicole Todd

We name stuff funny. We call our monthly meeting that showcases cool projects Circle Time, the special Friday once a month when the office is closed, FriYAY, and the slide outline made up of little squares, chiclets. So, it’s probably no surprise that we call our company values, Words we work by (WWWB).  

We think of WWWB as our North Star—the guiding light we use to help us keep what’s great about 2A while we grow. Our WWWB also allow us to build a collective identity as a team so new people come on board faster. 

Curious yet? Please say yes, we would really love to share them.    

• We’re helpful: When it comes to work, we’re not afraid to roll up our sleeves. Whether it’s colleagues or clients, we all pitch in to get it done and help everyone thrive.  
  We know that teamwork makes the dream work >> 
• We’re serious about our work: We show up to do the work, and we commit to doing it well. We give each project the effort it needs.  
  We’ll show you how serious we are >> 
• We tack toward improvement: There’s always room to get better, and that’s where we’re headed. We experiment, learn, and prioritize to challenge our path.  
  We’re still a work in progress >> 
• We work to build trust: A foundation of trust with a diverse community of colleagues and clients makes our days and our work better. We’re curious and proactive about building trust.  
  We love a good trust fall >> 

The secret to 2A’s high-quality work and engaging culture lies in our WWWB. Because really, Where Would We Be without them?  

By Kelly Schermer, Katy Nally

Image by Emily Zheng

Ask any major player in the cloud space about partners, and they’ll tell you a robust partner network is key to success. But for smaller tech companies, the value of partnering up isn’t always clear. Sometimes it can look like you’re giving away too much to your competitors, or making an investment that will take a long time to pay off.  

At 2A, we extoll the value of partnerships at least 10 times a day—building messaging guides, playbooks, case studies, pitch decks, and ebooks that illustrate how customers benefit from a better-together scenario. That is to say, we know a good partner program when we see it.  

Take, for instance, Hikari. The company formed as a spin-off from Ireland-based EMIT to help customers get more value out of their data. The secret to Hikari’s skyrocketing success wasn’t only its bet on low-code technology. It was Founder and Executive Chairman Eamon Moore’s vision for a partner network that launched Hikari into the big leagues.  

Moore’s first introduction to a new partner paradigm happened after EMIT won the Microsoft Global Partner of the Year for SMB Cloud Solutions in 2016. “It opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about partner networks. Here was a global group of companies interested in helping each other out—acting as a sounding board for one another. These discussions inspired myself and the team to think about how to adapt to new trends, and they provided tremendous insight into where we could deliver value to each other,” Moore said. 

Once Hikari spun off from EMIT, it partnered with ProcessUs, a firm specializing in Microsoft Power Apps across Ireland and the Netherlands. The companies worked together to deliver low-code solutions that pulled different sources into the Power BI dashboards Hikari built, giving customers better visibility into their data at the touch of a button.  

Business took off. There was clear value in combining the skills of both companies to help customers get more from their cloud data. Then Hikari decided to double down and bring Power Apps capabilities in house. The firm acquired ProcessUs, and the combined team set out to scale the new and improved Hikari.

From his work at EMIT, Moore knew many SMB customers view their Modern Work partner as a trusted IT advisor. While a particular partner might focus on cloud migration or security, their customers still ask them about everything technology related—from a photocopier to a PC to AI. Which puts a lot of pressure on small partners. “At the end of the day, if you try to be a jack of all trades, you’ll be the master of none,” said Moore. “It’s critical to do what you do really well and stick to it—especially when you’re a company our size.”  

Moore reached out to Microsoft and pitched the idea of setting up Hikari to serve Modern Work resellers. Under his proposed model, resellers would work with Hikari to determine if a low-code solution would help achieve their customer’s business objectives. If so, Hikari would support the partner with customer education and solution development.  

Microsoft introduced Hikari to TD SYNNEX, a distributor of IT products and services, that serves thousands of partners across Western Europe. Together they created a P2P model serving resellers who act as the trusted advisors of SMB organizations. Hikari started by helping TD SYNNEX partners with low-code workshops, assessments, proofs of concept, and service development. Over time, it has pivoted to offering a Power Platform Centre of Excellence for partners to ramp up their low-code skills.  

“We believe in the power of the network—the partner network, the Microsoft network, the distributor network,” Moore said. “We all have important, strategic customers that we want to hang on to. We don’t want a competitor knocking on their door and selling them on the idea that they can do everything while we can’t. Partner-to-partner (P2P) relationships help you maintain your existing customer relationships and increase your status as a trusted advisor by bringing in great partners to round out your offerings.” 

Hikari is just one of many companies out there that has created a flourishing partner network. For an overview on how to grow your own B2B technology partner program, download our guide.  

By Kelly Schermer

If you fell asleep during any of the Star Wars movies and felt annoyed when you awoke because the red and green shooting lights were STILL piercing the dark screen, you are not alone! And, if you think I’m a heartless jerk for falling asleep in the first place, get in line—colleagues are picketing my apathy as we speak. In the past, I would have argued that Star War-iors and Star Snore-iors inspired Rudyard Kipling’s saying “…ne’er the twain shall meet,” but recently a colleague and I tag teamed a keynote address that drew on the strengths of both camps. And what we ended up creating together was quite the force to reckon with!

Building a technology keynote from the ground up is a labor of love (and my oh my, do we ever love it!). At its core you might think, a keynote is just a PowerPoint deck and a talk track. While that’s not wrong, the practice of building a keynote looks nothing like what it takes to make a normal pitch deck. A keynote is its own special snowflake for a lot of reasons (sounds like fodder for another blog, doesn’t it?), but from a writer’s perspective, what makes it especially fun is the added challenge of making the content relevant within the context of the event and weaving in the speaker’s personality to help them engage and connect with the audience.

A couple months ago, my brilliant teammates, Guy and Forsyth, were asked to create a keynote to kick off a multi-day developer event. It was kind of like they got a box with a bunch of parts (most of which were still under development) and were asked to build something new with them. Forsyth started by sifting through the pieces for a story that would make their final product inspire the developers in the audience. Fast forward a bunch of zany brainstorm sessions later, and they had landed a fun Star Wars theme in which the technology describes a bridge to a universe of possibilities.

While we call it a theme, Forsyth made it so much more. She wrote a highly nuanced storyline comparing the capabilities of Jedi at different levels of their training to the benefits of specific databases. She referenced inter-character backstories and iconic movie scenes. It was a sheer work of art for anyone, especially pro-sci-fi developers and Star War-iors.

However, as it tends to happen in keynotes about burgeoning technology (and war-torn galaxies), our heroes faced setbacks. Forsyth was called on a higher mission (the highest really—her first family vacation post-COVID), and I stepped in to get the keynote over the finish line. Whereas she wrote her Star Wars heart into every line of that talk track, I picked, prodded, and googled every reference to find the ones that would appeal to a broader audience, so Star Snore-iors would connect with it too.

The final keynote talk track struck a solid balance between the Star Wars enthusiasts and…the rest of us. In hindsight, our tag-team approach worked better than we imagined. We delivered a fun, relatable, and highly informative keynote that our clients loved—and so far we haven’t heard of one person who fell asleep lost in space.

By Kelly Schermer

Image by Brandon Conboy

You know who gets one big name? Rockstars get one big name. We’re talking show-stopping, stage-rocking, mind-blowing rockstars that know how to shake up their genre and make audiences think and feel in new ways. These are the stars that possess so much raw talent and energy they only need the one name to stake a claim in the hearts and minds of everyone they meet. Think Beyonce, Lizzo, Eminem. Forsyth.

For those of you who haven’t met Forsyth Alexander yet, you’re in for a treat! Forsyth approaches storytelling for business with a fun, can-do attitude that gives her platinum-artist status at 2A. She’s a whirlwind of smooth jazz, bubbly pop, and marimba beats wrapped up as a storyteller extraordinaire. Thinking that sounds eclectic and interesting? That’s not even half of it!

DJ of technical writing

From a young age, Forsyth knew she wanted to be a music DJ and a writer—in that order. She got her degree in radio/television and motion pictures at University of North Carolina while working as a DJ at night and taking as many creative writing classes as she could. After graduation, Forsyth landed a job at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (now called the Horton Museum), where she became the go-to person for IT, editing, and design questions.

These experiences helped her realize her love for learning about new technologies, and her gift for editing other people’s writing to help them sound like the best version of themselves. Armed with this newfound awareness, Forsyth went on to build a vibrant career as a one-of-a-kind tech savant and writer, working for organizations across industries—from an engineering group to a home furnishing catalog company to a tech startup.

Today, Forsyth offers 2A clients her expertise in explaining different technologies as well as skillful guidance on positioning emerging capabilities. Like a rockstar DJ, who knows how to appeal to the audience in the club, Forsyth uses playful words and smart metaphors to draw in her reader and make new ideas stick like fresh melodies.

Spoken word poet

All great artists attribute stars that came before them, for Forsyth there’s no one main influence. “My music playlist looks like I blew up a record store, and it landed on my Spotify account,” she likes to say. But given her time as a DJ and her ability to transition seamlessly between industries, organizations, and writing voices, it’s no surprise that she thrives in variety. From Rolling Stones to Talking Heads to REM, Forsyth’s got great tunes to share, but my favorite Forsyth original is the song she sings about her home.

If you haven’t heard it yet, just ask her where she lives. In her smooth southern accent, she’ll tell you, “I live with eight cats, three dogs, two chickens, two ducks, and a bunny in a big old stone house on an acre of land.” There’s no pear tree in this version, but the rhythm sticks with you all the same.

Forsyth. The woman. The storyteller. The legend. Let her shine for you!

By Kelly Schermer

Image by Brandon Conboy

“At my house, pillow talk includes the future of driver-less cars and basic income,” says Tracey Whitten. In one quote, 2A’s program manager in charge of customer stories pretty well sums up her passion for technology and her activist approach to storytelling. It’s a rare combination that’s a serious boon for our clients when it comes to crafting the best story for case studies of all sizes and shapes. (And, trust us, each case study is its own special snowflake.)

Tracey’s got an unquenchable thirst for stories that started long ago. Even before joining 2A, she used interviews to broaden her understanding of those around her and the process of writing to sharpen and share her own ideas. From a journal to a blog, from classwork to her everyday job, Tracey relies on the basic tenets of storytelling to learn what makes others take action socially, politically, and financially—which is exactly what we need to get to the heart of every case study.

In college, Tracey earned a degree in organizational communications and a minor in legal studies. The plan at the time was to pursue employer law to help improve poor working conditions for underrepresented employees. But who needs law school to affect change when you’re as creative and engaged as Tracey?

In the years since she graduated, Tracey has built up communities and expanded her resume through positions that speak to her multifaceted talents. From organizing labor unions and communities for social change, to helping a tech startup get off the ground, to launching a civic engagement technology platform, there doesn’t seem to be a challenge Tracey can’t tackle. And through it all, she weaves her passion for understanding, honoring, and telling the stories of those around her. 

In her new role at 2A, Tracey heads up our case study practice. Considering the number of client requests for these stories keeps doubling, we couldn’t be more excited to have her join us! With her dogged commitment to ensuring all voices are heard and her technical drive to plan, organize, and execute against a deadline, Tracey’s our ace in the hole for turning out high-quality case studies that satisfy partners, customers, and solution providers alike.

Wondering who has the breadth, depth, and drive to get the most out of your story? Meet Tracey!

By Kelly Schermer, Annie Wegrich

Animations are blazing hot sauce in marketing today for good reason. They’re informative, persuasive, and add a spicy zing that keeps your company top of mind—in less than two minutes. With nearly two-thirds of customers preferring to watch a short video over reading a document (Wyzowl), animations offer the biggest bump for your brand. They have the potential to deliver a higher message density (think Scoville Heat Units) per second than other types of video by giving you full control over the auditory and visual elements as well as the interplay between the two.

A lot of animations today target the check-writing, decision-making customer at an organization. Typically, these animations stay at the organization or product level to help business leaders make the best choices for their teams. However, in the B2B technology space, staying at a higher level can sometimes mean burying the details of your main differentiator in technical wikis, docs, and blogs. In short, not giving it the marketing props it deserves.

This strategy can be troublesome as your offering gets vetted down the sales funnel. It forces developers and engineers, who are the key influencers and ultimate implementers of your solution, to slog through technical documents to find and unpack crucial nuggets. Who can blame them if they can’t find your buried differentiators?

A technical animation targets tech-minded influencers  

At 2A, we help B2B clients troubleshoot for these potential pitfalls by considering how a technical animation can be used to round out their marketing strategy. Technical animations target the developer/engineer influencers, homing in on a single feature or capability and describing both how it works and why the audience should care about it—in under two minutes. They can be especially useful if you want to:

Land a technical concept that’s not well understood and explain your product’s advantages

Demonstrate key features and controls you offer that exceed current industry capabilities

Investigate different scenarios and/or environments that might create new use cases

Our technical animations give you the old two-for-one punch by educating influencers about nuanced topics and promoting the value of your solution. If you’ve been relying on classic technical documents to help communicate what sets you apart, you could be missing a valuable chance to stir up more interest with a technical animation.

Spice up a technical story with us!

By Kelly Schermer

In the best of times, writing up a spotlight blog means grabbing a drink with a colleague to dish on work. Seeing as we’re still reeling from 2020, let’s just pretend I’m sitting down with Emily Maryatt at her favorite hangout. Emily’s been with 2A for over a year working as an embedded consultant for Microsoft. She runs the MSFT research webinar series doing everything from branding, pitching, recording, hosting, and reporting. She calls it a marketing-PM-producer role all in one. While most of the presenters are engineers, scientists, and/or researchers under Microsoft Research, they often have guests join from other universities who are working on the same project.

Join me in my imaginary social outing. The scene opens on a small café table where a woman (Emily) sits alone sipping a drink, while a second mug waits in front of an empty seat across from her. Another woman (Kelly) enters and inaudible pleasantries are exchanged. As Kelly sits and unwraps her scarf, the interview begins (okay, this next part is all real).

Kelly: Hearing about your role gave me serious job envy! You must learn a ton of cool stuff! What’s been the most interesting project so far?

Emily: Oh gosh it’s endless. There have been so many topics from improving accessibility in image search, securing election fraud, importance of quantum cryptography, drones, and how you can manipulate data to tell almost any story you want. I think the data visualization webinar was my favorite because it was so applicable beyond our typical researcher audience. It felt like something almost anyone could watch. Then, we had just one last week on how an avatar’s virtual reality environment changes user behavior. 

Kelly: Wait! What does it mean? Is my avatar controlling me?

Emily: It means people tend to make decisions differently based on how much an avatar looks like a real person and what the field of view shows in VR. The less life like, the less they take it seriously. Also when it comes to pain, if a person feels connected to the avatar they are less likely to take risks or more afraid of someone hurting them, say stabbing them in the hand in the VR experience.

Kelly: Oh, that’s very cool, so there’s like a threshold of VR that triggers empathy?

​Emily: Haha, I’m no expert, but it seems to imply that people have a different decision path depending on how they connect to the experience.

​Kelly: I see that you’re a serious photographer too. How does your experience behind a camera help with your role on the webinar team?

​​Emily: I think having a creative eye always helps in marketing, especially branding. Since I have a lot of freedom in this job, it’s allowed me to choose the design aesthetic, and work with our graphic designer closely. I’m sure he really appreciates all my feedback. lol

Also, I deal with a lot of new clients in photography and am always working with them to achieve their goals and bond with them to make them feel comfortable. I take that same approach when I reach out to new researchers pitching webinars. Once they sign on, I walk them through the process and show them what they can expect while always trying to make it painless and fun. 

​Kelly: I love that! You sound like a real asset to the webinar team!! Last question, if we could meet for a drink, where would we meet and what would you order and why?  

​Emily: hmm let me think. Pre-COVID I’d probably say Percy’s in Ballard. They have a drink called the awaken one, and it’s the best dang drink around. It’s also just good music and a fun vibe.

Kelly: Let’s plan it for next time! Thanks so much for meeting up with me today. It’s been super interesting to learn about your work.

​Emily: Of course! Thanks for the interview. Back to real life, I guess. haha