Andrew Kisslo, SVP of Global Partner Marketing at SAP, always likes to say, “You own your career, so you must be intentional and deliberate about your path. Every path is unique, but having clear goals and holding them loosely is part of your path to success.”  

Partner Marketing is becoming more and more critical to overall business strategies. What was once a niche, time-consuming business strategy is now a key contributor to overall business revenue and success. As a result, it is more important than ever for partner marketers to define a career development path in partner marketing.  

Recently, TechTarget connected with partner marketing leaders Andrew Kisslo (SAP), Heather Deggans (Microsoft), Tricia Blade (Trellix) and Erica Moore (Splunk) to start defining career paths for partner marketers in Career Growth: Your Roadmap to Becoming a Partner Marketing Leader. Our speakers determined that whether you are looking to grow in your partner marketing career or break into Partner Marketing from a different industry, this advice is critical to success.  

1. Find a mentor 

Mentorship is a form of advocacy: finding the right mentor will help you broaden your network, see your “big picture” goals without managing your day-to-day tasks like a manager and will action on your behalf to ensure your growth. 

Andrew says, “Mentors are really a board of directors for yourself … assembling quite a few of them that have different takes on what is ultimately going to make you a better human in all endeavors.” Furthermore, he mentions that mentors will challenge you and keep you honest in the best ways possible.  

With so many options for potential networks, it can be hard to know who to go to or who to trust.  

Erica suggests that a mentor outside of your organization can lead to more holistic, role-agnostic mentorship. However, looking for mentorship inside of your organization has its benefits at certain moments. “Go inside the organization for an advocate who can help you get those visible moments – because that’s what really helps you take those stepping stones, is when leadership can see the potential that you have,” she points out.  

Heather recommends talking with your manager, skip-level manager, manager peers and teammates, who can set up a warm introduction. “Be able to say, ‘This is really what I’m looking for. I want to learn more about this function, or I want to gain insights into this skill set.’ … Then you can start to use your network to help identify potential mentors.”  

2. Build your identity and advocate for yourself 

Heather thinks it can be scary to say what a next career goal might be; however, it is necessary to advocate for career growth. She recommends, “Use your network, use your mentor and state your intentions. Try not to pigeonhole yourself into one thing, unless it’s absolutely the thing that you know with all your conviction that you want to do next.” 

Furthermore, Tricia thinks it’s important to build your identity – not brand, which will eventually come. “Building your own identity is so important because it is exclusively yours and can be transferable between any organization or role … build your identity through every engagement, every interaction, every call, every conversation, every in-person meeting. That is going to provide the fundamentals for who you are in this career and then who you service in this career as you grow.”  

3. Be open to diverse experiences 

Successful careers may often seem linear and step-by-step, but more often they’re very fluid and flexible. Our speakers argue that more diverse experiences will serve career growth in the long term.  

“One of the areas that made me a much better partner marketer in the end is owning a bag (budget)  just for a little bit of time. The minute you see that skill, you develop empathy for sellers and partners. Ultimately, they ask a customer for their most precious resource: their money. In this business climate, that takes a lot of skill,” Andrew posits.  

Heather agrees that owning the budget is valuable: “You begin to understand what it’s like to walk in the seller’s shoes.” Both agree that understanding this skill will help partner marketers be able to empower other partners to do this effectively, whether it’s through great marketing or events.  

Heather suggests that it goes even deeper: “I’ve always really valued the diverse experiences to make me a better marketer … I’ve done technical and sales roles. I’ve been a partner account manager, helping partners of all types build their business, set their goals and really achieve those goals with it. I even did a couple of back-of-the-house jobs and chief of staff jobs. You get to see a little bit of the sausage-making of how decisions are made and how decisions are weighed, which is a great experience to bring back to marketing.”  

4. Be a learn-it-all 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella often talks about being a learn-it-all. Heather explains the theory aptly, “Instead of coming into an environment as a know-it-all, how do we learn and adapt?” 

This is particularly important for today’s partner marketer, who is constantly juggling with new and emerging technologies. Heather argues that many partner marketers will need to learn as they go, which can be exciting but also a big commitment. “All of the things that made you successful in the past may not be the things that are going to make you successful moving forward.”  

To do this successfully, Heather recommends job shadowing – join a few carefully-selected meetings and then debrief on the experience. Learners can do this at any stage of their career, which can be an excellent opportunity to leverage mentors and a network alike.  

A large part of being a learn-it-all is the acknowledgement of not being a know-it-all, which can be difficult. Erica suggests that acknowledging when you don’t know something is often the key to success. “I think educating yourself, realizing and recognizing your gaps early and often, understanding where you can get better and taking the initiative to be resilient when those obstacles come give you the space to grow.”  

Erica also recommends committing to continuous growth and learning, such as taking advantage of events and opportunities like the Partner Marketing Visionaries community. 

5. Serve partners with a “better together” mentality 

As partner marketers, we always talk about “better together” joint messaging – but Tricia and Erica agree that coming to the table with this attitude when working directly with partners will make for a better partnership and foster relationships that will support career growth.  

“Partners need to be a part of a strategy, not a recipient or observer,” Tricia states. “Foster an environment where there is a perpetual and continuous arena of divergent thoughts. Every partner is going to have a different way that they visualize joint campaigns and success … Having that eclectic mix of partnerships and receiving it with divergent thought and reciprocity is amazing.”  

Erica argues that the “better together” mentality is what got her going in partner marketing in the first place. “I think a big skill that I always lean on is: What have I done for my partner lately? And what can I do better for them tomorrow?”  

6. Continuously build relevant skills for growth 

Lastly, our speakers advocate for developing the right skills for a career path, whether this is an individual contributor role or a managerial role.  

Whether you’re looking to be an individual contributor or manager, Tricia suggests building acumen across the marketing fundamentals and trends, collaborating with partners with an accepting and divergent mindset, and refresh or reinforce skills often.  

For those interested in people management, find ways to grow management skills. “Being a peer mentor is a really important role for helping the team to be more productive and helping people ramp, but it helps you to really exercise some of those management skills without managing by authority,” Heather suggests.  

Erica’s favorite leadership quote reads, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll live its whole life thinking it’s a failure.” Fitting teams into small buckets of work does not challenge people in the right way, thinking of them as learning, growing people will.  

She further recommends, “When managing people, you should always give them a functional role, a stretch project role and a visibility role (i.e. presenting to leadership).” This will foster continuous engagement and improvement through multiple outlets, challenging people to reach their best while also giving them opportunities to showcase their existing skills.

Interested in learning more?  

• Watch the entire webinar 
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• Join the Partner Marketing Visionaries LinkedIn Group 
• Learn how TechTarget can help