Accelerating your sales to drive efficient growth is often easier said than done, especially when your sales and marketing are out of sync or your team isn’t aligned on an executive strategy. That’s why many businesses seek the expertise of go-to-market partners that can help them produce demand-generation campaigns that create meaningful sales conversations. 

However, you want a partner that produces meaningful results, not just a partner that talks the talk. Here’s how you can select a go-to-market partner that delivers a robust sales pipeline rather than mere inputs.

1. Are Their Goals Pipeline Driven?

One of the first things you want to assess is whether the partner’s goals are pipeline-driven. Although Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) can be valuable indicators, they should be a stepping stone, not the final goal. A partner worth its salt will manage and own the full conversion reporting of the pipeline—from Lead to MQL, MQL to Meeting, Meeting to Deal, and Deal to Customer. Your pipeline goals should be communicated at the kickoff meeting, and the partner should work backward from those numbers to set anticipated conversion goals. Daily tracking of the progress against these goals is essential.

2. Do They Track Conversions Thoroughly?

It’s not enough for a partner to deliver meetings; they need to track conversions all the way through to whether the meetings are qualified or not. If the meetings they’re booking aren't aligning with your target audience, how are they pivoting to make sure you’re connecting with the right prospects? Are they targeting contacts from companies that are too small or aren’t the right decision makers?

3. Do They Support the Pipeline Through Content and Sales Enablement?

Supporting the pipeline with content nurturing and sales enablement is critical because together they help streamline the sales process, provide value to prospects, and empower sales teams to be more effective.

Content nurturing is a powerful tool to preemptively overcome prospecting challenges., and should be effectively deployed depending on where prospects are in the funnel. Look for a partner that understands your offering, audience, and competitive advantages so they can write content that effectively engages your prospects.

Also, the partner should have strong sales enablement practices that allow your sales reps to focus solely on meetings, deals, and hunting. AK Operations, for example, ensures that every contact has their lead status updated in real time to keep the data clean and domain healthy.

4. Is Data Driving All Their Decisions?

An effective go-to-market strategy is data-driven. At AK Operations, data informs weekly collaborations to close any performance gaps and push for consistent deal flow. Simply put, if your partner isn't using data to inform their strategy, they are essentially shooting in the dark. 

Of course, it’s important to look at the right data. Can your partner tell you which emails to send which titles and after how many touches will book the most meaningful pipeline? Their strategy should ultimately develop a solid ideal customer profile, top-performing messaging, and projected conversion rates to close.

5. When Do They Decide to Pivot or Double Down?

Your go-to-market partner should be agile, ready to pivot or double down on the current strategy based on real performance data. For example, AK Operations builds attribution insights using tools like Salesforce and HubSpot to determine the most effective ways to book a meeting. By the end of the fourth month, most of our clients have what we call their “all-star” sequence, consisting of accurate targeting, messaging that books meetings, and forecasted conversion rates.

6. How Quickly and Efficiently Do They Execute Tasks?

Operational efficiency is crucial, which is why it’s crucial to pick a partner with a well-defined approach to managing and completing projects. This ensures that their work remains focused on your goals. For example, a partner like AK Operations works in 7-day sprints, utilizing weekly touchpoints to guide pivots and course corrections. Our operational speed is intense and we own daily executions 100%, ensuring a rapid pace towards reaching your goals.

Building A Go-To-Market & Rev Ops Program That Scales with Your Company Forever

Selecting a go-to-market partner is a critical decision that can significantly affect your business's scalability and effectiveness. By asking the right questions and prioritizing partners who are pipeline-focused, data-driven, and agile, you can ensure that you choose a partner that delivers meaningful results and not just vanity metrics.

AK Operations is a RevOps and go-to-market firm that supports founder-led and lean sales teams with operational automation, demand generation, lead generation, and sales enablement programs. The rigor of our partnership has driven repeatable pipeline for hundreds of companies with fully adoptable sales processes and campaigns.

Interested? Let’s start a conversation today.