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Mastering Ecosystem Growth and AI Transformation
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In this episode, Vince Menzione sits down with Rebecca Jones, Chief Growth Officer of Bridge Partners, to deconstruct the “Power of Three” co-selling model and the shift from AI experimentation to scalable business outcomes. They explore the critical importance of customer-centricity, the role of agentic workflows in solving complex B2B problems, and why the most successful leaders prioritize progress over perfection to show momentum within weeks rather than years. From her background in the financial sector to her experience scaling with industry titans like Microsoft, Rebecca provides a masterclass on navigating the current “tectonic shifts” in technology through strategic alignment and executive commitment.
Key Takeaways
- Bridge Partners focuses on connecting strategy to execution, boasting a 90% referral rate driven by deep expertise in product marketing and partner ecosystems.
- The market is shifting from mere AI “dabbling” to purposeful applications in MVP and scale, specifically through agentic AI that tackles real business problems.
- Success in today’s landscape requires knowing your underlying value and maintaining an unwavering focus on customer-centricity.
- The “Power of Three” (Hyperscaler, GSI, and ISV) remains the ultimate design for go-to-market scaling, provided there is a clear joint value proposition.
- To show immediate momentum, new executives should focus on “quick wins” achievable within six to eight weeks rather than long-term three-year plans.
- Effective co-selling requires removing blockers like compensation misalignment and securing top-down executive sponsorship across all leadership silos.
If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community.
At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins.
Key Tags
Rebecca Jones, Bridge Partners, Chief Growth Officer, co-selling, Power of Three, Hyperscaler, GSI, ISV, SAP, Microsoft, agentic AI, AI experimentation, pipeline velocity, pre-sales workshops, account-based marketing, ABM on steroids, GTM strategy, executive sponsorship, partnership ecosystems, B2B growth, tech industry trends 2026, Ultimate Partner, Vince Menzione, orchestration, value proposition.
Transcript
Rebecca Jones Audio Episode
[00:00:00] Rebecca Jones: Because most of the agents I’ve seen drop into um, a lot of the areas where you and I can download are features.
[00:00:07] Vince Menzione: Yes,
[00:00:08] Rebecca Jones: they’re really feature agents. I love where we are ’cause we’re starting to tackle real business problems.
[00:00:17] Vince Menzione: We just finished Ultimate Partners Winter Retreat here in beautiful Boca to a sold out crowd. Today I’m joined by Rebecca Jones, the Chief Growth Officer of Bridge Partners for this compelling discussion. Rebecca, welcome to the podcast.
[00:00:33] Rebecca Jones: Thank you, Vince.
[00:00:34] Vince Menzione: I am so thrilled to have you in Boca in the studio.
[00:00:37] Vince Menzione: We’ve been working together now for a couple of years. We
[00:00:39] Rebecca Jones: have,
[00:00:40] Vince Menzione: and yesterday we were at the Ultimate Partner live executive winter retreat here in Boca. Uh, we’re recording in late February, early March timeframe. And, uh, just it was so thrilling to have everyone in the room yesterday.
[00:00:55] Rebecca Jones: Was it? I mean, the energy.
[00:00:56] Rebecca Jones: It was amazing.
[00:00:57] Vince Menzione: Yeah,
[00:00:58] Rebecca Jones: it was amazing. And thank you so much for having me. I mean, Florida’s gorgeous this time of year. It’s nice to get outta Seattle.
[00:01:04] Vince Menzione: Well, it’s, it’s always, I, I, we, we love Seattle. Yes, we love, we do love to be in Seattle and especially in the spring, which we’ll be there together. We’ll talk about that in a little bit, but, um.
[00:01:14] Vince Menzione: This is our first time actually having an interview. I mean, we’ve had you on stage. Yes. We’ve had Bridge as a part. Bridge Partners has been a partner. It’s ultimate partner. How’s that? And, uh, you’ve led some workshops. You help organizations to be successful and I thought just like to start out like, tell us more about you.
[00:01:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah, bridge Partner and your role at Bridge Partners. And, uh, just to frame, to frame the conversation today.
[00:01:40] Rebecca Jones: Okay. Of course. So let me tell you a little bit about my background. Um, I’ve been in the technology industry for a few decades now, and I started within the product and go to market, side of the house.
[00:01:54] Nice.
[00:01:54] Rebecca Jones: And I’ve navigated across a number of functional areas. From product to partner and sales.
[00:02:02] Vince Menzione: So product development,
[00:02:04] Rebecca Jones: engineering,
[00:02:04] Vince Menzione: product marketing. Product marketing.
[00:02:05] Rebecca Jones: Product marketing.
[00:02:06] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:02:07] Rebecca Jones: Yes. And so when you look back on the areas of where I focus my time, it’s really how do you help customers grow and how do you help companies grow?
[00:02:17] Rebecca Jones: Um, and a lot of my background is in B2B.
[00:02:20] Vince Menzione: Very cool.
[00:02:21] Rebecca Jones: Yeah.
[00:02:21] Vince Menzione: And where’d you get your start?
[00:02:23] Rebecca Jones: I started actually in the financial sector.
[00:02:26] Vince Menzione: Very cool.
[00:02:27] Rebecca Jones: Yeah,
[00:02:27] Vince Menzione: very cool. That’s, well, that’s a good grounding and
[00:02:30] Rebecca Jones: it’s an excellent grounding. And when you look back, and when I look back at what that provided as a foundation, it’s really the economics of a business and how do you help a business and what are the trend lines behind that by industry and and whatnot.
[00:02:45] Rebecca Jones: And so I moved from that over to. More agency view, and so the real market facing view and then back inside to really look at how companies develop their products and bring ’em to market.
[00:02:56] Vince Menzione: That’s an exciting, well, I think it’s exciting. I hope our listeners and viewers think it’s exciting and I know Bridge Partners because when I was at Microsoft, we worked with Bridge Partners.
[00:03:06] Vince Menzione: But for the listeners and viewers that are with us today, maybe a little bit of background about the company and its, and its structure and go to market.
[00:03:13] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, of course. So Bridge Partners is almost 20 years old.
[00:03:18] Vince Menzione: Wow.
[00:03:19] Rebecca Jones: Wow.
[00:03:19] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:03:19] Rebecca Jones: Can you believe it?
[00:03:20] Vince Menzione: We were newbies when I was working with you.
[00:03:22] Rebecca Jones: We, we were newbies and uh, the company was really founded on the principle of how do you connect strategy to execution.
[00:03:32] Rebecca Jones: And within that, our first customer was Microsoft.
[00:03:36] Vince Menzione: Interesting.
[00:03:37] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, and that was an incredible spot to be and an incredible time to be in a company that started to evolve and grow with one of the titans in the industry. And obviously a incredible market leader in the tech industry.
[00:03:56] Vince Menzione: Well, and that time 20 years ago, ’cause I was, I was along for that journey.
[00:03:59] Rebecca Jones: Yeah.
[00:04:00] Vince Menzione: Uh, it was a time of tumultuous change at Microsoft.
[00:04:03] Rebecca Jones: Yes.
[00:04:04] Vince Menzione: Uh, in fact, we were talking about the, uh, entrepreneur’s dilemma earlier, uh, today, and Microsoft was going through that period where, you know, we, everyone loves Steve Bomber, but there was a time within the organization that it was stuck.
[00:04:18] Rebecca Jones: Mm-hmm.
[00:04:19] Vince Menzione: And it had to transform as an organization.
[00:04:22] Rebecca Jones: A hundred percent. And so when you think about companies like Microsoft, it’s not only what they do, but how they bring that to market. Yep. And uh, so when you think about where Bridge Partners started and having the privilege to be in Microsoft of all places to, um, cut your teeth on you look at where we started and where we’ve grown from there.
[00:04:44] Rebecca Jones: Uh, within the tech industry, we’ve worked across, um, multiple hyperscalers. We’ve worked across, uh. Really the top tier tech and telco, those top 100. Yep. And all the household names. And then throughout that, across the partner ecosystem, because you and I both know these companies grow and scale their businesses through the partner ecosystem, and so we’ve been privileged to work across.
[00:05:08] Rebecca Jones: Multiple depth and breadth partners in that play.
[00:05:12] Vince Menzione: And as an agency, are you more known for project management go to market? Uh, what, what are the areas and focus where the outcomes that you achieve?
[00:05:21] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, so we’re known for. Being on the growth side of the house. And how I define that is you find us in marketing, but that center of gravity is in product marketing.
[00:05:32] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:05:32] Rebecca Jones: And then how you scale that through partner ecosystems and then supporting that field or that sales organization. So when you think about those three pillars within the organization, that’s where you’ll find us.
[00:05:43] Vince Menzione: And why would I choose Bridge Partners?
[00:05:46] Rebecca Jones: Oh, well, um, based on experience. Um, and then when you think about Bridge Partners, it’s not, um, just what we do, but when you take a look at our engagements and background, we’re over 90% referral.
[00:06:01] Vince Menzione: Wow.
[00:06:02] Rebecca Jones: And so people take us with them and um, what I look at is have we actually moved the needle or driven the customer outcomes? And when you think about the customers that we’ve worked with and the companies in this industry. It’s quite a roster and I don’t take that lightly because if you’re going to help support these companies and help them grow, it’s a testament to how we were able to accomplish that.
[00:06:27] Rebecca Jones: Because all these companies have complex enterprise organizations. Their go to market is nuanced and how they want to, and then, um, get and grow. And so these are just a couple of the different ways that we’ve been able to be successful.
[00:06:42] Vince Menzione: Fantastic. You know, you’ve done workshops at our events and talked to our community about how to help them achieve their greatest results.
[00:06:50] Vince Menzione: What would you say to them? Now we’re living in this time? I, I I, I said this earlier, I don’t want to use the term tectonic shifts, but I’m running out of words to describe how tumultuous this time feels right now to me.
[00:07:03] Rebecca Jones: It’s interesting you say that. I was thinking about that. ’cause both you and I have been in the industry for a bit.
[00:07:08] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. And, um, there’s some pattern recognition happening right now for me and how I look at the go to market and these, these points in time and the evolution and. This point in time, it is a tectonic shift. But a lot of companies have other, have had to go through these challenges before. If you think about, um, the migration to the cloud and
[00:07:33] Vince Menzione: yes,
[00:07:33] Rebecca Jones: all of the unlocks that it has, and at the end of the day it’s, it’s shifting and thinking about new business models and it’s shifting and thinking about go to market, but there is.
[00:07:43] Rebecca Jones: There are things that ring true no matter where you are. And one of the things I’ve always taken a look at is, do you know your underlying value and relevance in market? And are you being customer centric? That never goes outta style, right? Do
[00:07:58] Vince Menzione: you know your value and are you customer centric? That makes a lot of sense, right?
[00:08:02] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And do they, what do you do? And, and do they, how do what, how do they answer to that question?
[00:08:07] Rebecca Jones: Well, that’s a, that’s a thinking question. Yes. Right? Yes. It takes a minute to think about that. Um, where is your moment of relevance with a customer?
[00:08:16] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:08:17] Rebecca Jones: Where is your moment of relevance with a customer?
[00:08:19] Rebecca Jones: And when you think about your reason to exist as a business, you have a really defined ICP, an ideal customer profile, and where’s your moment of relevance and. Yes. There’s a lot happening right now, and I think also because of where we sit in the industry and being in the midst of all of these giants with incredible technology to bring to market.
[00:08:44] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. We’re, we’re in the front end of this wave or the, the, the tectonic shift that you’re talking about. It’s just, you know, it’s unsettling to a certain degree, but it’s really energetic and it’s. Dynamic and, and there’s so much opportunity out there. So
[00:08:59] Vince Menzione: much so, you know, you had me thinking about the $600 billion that’ll be invested this year and just in cloud infrastructure and chips, right?
[00:09:08] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So data centers and chips, and talk about that being like kind of creating this wave, this huge tsunami that’s coming for the beaches and, and everything seems to be. Every week there’s a new announcement, and recently it’s been philanthropic and clawed. And yes, uh, the markets are reacting. They’re, um.
[00:09:30] Vince Menzione: They’re almost, uh, imploding in some ca in some cases because they’re trying to react the financial analysts, they’re trying to react to what’s happening right now.
[00:09:38] Rebecca Jones: It, the investment is massive and it’s, it’s incredible and it’s massive. And over the last year, you saw a lot of experimentation. Yeah. And you saw a lot of dabbling, a lot of, you know, quite.
[00:09:52] Rebecca Jones: Frankly, a little bit of concern about is this gonna pay off?
[00:09:56] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:09:57] Rebecca Jones: And when you look at where we are in this chain cycle and this adoption cycle, we’re right at the front end, the early adopters. And so a lot of the work that we’re doing, and where I’m focused on is how do you move from experimentation? To truly having some movement over into MVP and scale.
[00:10:18] Rebecca Jones: And so I’ll just harken back to Yeah,
[00:10:19] Vince Menzione: please.
[00:10:20] Rebecca Jones: That product mindset of when you’re looking at opportunity within the business, there was a lot of, um, there was a lot of pockets of experimentation just for fun. Just for fun. And so when you look across the business, um, and what, what we observed was, um, businesses of all different sizes, experimenting and, and some were just, they’re fun, they’re dabbling, right?
[00:10:45] Rebecca Jones: But it, it changed in the second half of last year, people became much more thoughtful, much more purposeful, um, thinking forward about how would this be applied to my business? Yeah, because the question now isn’t. Could we do this? It’s really, should we do this
[00:11:03] Vince Menzione: right? And and there was a period of time, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but there was a period of time when we were talking about earlier in in last year, we were talking about halluc hallucinations still.
[00:11:13] Vince Menzione: Yes. So there was a lack of confidence on the platform side. Yes. Microsoft had brought out. Uh, it’s copilot solutions early to market. And there was some, uh, pushback from the community saying, we’re not seeing the results of that. Yeah. From the financial community specifically. And then I think what you said is then the second half of the year things started to change.
[00:11:35] Vince Menzione: There was greater confidence. The
[00:11:36] Rebecca Jones: Yeah,
[00:11:37] Vince Menzione: I’d say the models got better.
[00:11:38] Rebecca Jones: The models got better. But when you think about innovation, that’s inherent risk,
[00:11:43] Vince Menzione: right?
[00:11:43] Rebecca Jones: Right. Yes. When, when you’re on an innovation curve, yes, that’s risk. And so you have to look at as any great CFO will tell you diversification innovation.
[00:11:56] Rebecca Jones: When you start to look at that market landscape, you’re creating risks. Yes. So they’re investing a lot and they wanna know when the payoff is coming back into the business. Right? Or back into the market.
[00:12:08] Vince Menzione: So Rebecca, where is the AI market right now?
[00:12:13] Rebecca Jones: Oh, that is a tough and great question, Vince.
[00:12:18] Vince Menzione: I mean, we’ve gone through it and I’ll, I’ll kind of frame this for, yes, for, for everyone, at least from my perspective of what’s happened, right?
[00:12:24] Vince Menzione: So, uh, September, 2022. Chat, GBT. Yeah. So we get into chat bots or chat bot, chat bot, chat bot, chat bot the first year or so, beginning of last year, 2025. A agentic AI really starts to take hold. It’s, it becomes a new term. In fact, I don’t think we were even using the term agentic AI before the end of 24, beginning of 25.
[00:12:47] Vince Menzione: And then agents have really proliferated, um, all of the marketplaces now have agents and people are developing their own agents and so on. And all the tools, like all, all the cloud tools have agent capabilities. And now, um. We’re in 2026 and we’re still in the first quarter. It feels like the agents are starting to rule the world and maybe taking over the world
[00:13:10] Rebecca Jones: they might be.
[00:13:11] Vince Menzione: Yeah,
[00:13:11] Rebecca Jones: right. There is definitely a proliferation of agents and I’m anticipating a lot of consolidation of that. ’cause most of the agents I’ve seen drop into, um. A lot of the areas where you and I can download are features.
[00:13:26] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:13:26] Rebecca Jones: They’re really feature agents and those will get consolidated ’cause the where we are and you ask where we are in the market.
[00:13:33] Rebecca Jones: What I love. I love where we are ’cause we’re starting to tackle real business problems. And what I’m observing and what we’re working on is really helping connect back into the business to really start that transformational work.
[00:13:48] Vince Menzione: So take us through that. I’d love that. I’d love, give us a scenario or
[00:13:51] Rebecca Jones: give us a use case.
[00:13:52] Rebecca Jones: Do this. Yeah. I think’s really great scenarios here that I can walk you through. And first and foremost it is, and I’m gonna go back and I talked about specialization in specialty areas. Yes. That’s really important. Um, we talked yesterday during the conference around, um, industry. What industry are you in?
[00:14:11] Rebecca Jones: You know, I’m in tech and that’s, that’s, we know that industry, we know those business models really well. That’s extremely important. And then you move within that. And what functions do you know and functions in this, you know, order are the product marketing function, how does that work?
[00:14:30] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:14:30] Rebecca Jones: How does that work in an enterprise organization or a sales function or a.
[00:14:36] Rebecca Jones: Partner function. And within that, what are all the workflows? How do these teams operate together? And so that’s where that curiosity comes in of not just how you did the work. How is the work orchestrated?
[00:14:49] Vince Menzione: Inter orchestration is a huge topic area.
[00:14:51] Rebecca Jones: Orchestration is a huge topic. Let’s, let’s go
[00:14:53] Vince Menzione: there.
[00:14:54] Rebecca Jones: E Exactly.
[00:14:55] Rebecca Jones: And that’s where that curiosity, you know, I was talking about pattern recognition comes in how is the work designed? And that becomes. The blueprint for how you start to think about agentic workflows. And if you don’t have a great workflow, you don’t wanna replicate that in an agent, but Exactly. You definitely need to understand that.
[00:15:18] Rebecca Jones: And so why don’t I take something that, um, I think will resonate for anyone listening to this podcast, because everyone is probably looking for growth this year and wanting to accelerate
[00:15:28] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:15:29] Rebecca Jones: Sales. Their pre-sales funnel. So if we just take that pre-sales motion and specifically now with where partners might play in that or where, um, technology companies might want to enable their partners better.
[00:15:47] Rebecca Jones: When I start to break down a pre-sales function, you have areas within that. Whole workflow that your marketing department might be driving. They might be driving top of the funnel or or demand programs. And then as you move down the funnel, let’s call it mid funnel, that really has opportunities for partner and field sellers to come in and.
[00:16:07] Rebecca Jones: You might be seen or observing that your, um, pipeline velocity is not where you want that, right? Mm-hmm. You might be, you know, as they say, stuck. Stuck.
[00:16:18] Vince Menzione: Yep.
[00:16:19] Rebecca Jones: And so when you start to look at what agents could do within that, I’ll use a real use case, um, around pre-sales workshops. You and I are both familiar with that.
[00:16:28] Vince Menzione: We, we are, we were just talking about this last night, in fact, at dinner, about pre pre-sales workshops and how this is still such a vital component, how organizations work together.
[00:16:37] Rebecca Jones: Such a vital component, um, for multiple reasons, right? You get to engage directly with the customer. You get to spend time with that customer.
[00:16:46] Rebecca Jones: You get to ensure you understand what are their most pressing use cases and really help them design and buy into a solution far before you get to a proposal. And quite frankly, if you do this right. You also have an adoption plan, and then think about it from other functional areas in the organization.
[00:17:02] Rebecca Jones: You start to pattern match across those presale workshops. You can start to see the use cases that are most valuable in market and start to put that into your messaging. So you think about presale workshop, it’s just not the activity of having a workshop, but if you could build an agent. To really help design around partners, enabling partners to deliver better presale workshops.
[00:17:27] Rebecca Jones: Interesting. And how are you ingesting information that goes into the workshop? How are you helping, um, develop materials and first drafts faster for proposals post? How are you. Data is informing this. What are you collecting and what are you providing, and then what are you delivering? If you take that one simple component in a pre-sales process, you can see where I’m going.
[00:17:53] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. All of a sudden, an ecosystem starts to show up around how could you connect better back with product marketing? What are they doing? What could you inform them with, with the data that you’re bringing in?
[00:18:03] Vince Menzione: Interesting.
[00:18:03] Rebecca Jones: And then what are the. Deterministic pathways outside of that, that you could be informing downstream down to first, first stress faster on proposals.
[00:18:13] Rebecca Jones: Are you helping those partners with an adoption plan? The service partners in there. And so that is the designer and the architect of understanding how that workflow comes to life. And then you can really start to think about the outcomes that you wanna drive. And that’s where I love to start the conversations.
[00:18:31] Rebecca Jones: That shouldn’t be an afterthought. That should be where you start.
[00:18:35] Vince Menzione: So how do you, how do you, how do you start with this? You gave me a great example, but how do you apply this in the business? Like what do you take when you meet with a client to talk about pre-sales workshops as an example?
[00:18:47] Rebecca Jones: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Vince Menzione: You take a proforma of what a pre-sales workshop would look like.
[00:18:51] Vince Menzione: I’m, I’m, I. I might be wrong on this, but you have, like, you, you now have, uh, AI or AI that they go out and pull the data that you would normally ask maybe in some, some, uh, process, uh, information flow process that we grab and, and pull this into the, to the, to the form. The
[00:19:10] Rebecca Jones: first question I always ask is, why.
[00:19:12] Rebecca Jones: Why is this so important and valuable? I might have an assumption why, based on my experience, but I want the facts, right? I wanna know how they’re measuring it today, so we have a baseline and I wanna understand what their goals are.
[00:19:28] Vince Menzione: Okay?
[00:19:29] Rebecca Jones: Are they looking to increase revenue? X percentage. Uh, how many deals are they anticipating?
[00:19:38] Rebecca Jones: How many presale workshops do they typically deliver through partner a year? Are they looking to scale that? Probably, yes. Are they looking to increase the value that they’re getting into contract post presale workshop? Probably yes. But I want that empirical data. And then I also wanna know where are they storing that?
[00:19:57] Rebecca Jones: Where are they sourcing that? And so it, it really. The question and the question set really is understanding the business outcomes and the why. I, I ask a lot of why, and it really helps you frame in what would be the best outcome or the best solution, and then where do you start? Because there’s a lot of appetite for a.
[00:20:21] Rebecca Jones: A transformational workflow from A to Z. And that’s a hard place to,
[00:20:26] Vince Menzione: it’s hard show momentum. It’s hard. It’s hard,
[00:20:27] Rebecca Jones: right?
[00:20:27] Vince Menzione: It’s, it’s hard to document your current workflow flows.
[00:20:30] Rebecca Jones: Yeah.
[00:20:30] Vince Menzione: Let alone come back and do this ally.
[00:20:33] Rebecca Jones: Yes.
[00:20:34] Vince Menzione: And create the best outcomes.
[00:20:36] Rebecca Jones: Yes.
[00:20:36] Vince Menzione: So I go back to this and I go, well, what, what creates the best outcomes?
[00:20:39] Vince Menzione: Where the customer signs at the dotted line, and then how do you work back from that to the pre-sales workshop? Is that how
[00:20:46] Rebecca Jones: you do it? A hundred percent. It’s a hundred percent. And then where do you start? How do you show, um, progress, not perfection. And so in this world, there’s a lot of, um, pressure. To show progress, outcomes, momentum.
[00:21:00] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. And these very significant investments that are being made. And so how do you get them to quick wins? And so you know this, for any new executive coming into role, what are your quick wins? Yes. Right? Yes. You need to transform an organization, you need to transform a function. How do you set them up for success?
[00:21:19] Rebecca Jones: And that’s always in my mind, that’s always in the mind of. The bridge partners, leaders of how do you set this leader up for success? And it’s that point between strategy and execution. How do you help them show quick wins? And so I broke you down that process. Yep. Of how would you think about in that use case, how to bring that back and help them show quick wins?
[00:21:42] Rebecca Jones: Not in six months or a year, but in six weeks to eight weeks. How do you, how do you get them on that journey and then help them build to that next slide. And
[00:21:51] Vince Menzione: in fact, that’s how you, you, you’ve made your, your name or your fame in the industry is really coming in and helping some of these executives, especially when they’re newer in role.
[00:22:00] Rebecca Jones: Yes.
[00:22:00] Vince Menzione: And those of us who’ve been around the Microsoft ecosystem know this well. Like you get asked day one, what’s your plan? The, while the fire, while the fire hose is blowing in your face at a hundred, a hundred miles an hour? Uh, what’s your plan?
[00:22:14] Rebecca Jones: What’s your plan? What’s your
[00:22:14] Vince Menzione: plan?
[00:22:15] Rebecca Jones: What is your plan?
[00:22:16] Vince Menzione: Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:16] Vince Menzione: And then you have to show some measurable results fairly quickly.
[00:22:19] Rebecca Jones: You have to
[00:22:20] Vince Menzione: because you’re asked to get up in front of everyone. Yeah. Very soon.
[00:22:23] Rebecca Jones: And that’s a blueprint that we have. We have, it’s a quick win. And when you think about all of these organizations that we’ve worked with, um, speed to market is a value signal.
[00:22:36] Vince Menzione: Yep.
[00:22:36] Rebecca Jones: Right? And that speed and quality. Where are you willing to take the risk? Where are you willing to fail fast? And what outcomes are non-negotiable and what are, and so when you look at that, there’s, there’s conversations that need to be had on. And being able to filter out the noise to get down to what’s really gonna move the needle, um, for our clients and for the executives that we work with.
[00:23:06] Rebecca Jones: So they can show momentum and progress quickly. And then we talked a lot about it. We don’t do three year plans, right? We’re gonna help you show progress in months,
[00:23:16] Vince Menzione: nice.
[00:23:17] Rebecca Jones: And in quarters, right? It’s not, um, 10 years.
[00:23:19] Vince Menzione: Can anybody even have a three year plan anymore?
[00:23:22] Rebecca Jones: Who’s got one?
[00:23:23] Vince Menzione: I’d love to spend some time on co-selling with you.
[00:23:25] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Just because I know this was a topic that came up one of our workshops in the Yeah. We hosted, yes. Last year we hosted a session. With another partner. Bridge Partners.
[00:23:34] Rebecca Jones: Yes.
[00:23:35] Vince Menzione: And you talked about the power of three and I know you’ve published some information about the power of three. I thought maybe we’d talk about that.
[00:23:41] Vince Menzione: ’cause I think that is fascinating and it seems very relevant even in yesterday’s conversation. Uh, there was a conversation about another partner, uh, that is looking to build an ecosystem that hasn’t really thought about building out an ecosystem before, as an example. And this, this, I think is some of the work that you do really applies against this.
[00:24:01] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. This, I mean, it, it’s a hot topic, right? Yeah. Power of three, which fits under the umbrella of co-sell Yes. And co-selling. And everyone has a slightly different definition, so I’ll define where we play. Good in there. Um, and then I’ll talk to you about the power of three, um, because that’s one of. Um, I’ll call it the scenarios under co-selling.
[00:24:23] Rebecca Jones: Yes. And it’s a very popular one. It
[00:24:24] Vince Menzione: is pop Well, it is for v various reasons too because, and I’ll just set the context for this. We were used to co-selling being a technology organization and a and a hyperscaler, like a Microsoft.
[00:24:37] Rebecca Jones: Yes.
[00:24:37] Vince Menzione: Going to do something together and driving direct output or sales. Now we have finally seen where marketplaces, which has become the co-sell engine, have now enabled the channel.
[00:24:49] Vince Menzione: Um, the reseller enabled, uh, offers now to now, uh, operate on behalf of, and so at least in that case, that’s three right there. Now, there might be more than just three. We talk about the seven seats of the table, but the power of three is palpable right now.
[00:25:04] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Let me tell you about that concept of the power of three.
[00:25:07] Rebecca Jones: ’cause when you think about the classic one
[00:25:10] Vince Menzione: yeah,
[00:25:10] Rebecca Jones: it’s a hyperscaler.
[00:25:11] Vince Menzione: Yep.
[00:25:12] Rebecca Jones: A GSI. And then an ISB.
[00:25:15] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:25:15] Rebecca Jones: Right?
[00:25:16] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:25:16] Rebecca Jones: I mean that’s the, that’s the power, the powerful power, the three three,
[00:25:19] Vince Menzione: the three giants in the
[00:25:20] Rebecca Jones: room. The three giants. Yeah. And that’s rarefied air.
[00:25:24] Vince Menzione: It is
[00:25:25] Rebecca Jones: very
[00:25:26] Vince Menzione: verified air. It’s,
[00:25:26] Rebecca Jones: yeah. Right. And, uh, we do, we have a published article on that, um, and running a power three with SAP, uh, and it is, um, it changes the dynamics.
[00:25:41] Rebecca Jones: Of how companies are gonna scale and grow in this market, right?
[00:25:46] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:25:46] Rebecca Jones: Because we know, um, that what got you to this point? Is likely not gonna get you to that next stage of growth. And all the conversations around the platform play is the partner ecosystem, right? And I look at the opportunity, not just with the power through, I’m gonna talk to you a little bit more about that story and what we’re doing there and how we’re looking at that.
[00:26:12] Rebecca Jones: Um, but it is the ultimate. Design for your go to market. Yeah. When you think about how partners and the various types of partners can help you scale, but you need to know what you need. You absolutely need to know,
[00:26:29] Vince Menzione: yeah.
[00:26:30] Rebecca Jones: What are you trying to achieve in your go to market and what’s missing?
[00:26:34] Vince Menzione: What are the gaps?
[00:26:34] Vince Menzione: Gaps?
[00:26:35] Rebecca Jones: What are the gaps? Are the gaps before you apply? Yes. The power of three, or I’ll talk to you about a couple other use cases within that. So the power of three. Has long been on everybody’s, you know, can, can we get this done right? Can you pattern match the customer set? I’ll often refer to it as a BM on steroids, account-based marketing and on steroids.
[00:26:59] Rebecca Jones: Can you pattern match, um, the, the hyperscaler, let’s just use Microsoft in this scenario, the, the. High potential customers of Microsoft Joint with SAP joint, with A GSI. And the more specialized and specific you get in there, it’s not just any, because think about the size of these, you know, companies. Yeah, right.
[00:27:24] Rebecca Jones: Then you start to look at, well, let’s get a little bit more specific on these product sets, these industries, these use cases. And then you start to refine that where you can start to identify your greatest opportunity for growth. So that’s the first stage of that. And it is, you know, we, we think about where is that overlap and where is that opportunity, but how do you activate that?
[00:27:51] Vince Menzione: And it’s complex because, uh, as you, as you mentioned those three. Organizations, each of them have different go to markets.
[00:27:59] Rebecca Jones: They do,
[00:27:59] Vince Menzione: they have different, a different mapping of their geographies and their ideal customer profiles.
[00:28:05] Rebecca Jones: Mm-hmm.
[00:28:06] Vince Menzione: Um, and they, yeah, and they apply different tactics and selling tactics and channel tactics and so on that you have to layer in or you have to take into account when you build this.
[00:28:15] Vince Menzione: And SAP’s a very different go-to market motion than a Microsoft, than a, than a, an EY or any name the GSI percent. Yeah.
[00:28:23] Rebecca Jones: And so that is why not only is it, um, complex from a. Sharing and figuring out what data you’re going to share. Yeah. But how do you activate it? How
[00:28:35] Vince Menzione: do you activate it?
[00:28:36] Rebecca Jones: And uh, and that is what all companies are striving to do.
[00:28:41] Rebecca Jones: Who are you gonna go to market with? Yeah. What is your best play in the industry? And so I, you know, while this one. There’s very few companies that are gonna be able to activate directly with the hyperscaler, right? Yes. Uh, Microsoft AWS or Google. Um, but there are ways in which you can apply this strategy no matter the size of your organization.
[00:29:05] Rebecca Jones: And so when you think about. The power of three. It could be any combination. You are the designer, you are the decider of who is in your power of three. And when you start to kind of unpack that a little bit, it could be Microsoft, SAPN one ISV, or it could be a combination of complementary I ISVs that unlock a play.
[00:29:28] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm.
[00:29:29] Rebecca Jones: Like migration to the cloud.
[00:29:31] Vince Menzione: Right.
[00:29:31] Rebecca Jones: Like it, it could be
[00:29:33] Vince Menzione: backup and recovery. I could rattle off the different types of solutions. Yeah.
[00:29:37] Rebecca Jones: What is, where are you seeing the greatest opportunity to scale and what ISVs could come in to help you do that? So when you extract that from the power of three, the classic power of three of Costone, you brought that down to, you know, how do you think about that in the masses of marketplace?
[00:29:56] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Or partners of any size. I like to bring this back to. Where do you believe your greatest opportunity is? Do you have, um, opportunity or weakness in your portfolio, your product set? Could a partner come in and help augment that? Do you have a tech platform and you need a services arm to help extend that?
[00:30:19] Rebecca Jones: I I mean the, it it, the world’s your oyster. Yeah. You get to kit this together any way you need and then. The power of bringing these companies together. And you and I both know, and that was much of the conversation yesterday, is, um, the greater goodness of companies coming together Yes. To compliment one another to solve a customer problem.
[00:30:39] Vince Menzione: How do you take it from concept to execution? Because to me, that’s. Especially when you’re talking about not just one organization like a micro, you’re working with a Microsoft or an SAP, but you’re layering in three types of organizations and you’re going across different sales motions. How do you get them all?
[00:30:58] Vince Menzione: How do you get them all aligned in working together the right way?
[00:31:02] Rebecca Jones: Magic. Magic.
[00:31:03] Vince Menzione: Okay.
[00:31:04] Rebecca Jones: I’m kidding.
[00:31:04] Vince Menzione: Call bridge, call Rebecca
[00:31:07] Rebecca Jones: Magic.
[00:31:07] Vince Menzione: Nine nine nine five five five five.
[00:31:09] Rebecca Jones: Let, let, let me, uh, let me talk about that because
[00:31:13] Vince Menzione: Yeah,
[00:31:13] Rebecca Jones: it’s one, there’s the good work, there’s the good thought work and the strategy of how to ensure you’re, you’re pointing and you’ve got the team lined up, right?
[00:31:22] Rebecca Jones: Right. And the players lined up. But activation of that. Oh,
[00:31:28] Vince Menzione: massive work.
[00:31:29] Rebecca Jones: It’s massive work. Yeah. And it’s not a set it and forget it.
[00:31:33] Vince Menzione: Right,
[00:31:34] Rebecca Jones: right,
[00:31:34] Vince Menzione: right.
[00:31:35] Rebecca Jones: And when you think about the alignment, and you talked about we, we’ve got different fiscal year ends and we’ve got different sales and center plans. I will talk about a few things.
[00:31:45] Rebecca Jones: One, executive sponsorship, top down.
[00:31:48] Vince Menzione: Yep.
[00:31:48] Rebecca Jones: Right. Um, ensuring, you know, compensation. You gotta get rid of the blockers and the barriers.
[00:31:55] Vince Menzione: Yep.
[00:31:56] Rebecca Jones: And you have to make it easy and you have to create that space because it’s really, and I’ll talk to you about some of the platforms and technology behind it, but it’s humans working together.
[00:32:07] Rebecca Jones: There’s a lot of power in what we’re able to do now with, um, part tech platforms and with agentic solutions. And how do you automate this and how do you bring more power and visibility? Better than ever and, and more than ever. But at the end of the day, we’re activating teams. Across companies. Yep. To work together to bring this together.
[00:32:34] Rebecca Jones: And there are playbooks, um, and any, there’s great playbooks out there, but you need to activate that.
[00:32:41] Vince Menzione: You need to activate it. And you, you said you gotta get the executive commitment at the top?
[00:32:45] Rebecca Jones: Yeah.
[00:32:46] Vince Menzione: Not just at the CEO level, but across the leadership team. That’s right. In every silo. Uh, you’ve gotta get, uh, the organization, you have to get compensation taken care of because those, those can be blockers, those could be real blockers from getting the results you want to get.
[00:33:00] Vince Menzione: And then you gotta get activation.
[00:33:03] Rebecca Jones: Yeah.
[00:33:03] Vince Menzione: Right?
[00:33:04] Rebecca Jones: You gotta get activation and you have to be really clear on how you’re gonna activate what’s gonna move the needle. And you have to be ready to test, learn, optimize, and you need to put those into sprints. So I’ll give some examples around that.
[00:33:20] Vince Menzione: Please do take us through the sprints.
[00:33:21] Vince Menzione: ’cause this is, this is getting beyond the theory now. This is what I really wanted to capture with you. Take us through it.
[00:33:28] Rebecca Jones: Yeah.
[00:33:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:33:29] Rebecca Jones: So let’s just say we’ve got, we’ve got a power of three.
[00:33:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:33:32] Rebecca Jones: You know, um, ready to roll and, and we’ve picked our industry and we have our use case. Um, between the three of us, the three players, you’re gonna start by allowing someone, and in this case it’s been Bridge Partners to really ensure we have a joint value prop, um, proposition for that end customer.
[00:33:54] Rebecca Jones: Mm-hmm. And, you know, you gotta take a little ego out of the room. Typically on the power of three, you’ve got the leading companies coming in. But at the end of the day, if you’ve done this right, it’s, it’s customer first. It’s what’s gonna help solve this customer pain point in that language. And then when you think about activation, it’s who’s, who’s in role first?
[00:34:20] Rebecca Jones: Right. And who’s taking point in these customer conversations. Right. Okay. And that is really, really, that’s important. Important. That is important. Who has the relationship? Yeah. Who is going to take lead and who’s gonna follow? And it gets all the way down to whose paper. Is this on? And that’s, that’s sometimes hard.
[00:34:41] Rebecca Jones: You’ve got three players in the room, but it’s incredibly important to have those conversations and ensure that this is really end state for the customer. Yeah. So really going through roles and responsibilities and how are we gonna architect this for the customer’s success. Yeah. So that is a critical component of the playbook and then understanding.
[00:35:02] Rebecca Jones: Where and what programs are we gonna drive, and then who’s taking what actions. And so I, I mentioned a BM on steroids a little before. Yes. There’s amazing things that you can be doing in market,
[00:35:14] Vince Menzione: account-based marketing,
[00:35:15] Rebecca Jones: m account-based based marketing, you dunno. Um, account-based marketing and there are some amazing things.
[00:35:20] Rebecca Jones: Really truly connected sales and marketing, in this case. Connected sales, marketing and partner. Yeah. And how do you activate these partners together?
[00:35:27] Vince Menzione: You used the term part tech, which. Not everyone understands partner technologies. Yes. Organizations like Partner Tap, work Span. Yeah. Tackle.
[00:35:37] Rebecca Jones: Structured. Yeah.
[00:35:38] Vince Menzione: Structured. If you, these are companies that help with co-selling methodologies, marketplace methodologies.
[00:35:44] Rebecca Jones: Yes.
[00:35:45] Vince Menzione: Or combining all of those,
[00:35:46] Rebecca Jones: if you know, uh, J McBain, uh. Beautiful visual flat map of, um, it looks a little, the 28 moments. Yes. I was just, well, the 28 moments and he’s got the part tech landscape.
[00:35:59] Vince Menzione: Oh,
[00:35:59] Rebecca Jones: the islands. The islands.
[00:36:00] Vince Menzione: Yes. The islands.
[00:36:00] Rebecca Jones: Yes, we got it. But there are part tech solutions that support
[00:36:03] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:36:03] Rebecca Jones: Partner programs, co-sell programs, partner marketing, you know. Yes. And really help to automate a lot of those processes.
[00:36:11] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:36:12] Rebecca Jones: Um, and a lot of those programs.
[00:36:13] Vince Menzione: So Rebecca is such a great conversation today.
[00:36:16] Vince Menzione: I mean, we can go. Thank you so deep on this.
[00:36:18] Rebecca Jones: I know.
[00:36:18] Vince Menzione: Which means that we’re all gonna have to be back together in Redmond. You live in the Seattle area? I do. And you’ll be with us. Um, we’ll be hosting the Ultimate Partner, live in, uh, may, May 11th to the 13th. If you’re marking your calendar as listeners and friends, uh, and you’ll be there and.
[00:36:36] Vince Menzione: Probably driving some more of this conversation in a workshop format, I hope.
[00:36:41] Rebecca Jones: I hope so too. Yeah, it was really rewarding last year. I mean, there’s nothing more powerful to be in the room with partners because the partners are frontline to customers.
[00:36:51] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:36:51] Rebecca Jones: And understanding what they’re seeing and hearing.
[00:36:53] Rebecca Jones: And I always think voice of the customer is your ultimate signal. Yeah. So I can’t wait to be there.
[00:36:58] Vince Menzione: Very cool. And I have a favorite question I ask all of my guests now. Uh, it is a favorite of mine. You are hosting a dinner party and you can choose where in the world you wanna host this dinner party, and you can invite only three guests, though from the present or the past to this amazing dinner party.
[00:37:18] Vince Menzione: Whom would you invite Rebecca and why? And why?
[00:37:22] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Yeah. I’d, um, this is such a great question. I think on every single day I’d have a different collection of folks that I’d want at my home. Uh, I’ve had dinner at some amazing places for me. I would love to host this at my home.
[00:37:38] Vince Menzione: Very cool, very
[00:37:39] Rebecca Jones: cool. Uh, and the people that I would want there for this particular dinner party, I’m gonna pick, um, three iconic women.
[00:37:51] Rebecca Jones: Coco Chanel,
[00:37:52] Vince Menzione: Coco Chanel very cool
[00:37:54] Rebecca Jones: designer.
[00:37:55] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:37:56] Rebecca Jones: Um, really changed how women thought about an identity and wardrobe. Um, I would invite Georgia O’Keefe. Wow. She’s my favorite artist.
[00:38:07] Vince Menzione: Yeah.
[00:38:08] Rebecca Jones: Um, she is one of my favorite artists. Uh, I’m, uh, art and history background. And, uh,
[00:38:16] Vince Menzione: that explains,
[00:38:17] Rebecca Jones: that, explains that, um, a really interesting perspective.
[00:38:22] Rebecca Jones: I love her view on landscapes and. She,
[00:38:26] Vince Menzione: that’s why I know her as, you know, landscapes
[00:38:28] Rebecca Jones: a landscape artist, um, and much more behind that. And then I would bring one of my favorite authors in, who’s Tony Morrison?
[00:38:36] Vince Menzione: Tony
[00:38:37] Rebecca Jones: Morrison.
[00:38:38] Vince Menzione: I don’t know Tony Morrison.
[00:38:39] Rebecca Jones: Oh, um, I would, beloved is her book and Oh, yes. When you think about.
[00:38:45] Rebecca Jones: Um, and this is really my passion, my background in art and literature and design, and to have three, three women there, that voice of Tony Morrison, you’ve put that book on your list. Okay. It, it, it changed my life. Uh, and, um, Coco Chanel and, um, Giorgio O’Keefe, I think it would be a really interesting conversation.
[00:39:07] Rebecca Jones: I love very cool trailblazers, women who really helped. I don’t know how much they recognize how much they really changed the narrative for other women, um, in their fields and together. But I think it’d be a really fun evening.
[00:39:23] Vince Menzione: Very different. Very different. Uh, I was, I know a little bit about Cocoa Chanel ’cause my mom was always in the beauty and fashion industry.
[00:39:31] Vince Menzione: So as a kid growing up, I mean her shoe was iconic.
[00:39:34] Rebecca Jones: Yeah.
[00:39:34] Vince Menzione: Iconic. Chanels an iconic brand was iconic. And, and she was a, wasn’t she a survivor of the. Of, uh, Nazi Germany maybe or something. There’s some, there’s some background or there’s
[00:39:44] Rebecca Jones: some background. Flee. Flee
[00:39:45] Vince Menzione: Nazi Germany
[00:39:46] Rebecca Jones: or something. And what she’s really known for is, um, well many things, but yes, as a designer, really changing the tone and temperature Yes.
[00:39:56] Rebecca Jones: Of um. How, you know, fashion and female identity. I think she, um, created the, what everybody knows is the little black dress and really got all that more structured and more modern look and feel of how to, how to wear and just really created a powerful path.
[00:40:14] Vince Menzione: Very cool. Yeah. Very cool.
[00:40:15] Rebecca Jones: So that’s who I’d have it, this one.
[00:40:16] Vince Menzione: That will be a funer.
[00:40:17] Rebecca Jones: Next time I’m on your podcast, I’d have a whole new crew.
[00:40:21] Vince Menzione: Okay. Well I might. Bring dessert. If you don’t mind, I might bring a little, maybe a little chocolates I think maybe might be very appropriate would for this group and just maybe pop in for a few minutes.
[00:40:29] Rebecca Jones: That would be great.
[00:40:30] Vince Menzione: Because I don’t wanna inter interrupt the flow my, because this is be a great conversation. Oh my,
[00:40:33] no,
[00:40:33] Rebecca Jones: you would, I think you’d have a ball.
[00:40:34] Vince Menzione: Okay. I,
[00:40:35] Rebecca Jones: I mean, I know how close you were to your mother.
[00:40:37] Vince Menzione: I am.
[00:40:37] Rebecca Jones: And so, yeah.
[00:40:39] Vince Menzione: So, um, this isn’t, again, I use this tumultuous term, but we are living in interesting times right now.
[00:40:47] Rebecca Jones: We are.
[00:40:47] Vince Menzione: And for all of our viewers and listeners. What is your advice to them? What is the one thing you would say? We’re in the first quarter of 2026. Yeah. This ball is moving fast or this puck is moving fast. Yeah. If you were a hockey player, um, what would you say to us now? What, what, what is the one thing you would go do if you’re not doing it now that you should be doing?
[00:41:11] Rebecca Jones: Take a moment. Take a moment. As leaders. Your company and your organizations are looking for clarity. They’re looking for a path forward, and there’s a lot of energy out there, which is very exciting, but it can be also very distracting.
[00:41:30] Vince Menzione: Yes.
[00:41:31] Rebecca Jones: So hold some confidence and clarity for your organization and figure out where you need to be and where you’re going.
[00:41:39] Rebecca Jones: That’ll help set your strategy, and this will all come into view. And so what I look to is how do we help enable the organization to grow? And by doing that, you ha you have to put the oxygen mask on yourself. Yeah. Take a moment.
[00:41:53] Vince Menzione: Pause.
[00:41:55] Rebecca Jones: Pause. Reflect, reflect. I told you I walked down to the beach this morning.
[00:41:59] Rebecca Jones: It’s a great moment. Take a moment for yourself. It’s not passing you by. We’re just getting started.
[00:42:06] Vince Menzione: Did you hear that? My friends and listeners? Take a moment. And so great to have you here in the room. Yeah.
[00:42:13] Rebecca Jones: Thank you so
[00:42:14] Vince Menzione: much. Thank you. And I want to thank our listeners, our viewers, for following along, ultimate Guide to Partnering and our YouTube channel Ultimate Partner.
[00:42:23] Vince Menzione: And please, please, please come join us. We have an incredible year ahead. This was our event, number one of five. And Ultimate partner Live will be in Bellevue on the 11th through the 13th of May.
[00:42:36] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, I’ll
[00:42:36] Vince Menzione: see. You’ll see you there. Rebecca will be there. It’s
[00:42:38] Rebecca Jones: in my backyard.
[00:42:39] Vince Menzione: It’s in your backyard. And we are gonna have incredible leaders in the room.
[00:42:42] Vince Menzione: So thank you for watching. Thank you for listening to The Ultimate Guide to Partnering.
[00:42:47] Rebecca Jones: Don’t forget, ultimate Partner Live is coming
[00:42:50] Vince Menzione: soon, May 11th through the 13th in beautiful Bellevue, Washington. I hope to see you there.s I, as I wrap up here, I just wanna make sure that what, where