Acting as the Ecosystem Strategist, Not the Event Planner

Too many partner marketers are still treated as the team that runs the events, builds the co-branded one-pager, and executes the MDF spend. Nicole Steele wants that definition retired. A marketer who's worked at the intersection of field, digital, and partner at Sage, SAP, Aryaka, and F5 — where 95% of the business ran through partners — Nicole joins Rick to make the case that customers aren't buying products anymore, they're buying platforms, and platforms only deliver when there's an ecosystem behind them. That changes the job. In this conversation, Nicole breaks down why field, digital, and partner can't keep running as silos, why the quarterly QBR cadence is killing partner relationships, and the business acumen skills that separate operators from strategists. The closing challenge: stop showing up as a support function and start operating as the ecosystem strategist your GTM motion actually needs.