Chris Lavoie’s journey into partnerships started in an unexpected place, a chemistry lab in Nova Scotia. With a PhD in hand and a love for teaching, he seemed destined for academia. But a quarter-life career pivot led him into the world of SaaS partnerships.

Today, as Founder of Partnership Mastermind and Head of Global Partnerships at AfterShip, Chris is helping reshape how partner professionals build programs that actually drive revenue. And it all begins with a question many partner managers wrestle with: why isn’t account mapping working?

The Illusion of Data

Account mapping often gives partner managers a false sense of progress. The moment you open Crossbeam or Reveal and see those overlapping logos, it feels like success is inevitable. Chris calls this the illusion of momentum. You think you’re 90 percent there because the data is rich and the overlaps are visible. But without strategy, playbooks, and alignment, that data goes nowhere.

One of the first themes Chris unpacked was this idea that access to data is not the same as action. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Partner teams often find themselves swimming in account overlaps without a clear sense of direction. As Chris put it, they are “paralyzed by analysis,” unsure where to start or how to engage.

The core problem is not the tool. It’s the absence of strategic rigor. Most managers lack the framework to move from account match to revenue outcome. They also underestimate the importance of qualifying the right partners before any mapping even begins.

When Alignment Breaks Down

The session audience confirmed what many already knew: most account mapping efforts deliver sporadic or minimal value. Chris pointed to two root causes that continue to derail even well-resourced programs: internal and external misalignment.

Internally, partner managers struggle to secure buy-in from sales, success, and executive stakeholders. Externally, even strong partner relationships falter when only the partner manager is engaged. To move a mapped opportunity forward, you need influence with customer-facing roles on both sides. That includes account executives, customer success managers, and sales engineers.

Chris emphasized that if your partnership only involves you and the other company’s partner manager, it’s not a partnership, but a friendship. Success requires multithreaded engagement and true stakeholder commitment.

A Step-by-Step Playbook for Turning Overlaps into Outcomes

To help partner teams shift from data to results, Chris walked through his proven mapping playbook. This process has been tested across hundreds of partner professionals through the Partnership Mastermind program and refined inside a global team managing AfterShip’s partner ecosystem.

First, always begin with partner prioritization. Before mapping a single account, ask whether the partner is worth your time. Look for alignment on ICP, data hygiene, and the ability to activate revenue.

Once a partner is greenlit, the next step is pinpointing high-value overlaps. Chris warned against simply targeting big logos or recognizable brands. Instead, combine firmographic data, CRM insights, and partner feedback to identify accounts with real sales potential.

From there, define the engagement path for each account. Not every account should be pursued the same way. For example, one might be best approached through a partner’s CSM, while another might call for executive-level involvement or co-marketing efforts.

After defining the path, focus on messaging. This is where many efforts collapse. Chris stressed that when asking your internal sales team to bring in a partner or recommend one to a customer, your pitch must be clear and compelling. It’s not about sending over a one-pager. It’s about crafting a story that resonates with your AE’s goals and helps them close their deal faster.

Finally, execute and track. This means engaging both the AE and the partner, getting intros in motion, and monitoring progress through your CRM and partner tools. At AfterShip, Chris’s team uses structured playbooks in HubSpot to log every touchpoint, capture partner intel, and document influence.

Working with Sales Requires Humility and Precision

One of the most practical sections of the webinar explored how to build better relationships with sales teams. Chris acknowledged that many AEs are skeptical of partnerships. They’re focused on hitting quota and often see partnerships as a distraction, not a lever.

To change that mindset, partner teams need to lead with value. Chris encourages his team to deliver a “hot win on a silver platter” before expecting engagement. That might mean uncovering valuable intel, orchestrating a warm referral, or facilitating co-selling support.

And it works. By getting Slack alerts for new pipeline deals and proactively analyzing overlaps in Crossbeam, Chris’s team identifies the best-fit partner for support. Then they prepare messaging and reach out to AEs with specific actions, offering to engage the partner directly or facilitate a warm intro. This hands-on approach builds trust and trains sales teams to see partnerships as a revenue accelerator.

The Power of Partner Influence

Mapping isn’t just about sourcing new deals. It’s also about improving your win rate. Chris shared how his team supports existing pipeline deals through partner influence. When a large opportunity enters the pipeline, the partnerships team gets notified and jumps in to assess overlap and partner fit.

Once a potential partner is identified, the AE submits a partner influence request directly through the CRM. This triggers a playbook that allows the partnership team to activate the partner, provide context, and drive the deal forward. It’s an elegant system that makes it easy for sales to ask for help and for partnerships to deliver value.

No Tools? No Problem

One of the most empowering messages in the session came when Chris addressed teams without access to Crossbeam. He was quick to point out that the systems he described can be replicated using Google Sheets, CRMs, and simple automation tools like Zapier. While it may take more manual effort, the principles still apply: align your teams, prioritize your partners, build your playbooks, and track every action.

Creating Net-New Pipeline from Partner Teams

Chris’s favorite tactic might surprise you. It has nothing to do with software and everything to do with people. To source new leads, Chris’s team identifies which AEs and CSMs at partner companies manage the most accounts from AfterShip’s target list.

They build pivot tables and scorecards to rank these partner employees by potential. Then, they reach out with personalized messages, offering Uber Eats vouchers for quick connect calls. From there, they nurture those relationships, track lifecycle stages in the CRM, and reward each microaction, from a warm intro to a closed deal.

This system turns account mapping into a referral engine, allowing partner managers to scale impact by building one trusted relationship at a time.

Rethinking Ideal Partner Profiles

Many partner managers default to obvious partner choices. Chris challenges that. Instead of looking at who your competitors partner with or who shares some overlap, he advises focusing on three critical criteria: shared customers, shared buyer personas, and shared moments in the buyer journey.

His 2x2 matrix plots partners based on the value they deliver to shared customers and the enterprise value they represent to your business. Only those that excel in both areas should command your time.

Measuring What Matters

To justify the effort and gain leadership buy-in, Chris recommends tracking both leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators include overlaps reviewed, partner touches, AE engagement, and playbooks executed. Lagging indicators focus on pipeline sourced, influenced revenue, and closed deals.

Having this data at your fingertips builds credibility and supports your case for more resources, better tools, and deeper alignment.

Final Thoughts

Chris’s session wasn’t just a masterclass in account mapping. It was a blueprint for building a modern partner program that prioritizes strategy over tools, alignment over activity, and execution over intention.

If your account mapping efforts have been falling flat, it’s time to slow down, reassess your framework, and apply the kind of structured thinking that turns partner data into business results.

To go even deeper into the strategies, examples, and frameworks Chris shared, watch the full recording on YouTube and start transforming your partner program from reactive to revenue-generating.