Episode Overview
“Show them the data. Show them the value. That’s how you build buy-in.”
What an inspiring conversation with Karen Chastain, VP of Global Partnerships at Enable, live from Catalyst 2024 in Chicago.
Karen joined Enable just under a year ago, and in that short time, she’s transformed how the company thinks about partnerships.
When she started, the sales team asked:
“What are partners, and how do I work with them?”
Today, they’re asking:
“Can you help me map accounts with our partners?”
💡 How did she make that shift?
Karen led with data and storytelling—showing reps that:
- Deals with partners close faster
- They’re more likely to close
- And partner involvement brings crucial insights and warm intros
At their last sales kickoff, Karen presented the top 10 AEs by partner-involved deal percentage—and her phone lit up with follow-up requests. That kind of visibility changed the game.
She’s also expanded Enable’s partner strategy far beyond the basics:
- Integrating with ERP and pricing partners to streamline joint customer solutions
- Engaging services partners (like ERP implementers) who are already trusted advisors
- Building out a team to scale this motion and reach new channels of growth
As Karen put it:
“Partners help uncover expansion opportunities we wouldn’t find on our own.”
Enable may lead the way in rebate management technology—but they’re quickly becoming a leader in ecosystem-led growth, too.
Thank you Karen for sharing your energy, insights, and results. You’re building something special—and it’s working.
🎧 Catch the full interview on Inside Partnerships.
#Catalyst2024 #PartnerEcosystem #ChannelLeadership #InsidePartnerships #EnableRebates #B2BTech #GoToMarket
Podcast
Guest
Karen Chastain
Driving Revenue Growth Through Strategic Partnerships | SaaS | GTM Leader | Expert in Building Ecosystems with Hyperscalers, ISVs, and GSI Partners
Episode Transcript
Chip Rodgers 0:00
Yeah, hey everyone. Chip Rodgers, Chief partner officer at work, span and gosh, Karen, this is fantastic, right? Great first day. Yeah,
Karen Chastain 0:08
I'm really excited to be here my first year. So it's hitting all of the points so far.
Chip Rodgers 0:14
Yeah, yeah. So, so many great experiences and conversations and all that. So So, yeah, so I'm excited to be joined by Karen Chastain. Karen is VP of Global Partnerships for Enable and prior to that many years at at Optimizely and running partner programs and product programs and all sorts of things. So, so, so welcome.
Karen Chastain 0:37
Thank you. It's so nice to be here. I'm seeing so many familiar faces from way back when, and already meeting new people. So it's really fun, really great conference.
Chip Rodgers 0:46
Yeah, yeah. Really is so. So let's talk about the the So enable is a new you've been in the role for about a year, and you're really bringing partnering to enable, and it sounds like it's been very successful. We're going going things are going really
Karen Chastain 1:03
well. Yes, things are going well. I've been in the role, like you said, for almost a year, and in the past year, we've really been able to raise the awareness of the value of partnerships within the organization and show you know what partners can do to bring expansion new areas of business, you know, that we may have otherwise not known of about, and really just escalating and elevating our presence in the market through partners. So
Chip Rodgers 1:32
enable is, is a rebate management system and a sort of very unique and, you know, but sophisticated, you know, challenging technology to a problem to solve for customers, and your partners are so ERPs and pricing. So tell me, tell us about the kinds of partners that you go to market with.
Karen Chastain 1:53
Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you think about enable, we are rebate management solution, and we don't have any direct competitors that just do that. So a lot of our competition is having to do it through work, you know, spreadsheets and manually processes that people have done before. And some ERPs have some functionality around rebates. But you know, the way that we're partnering today with ERP systems and pricing partners is rebates are used within both of those systems. The data is used within our system, and so we're partnering deeply with them and building integrations, because it just brings a seamless solution for our joint customers in this very specific space.
Chip Rodgers 2:38
Sounds like a natural thing to be, right? I mean, so exciting opportunity for you. Yeah, it's
Karen Chastain 2:45
been a really exciting opportunity. Because while the company saw the value of partnerships and brought me in for that reason, I've really had an opportunity to uncover new areas of partnering and new ways of partnering and building a team that enables us to go and identify not only ERPs and pricing partners that we want to build those relationships with, but the partners of them that are actually doing the implementations. So services, partners, yes, I mean, those are the those are the companies that are going out there and identifying the need. They're already implementing the ERP or managing the ERP, and they're recognizing, you know, that this company has, you know, a lot of value that they can uncover in putting a rebate management solution in and so we are building awareness with those partners, so that they know they could come to us
Chip Rodgers 3:37
that's, that's a that's fantastic, fantastic. So one of the things that I really wanted to, you know, talk with you about is because you told some really interesting stories about showing the value of partnerships and so enable, you know, you've sort of brought this new culture, right as a culture change. And so how do you get the sales teams, how do you get everybody, sort of, you know, to buy into it and say, Yeah, this is something I want to, you know, do too, yes.
Karen Chastain 4:05
And, you know, when I came to enable, I think it was more the question from Sales came was about, what are partners? How do I work with partners? What will they? What can they do for me, kind of, a perspective, and in in the year that I've been there, I've been able to raise awareness so that the sales team is now coming to us saying, How can I partner with them? You know, help me go through my account maps and mapping and figure out where I could partner with partners? Because what I did was, I'm talking about the data with them. I'm showing them that when you have a partner involved in a deal, it is more likely to close. It is going to close faster. So really showing, you know, the amount of sourced business we get from partners, the amount of influence. And we talk a lot about partner influence here, because it is so important. Important partners help with the warm introduction. They help with the insight. And so having those relationships to help you expedite your opportunity is huge. And then talking about the conversion rate, how fast anything that has a partner involved, how fast that opportunity closes. So one of the stories that I told you, what I did at our sales kickoff, is I got up in front of our sales team, and I listed our our top 10 AES and the percentage of deals that they had partners involved in. And we got a lot of calls from our from our sales team after that. So it is important to show the data and to show the value of partnerships, especially when you're trying to raise awareness internally. That's
Chip Rodgers 5:43
fantastic. Karen, this has been fantastic. Actually, I really appreciate you sharing all of your thoughts and ideas and success at enable and thanks for taking the time.
Karen Chastain 5:56
It's been great. I'm so glad I get to be part of chip Rodgers LinkedIn post, so I'm coming right at you
Chip Rodgers 6:04
all right. Well, great, and thank you. And let's have a great rest of the day. And thank you all for joining us again. Thank you. Okay, thanks, everybody. Awesome.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Chip Rodgers
🚀 CMO | Chief Partner Officer | B2B SaaS Growth & GTM Leader | Ecosystem Strategy | Demand Gen | Podcast Host 🎙
