In this episode of the Partnership Mastermind Podcast, Chris Lavoie sits down with Gabrielle Backman, Head of Partnerships at Teamtailor, for a sharp conversation on one of the most overlooked drivers of partnership success:

Partner selection.

Gabrielle makes the case that many partnership problems people try to solve downstream, like weak execution, low accountability, poor internal credibility, and unpredictable results, actually begin much earlier with the wrong partner choices.

They also get into what makes a great partner manager, why partnerships needs to stop communicating activity and start communicating impact, how to make the function more predictable, and why too many leaders still fall into a victim mindset instead of building a real business case internally.

This is a practical episode for anyone building, scaling, or leading a partnerships function inside a SaaS company.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why partner selection shapes more than just pipeline
• How poor partner selection creates downstream execution problems
• Why great partner managers think more like leaders than account managers
• How to communicate impact internally instead of just reporting activity
• What it takes to make partnerships more predictable and defensible
• Why low-energy teams are harder to fix than broken partner motions
• How Gabrielle leads partner teams across global markets
• Why partnerships leaders need to stop playing the victim and start earning trust

About Gabrielle Backman:

Gabrielle Backman is the Head of Partnerships at Teamtailor. She has built and led global partnerships teams across markets, with a strong reputation for combining commercial rigor, accountability, and people leadership. Her approach is direct, metrics-minded, and grounded in building partnerships as a serious go-to-market function.

Listen and subscribe:

Search Partnership Mastermind on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube for the full episode and future conversations with top operators in SaaS partnerships.