Partnerships and sponsorship · Episode 47 · Special · ·
Partners Are Not an Extension of Your Team. They Are Embedded in It.
Salomé Imedashvili, Director of GSI and Strategic Partnerships at Salesforce, on why treating partners as an extension of the team rather than embedded within it limits commercial outcomes, how the Salesforce 1% pledge became part of daily personal practice, and what genuine alignment across marketing, alliance, and sales KPIs looks like.
Salomé Imedashvili, Director of GSI and Strategic Partnerships, Salesforce. In conversation with John Horsley.
Partners Are Not an Extension of Your Team. They Are Embedded in It.
0:0038:00Why partners embedded in your team outperform partners treated as extensions of it
Salomé Imedashvili has spent 17 years in marketing across Amazon, Amariss (acquired by SAP), Salesforce, and startup advisory roles. At Salesforce she leads partner marketing strategy in the UK for GSI and strategic partnerships. Her career spans startups, scale-ups, and enterprise, and she has watched marketing evolve from a tactical execution function into a genuine growth driver.
In this conversation Imedashvili explains why the partner model only works when partners are genuinely embedded rather than treated as an extended sales channel, how the Salesforce 1% pledge to donate equity, time, and product to communities became embedded in her daily practice, and what it means to align KPIs across marketing, alliance business, and sales simultaneously.
What drew you to marketing and what has kept you in it?
“Back at university most people with the lowest GPA would choose marketing. I and my friend David were high performers who chose marketing anyway. Our parents could never understand that. And I am so glad I chose it because it has evolved from being a very tactical part of the business to really being one of the drivers of growth.”
Imedashvili frames marketing's evolution as the validation of her early career choice.
What have you learned from the cultures you have worked in?
“Culture is actually what defines you not as a member of the business but in front of your customers. Salesforce has a commitment to the 1% pledge. At first I thought it was just a company rule. But later I realised it had embedded itself so much into my day-to-day, my weekly and monthly planning, that now I automatically find time to volunteer and find funds to donate.”
Culture that embeds in daily personal practice is the deepest form of organisational culture.
Why must partners be embedded rather than extended?
“Partners are not an extension of your team. This is what I learned. Partners need to be embedded in your team because the bigger and stronger your ecosystem is, the larger is your footprint. External partners cannot contribute in the ways that genuinely integrated ones can.”
The distinction between extension and embedding changes the commercial outcome.
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“Alliances might have very different KPIs. For me, tied directly to the marketing KPI but also the alliance business and the sales target, alignment is critical. The way we keep it smooth is detailed planning and a shared understanding of what each party is trying to achieve.”
Imedashvili describes the specific challenge of serving three masters simultaneously.
What has your experience across startups, scale-ups, and enterprise taught you?
“The cultures of those companies are so different. But one thing that stays constant is that the role of marketing is becoming more and more important whether you are a startup, a scale-up, or an enterprise. The tools change. The expectations grow. The fundamental job of understanding the market and the customer does not change.”
A consistent thread across very different organisational contexts.
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Read the full transcript
Lightly edited for readability
John Horsley Tell us about your career journey and what drew you to marketing.
Salomé Imedashvili 17 years across Amazon, Amariss, Salesforce, and startup advisory. Marketing has evolved from being a very tactical part of the business to really being one of the drivers of growth. I have been lucky enough to be on that journey.
John Horsley What is the most important thing you have learned about partnerships?
Salomé Imedashvili Partners are not an extension of your team. They need to be embedded in it. Because the bigger and stronger your ecosystem is, the larger is your footprint. Culture also: the Salesforce 1% pledge started as a company rule. Now it is embedded in my daily personal practice. That is what real culture looks like.
