B2B Partnerships Teams Are Using Sales Prospecting Tools to Hunt for Gaming Collaborators

When a Sales Tool Becomes a Matchmaker

Liz Melton, a consultant for B2B SaaS companies, recently shared a hack that would sound absurd to anyone who built enterprise software five years ago: she's using Clay—a sales prospecting tool designed to find potential customers—to instead find potential partners in completely unrelated industries. Gaming companies. Snack brands. Healthcare providers. She plugs in an "ideal partner profile," hits enter, and gets back a list of 100+ prospects with contact information, all in about the time it used to take to manually research ten.

The twist isn't just that she's using the wrong tool for the job. It's that it works better than the right tools ever did.

Melton, who formerly worked in partnerships herself, detailed the approach in a March 2026 Channeltivity blog post aimed at B2B SaaS partnership leaders. Her workflow starts with defining specific attributes: companies with more than 50,000 LinkedIn followers, engagement rates above 5%, and keywords like "cross-industry bundle" or "co-marketing." Clay, which was built to scrape and enrich data for sales teams hunting leads, treats potential partners exactly like potential customers—and returns a targeted list complete with decision-maker contact information. For a recent Zapier project, Melton reported the process was "far faster" than traditional outreach methods, slashing what used to take weeks into overnight work.

The Cross-Industry Collision

What makes this story unusual isn't the efficiency gain—every B2B tool promises that. It's the creative leap that partnerships teams are now making: scanning completely unrelated industries for inspiration, then using AI-powered tools to turn that inspiration into actionable outreach.

Channeltivity's blog post, which outlines nine partner-hunting tactics for 2026, devotes an entire section to "get inspiration from other industries." The advice is straightforward: if a gaming company partners with a CPG brand for co-branded events—say, Epic Games and Coca-Cola creating Fortnite skins—a SaaS vendor should ask whether a similar model could work for enterprise clients. Could an HR tech platform bundle with a wellness CPG brand for employee benefits packages? Could a fintech tool team up with a healthcare provider for integrated billing solutions?

The post recommends LinkedIn-messaging heads of partnerships in those unrelated fields, asking for "virtual coffee" chats to brainstorm. Then, once you've identified a promising model, you plug the criteria into Clay and let it generate the prospects. One example: searching for "gaming companies with high engagement partnering with CPG" yields a list you can filter, enrich, and export directly into an outreach cadence. Channeltivity claims this method ramps up partner-sourced revenue 3x faster than starting from scratch.

Why This Matters Now

This isn't just a clever use of technology. It signals a broader shift in how B2B companies are thinking about growth in 2026.

First, it reveals how AI-powered tools are blurring the boundaries between business functions. Clay was built for go-to-market teams—salespeople hunting leads. But partnerships leaders are realizing that finding a good partner looks a lot like finding a good customer: both require identifying companies with specific attributes, understanding their needs, and reaching the right person. The same data enrichment engine that powers outbound sales can power ecosystem building.

Second, it exposes how B2B leaders are abandoning siloed thinking. In a market where Forrester predicts 75% of enterprise B2B firms will increase influencer budgets in 2026—partly because buyers are overwhelmed by AI-generated content and need external trust signals—partnerships are becoming a critical revenue channel. Channeltivity's analysis notes that in shaky markets, partnerships drive steadier revenue than direct sales, especially when AI is creating volatility in buyer behavior. Cross-industry collaborations preserve authenticity while scaling reach.

Third, it shows that creative thinking still beats pure automation. Yes, Clay speeds up the mechanics of list-building. But the insight—"What if we partnered with a gaming company?"—came from a human looking outside their own sector. The tool doesn't generate the idea. It just makes executing on it feasible.

The Bigger Picture

Melton's workflow is a small example of a larger trend: B2B companies are treating 2026 as a year of "discipline over disruption," according to marketing strategists. Rather than chasing the next AI-powered miracle product, they're focusing on making existing systems work harder and smarter. Using a sales tool for partnerships. Borrowing models from B2C. Refining "ideal partner profiles" annually as ecosystems shift.

The cross-industry collision isn't just a tactic—it's a mindset. When a SaaS partnerships leader can cold-DM a gaming executive, brainstorm over coffee, and turn that conversation into a vetted prospect list by the next morning, the traditional boundaries between industries start to feel arbitrary. Channeltivity's post frames this as maximizing current resources before expanding, but it's really about recognizing that inspiration—and revenue—can come from anywhere.

In a world where AI tools are everywhere and trust is scarce, the most interesting opportunities might come from the least expected places. Like a sales prospecting tool that accidentally became the best partnerships platform nobody planned to build.