At the expansion stage, many sales and marketing teams are on the precipice.

They must continue to grow with the company, but at a scale that balances their ability to function and produce.

Atlanta-based software company VersionOne was there three years ago. The company had brought in new vice presidents of sales and marketing and received a venture capital investment from OpenView Venture Partners.

The marriage of those three additions helped take VersionOne to the next level. Over the course of the last three years, the OpenView Labs team has collaborated with VersionOne VP of Marketing Denise Grey and VP of Sales Richard Fuller on strategic and analytical projects that accelerated the speed at which VersionOne could leverage their market opportunities.

“We had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to go and where we needed to be, but we didn’t have the resources at the time to get there,” Grey says. “With OpenView, we not only got there, we got there in weeks and months rather than years.”

“Our goal is to help build great companies, not run the companies for them,” OpenView Principal Brian Zimmerman says. “It’s very much a collaborative approach. We could go in there and build their sales force infrastructure and do everything for them, but what good does that do? If they’re not able to manage it on their own with people, process and systems, the result is that two days later everything wanes.”

The venture capital firm helped VersionOne refine its sales and marketing pipeline, executing marketing lead development initiatives like the Lead Scoring Optimization Project and sales efficiency systems like the Sales Capacity Model. Both have allowed Fuller and Grey to work together to expand VersionOne’s team and, ultimately, it’s revenue potential.

“OpenView’s more than a VC, there a collaborative partner and resource,” Fuller says. “They’re a talented and innovative group which is further evidenced by their recent announcement of their new OpenView Labs.”

To read more about the partnership between VersionOne and OpenView Venture Partners, read the story about strategic collaboration in full.