[akharris]

That's an interesting point. You're right that, for hard tech deals, the non-partners are often the relied upon experts.

To refine this point a bit - I don't think it's a bad idea to spend time with non-partners, but they're not the ones that you want to pitch in the standard sense. If you're trying to win a technical subject matter expert, your approach and dialogue are tailored for that specific conversation.