You’re considering a career in partnerships. What should you know before you make the leap?

Before starting a career in channel partnerships, it's crucial to grasp the ins and outs of the industry. This means learning about different partnership types, knowing what makes your products or services valuable, and honing your communication and negotiation abilities. Also, having a strategic approach, being flexible and forming connections with important people are key to doing well in this field.

I’d say three things, - Wear the hat of your organization - Wear your intending partner’s hat - Wear the hat of audaciousness, flexibility and resilience Before going into the world of Partnerships, you must understand your unique sell, understand the pain point or progression point of your intending partner and boldly approach the decision makers. Also be ready to switch up your approaches and keep it moving if a partnership deal doesn’t pull through.

It has been widely discussed that companies in the digital age buy software and services differently. That is not entirely true; people believe in people they trust. Your success depends on your ability to partner with vendors and integrators your customer already trusts—that is partnership.

I disagree with this definition. It's too vague. A "common goal" could be anything. That's why many people misunderstand what partnerships actually are. Instead, one way to think about partnerships is "two or more entities that collaborate to gain a competitive advantage." If you look at partnerships from this lense, it is much clearer what is a partnership opportunity. Too often, vendors say "partnership" because they are afraid to call it what it is. A "sales deal". This helps nobody. It confuses the buyer, which wastes both the sales person and the buyers time.

The ability to build a strategy and then execute it straightforwardly and measurably. There is always a risk that you will spend time working with everyone and accomplish nothing. Partnership is all about goal setting and staying on track.

Being the bridge between your company and partners, you need to build trustful relationships with everyone involved on both parties - marketing, sales, strategy, product development, etc. You need the ability to deliver on the short-term while always having in mind the long-term strategy. Some partnerships will take years to be fruitful but can still be absolutely essential for your business.

Partner managers are like Orchestra conductors. They know how to connect independent pieces to create something greater and they do it with empathy, discipline and generating trust and value for each of the contributors.

The main challenge to break into partnerships: there are too few roles for too many people. Partnerships is a high leverage job. One partner manager can collaborate with 40 partners. Each partner has dozens of people working on the partnership. This means hundreds of people are working together. You can deliver significant impact on your business. But as a result, you only need few partnerships people. And these people need to know what they are doing. An easier way is to find a company you like that could benefit from partnerships. Join that company. And then find a way to move into a partnerships role within your team once you have proven yourself.

The most direct challenge is that there is always pressure to pursue short-term gains. As a partner manager, you are not an extension of the BDR team, but you are often incentivized that way. The key is understanding that your goal is to show your partner you can drive value for their customer.

Navigating in partnerships can be challenging in a medium/big organisation. Prioritising is key to success and constantly find partner-client-company win situations. You have to convince/sell on all parties to be successful which demand a very high level of connection and trust.

The main challenge is to align objectives and keep the commitment of each of the parties alive over time, and to achieve this you need to generate value for each of the parties throughout the process. If it is not perceived as a Win (client) - Win (partner) - Win (yourself), the partnership will end up becoming irrelevant.

The biggest reward is to develop situations where 1 + 1 = 3 and to grow alongside your partner. Especially in tech where you need to focus on having powerful products integrations enhancing the end-customer experience while leveraging your solutions with minimal development effort.

Start small. Find partners who are aligned with your products or services. Develop relationships with key leaders and understand how they create value and what drives their growth.

- SWOT analysis (where you can add value, and where you need help). - Define your partnerships goals and measurement criteria. - Focus on long-term goals, but also quick wins. - Evangelize internally about the value of partnerships. Everyone can contribute.