How do you SWOT your partnerships?

1 Step 1: Identify your partnership objectives

Before you start a SWOT analysis, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your partnership. What are your common goals, values, and expectations? How do you measure your partnership performance and impact? How do you communicate and collaborate with your partner? Having a shared vision and alignment is crucial for a successful partnership.

2 Step 2: List your partnership strengths

Next, you need to identify the positive aspects of your partnership. What are the benefits and advantages of working with your partner? How do they complement your skills, resources, and capabilities? How do they help you overcome your challenges and achieve your objectives? Think about the unique value proposition and competitive edge that your partnership offers.

3 Step 3: List your partnership weaknesses

Then, you need to acknowledge the negative aspects of your partnership. What are the drawbacks and disadvantages of working with your partner? How do they limit your potential, performance, or growth? How do they create conflicts, inefficiencies, or risks? Think about the gaps, weaknesses, and threats that your partnership faces.

4 Step 4: List your partnership opportunities

Finally, you need to explore the external factors that can enhance or create new opportunities for your partnership. What are the trends, changes, or needs in your market, industry, or customer base that you can leverage with your partner? How can you expand, diversify, or innovate your partnership offerings? Think about the possibilities, scenarios, and strategies that can improve or transform your partnership.

5 Step 5: List your partnership threats

Lastly, you need to anticipate the external factors that can harm or reduce the opportunities for your partnership. What are the challenges, competitors, or regulations that you have to deal with or overcome with your partner? How can they affect your partnership viability, profitability, or reputation? Think about the uncertainties, risks, and barriers that can hinder or disrupt your partnership.

6 Step 6: Analyze and prioritize your SWOT results

After you have listed your SWOT factors, you need to analyze and prioritize them according to their importance, urgency, and feasibility. You can use a SWOT matrix to organize and visualize your results. A SWOT matrix is a table that divides your factors into four quadrants: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You can also assign weights or scores to each factor to rank them. The goal is to identify the key issues and opportunities that you need to focus on and address with your partner.

A SWOT analysis can help you gain insights and clarity into your partnership situation and potential. By SWOTing your partnerships, you can enhance your partnership communication, alignment, and performance. You can also identify new ways to leverage your partnership strengths, overcome your partnership weaknesses, exploit your partnership opportunities, and mitigate your partnership threats.