What's your partnership impact measurement strategy?

Frequent communication is key. At the core of partnerships, are relationships. You can have every metric known, but if it’s not meaningful in the relationship, it may not hold value or impact. Expectations can vary and often change on a longer term initiative. It’s helpful to check in on a regular basis and review the original plan. Continually assessing all aspects of the partnership and communicating with those involved provides increased opportunities to anticipate challenges and successes. My approach to securing and managing partners is through building true collaboration. The impact is not so much for the partner as it is for the partnership. My organization is invested as well and my efforts are focused on success for all.

The most important thing is to set the right objectives on the both side of partnerships, and to ensure that the results are ambitious, SMART and relevant for both sides. Being partner centric in planning is crucial, and I often use "How does success looks like to you? What is your 'champagne moment'?". If partner's vision of success reflects your goals as well, then you're on a right track.

SMART is always a useful tool in any impact framework, I am totally following this framework, organizations can align their partnerships with their overarching goals and objectives, select suitable partners, and define clear roles and responsibilities. Additionally, the framework underscores the significance of allocating resources, ensuring sustainability, and assessing the broader societal and environmental impacts of partnerships. Impact Framework empowers organizations to make informed decisions, maximize the positive contributions of their partnerships, and advance their strategic goals.

Unless you define 'success', how will you know you have achieved it? Same applies with partnerships. You & your partner must be clear on the deliverables of the partnerships and what success looks like between the two of you. Is it generating X number of leads together? Is it onboarding X number of joint customers? There has to be a metric like this on the basis of which you call the partnership a success. PS: Do not mistake these milestones with end of a partnership. These are goals and you will have to set new goals once you achieve the first set.

There is not really a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to measuring partnerships since ever program has different goals, objects (for the partner), and assets & benefits (from the property) that dictate what you need to include as part of determining a measurement approach. Establishing key benchmarks and KPIs at the onset is crucial, but staying flexible and open to the ever-changing landscape that the partnership world lives in must be part of any measurement plan.

Let's assume your goal is to generate 100 leads together with your partner. But which leads contribute towards this goal? You need to define that. Decide with your partner which leads do you count as joint leads? The leads you generate through a joint webinar and/or leads from other sources that ask for a joint solution with that partner? Sources and methods can be multiple but they need to be well defined and agreed upon.

Surveys and interviews can lead to new outputs and underline what we know already are inherent challenges. The devil is in the interpretation and having the correct sample size as well as making adjustments for how these might be skewed by a large proportion of responses coming from one country. Discussion with partner to achieve a succinct, high-level output is key to build a foundation for the collaboration.

I had a retail consumer brand who wanted to measure their partnerships impact. The brand sold products both instore and online. I suggested the below: > Social tools: something like mention or spoutsocial to understand customer engagement. > Surveys: A quick instore survey on a tablet at the cash counter or an online survey on the ecom website when customers are purchasing.

Analyzing data and turning it into information is art. Assuming that you've collected the right data, three things that you should incorporate in your analytical mindset are: Be Opportunistic - What is the trend? Is it relevant for us, and if yes are we utilizing it? Are consumers unhappy? If yes, how can we understand why and turn that around? Be Painfully Realistic - If you are not able to face negative results, you also won't be able to turn them around. Not every project will succeed, but every project can be a learning and an opportunity for the future success. Be Curious - What can I do more with this data? Am I looking at it at right way or is there another analyses I can run with it? Where can I find more data to dig deeper?

The first step in being able to interpret your data is understanding what information you're collecting and what it tells you about your goals. With the "why", you can move into the "what" and deliver properly synthesized information along with your insights. That's where you derive meaning and impact.

Often, we build all stages of the partnership, but don't think much about packaging the finished product. Communicating will draw attention to the work and its relevance to advance the future state of the industry or sector. Thus, infographics can be a neat way to achieve in a way that the key facts are easy to assimilate. This is a great way to gather consensus within the community.

Reality check - everyone around you in business is your partner. Your director is of an equal value as your customer, as they might unlock new opportunities for your partners' success that you have not been aware before. Also, share your success with your colleagues - they will value an opportunity to learn from you, but you can also in that process learn from them. People love good storytelling, so don't shy away from impactful & engaging media - slides, email, LinkedIn post... whatever you find most relevant to your audience.

Communicating and sharing your impact is very important, especially in the Corporate Social Responsibility perspective. I created a CSR campaign for a retail brand where we created a partnership with a CSR organization and engaged children to create paintings which were sold and the proceeds given to the organization for their activities and social impact. We communicated this across a mix of channels: > dedicated team reaching out to parents to get their kids involved. > print and social media pre and post event (to share the brand communication on the initiative and its benefits) > display of paintings and promo campaign. > instore and online campaign to announce the results. This created a huge brand and community engagement impact.

This is true. I always set in place the below: > A Quarterly and half yearly feedback and review process system which will help us see trends using data and also qualitative understanding of emotions and opinions. > In parallel, I also create a system to capture inputs and suggestions from the stakeholders in the partnership to understand what more could be done to make the partnership more impactful. This feedback will be more realistic and relevant as it comes from the actual situational learning.

The goals and impact intensity can evolve and change over time. What works today, may not have the same impact after 6 months or a year. Thus it is essential to re-callibrate your partnerships impact measurement framework and strategy every 6 - 12 months to ensure it is relevant and impactful to generate the results you require.