FIVE PILLARS OF SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIPS

Having worked on business development, strategic alliances and partnerships over the last 25 years with companies of all sizes and shapes, in a variety of technology domains, across diverse geographies and cultures, I thought it would be useful to jot down a few things I have learnt about partnerships. I hope this would be useful to others on their business development journey. 

Here I discuss the five key factors that make a partnership successful. Check out my other blog "Five Stages of Technology Partnership Lifecycle" on LinkedIn.

1.    Strategic Alignment

This is the most important pillar of all. I have seen many partnerships start out with a lot of enthusiasm, but fail quickly because one of the key stakeholders was not aligned with the key objectives. 

• Start internally and at the top. Make sure that the leadership team agrees with the very need to partner. If you sign up a partner to resell your product, make sure that the Sales leader is fully behind it. If you sign up a technology partner, make sure that Engineering and Product leaders are fully on board. 
• Make sure that they believe in a win-win model of partnership. Unless both parties have equal to gain and see the value of partnering, it won’t last for too long. 
• It is very critical that the expectations and the success criteria of both parties about the partnerships are strongly aligned. 
• Make sure that the partner’s products and go to market capabilities are complementary to yours. If there are overlaps, they should be understood up front. “Coopetition” sounds great in concept, but hard to implement successfully in practice.  

2.    Product Readiness

If you are signing up a channel partner for your product, make sure that the product is ready to be sold by the partner.

• Does it have the features that are required by the partner’s end customer? 
• Is the value proposition defensible and does the partner have the tools to demonstrate it? 
• Are there proof points, customer references, product collateral, customer presentations, competitive analyses, boilerplate responses for RFPs, and pricing and discounting guidelines available for the partner? 
• Does the product satisfy both your margin needs and the partner’s? 

Same questions should apply to the partner’s product readiness if you are planning to resell it or integrate it as part of your product portfolio. A variation of these points would apply to a technology partnership.

3.    Partner Readiness

Ensure that the partner is ready to handle all aspects of using or selling your the product to the market. 

• This includes training their sales and support teams. If you have a certification program for your products, make sure that your channel partner invests enough in training and certifying their resources on your product. Make sure that the partner’s sales team, pre-sales solution engineering team and post-sales support team are all trained adequately. 
• Once the training is done, do not assume that the partner would be able to close deals on their own right away. Make sure that YOU have allocated resources to hold their hands for at least six months after the training is complete or for the first five significant wins with their customers. Ideally, you want to work with their sales team hand in hand for that duration. No matter how good your training is, their real learning will happen on the job once they start selling your product.
• If you are planning to take on the partner’s products as part of your portfolio, make sure that you have the partner’s support in getting you ready the same way.

4.    Process Readiness

Clearly defined processes to plan, implement, monitor and manage the partnership by both parties are key for a partnership to succeed. 

• It starts with a business case that clearly outlines the costs and benefits of the partnership. The business case should also specify the success criteria. 
• There should be a project plan using RACI model (responsible, accountable, consulted and informed) with key dates and deliverables identified.
• Create a resource map that shows the peers from each party with similar responsibilities across different functions (especially sales) that will collaborate on a daily basis. 
• For a channel partnership, there should be a deal registration process in place to ensure that the partners are treated fairly. Channel conflicts will invariably arise no matter how hard you try to avoid them, and they should be managed proactively and with urgency. 
• Also make sure there is an escalation process in place – it will be used. 
• There should be a process for pre-sales and post-sales support. 
• Have a process for marketing efforts of the partner, possibly with a market development fund, rebates and incentives along with a qualification process. 
• Don’t forget to have a process for gathering feedback and inputs to your product roadmap from the partner and their end customers if possible.
• Lastly there should be a process for monitoring and measuring success, and a joint Quarterly Business Review to measure last quarter’s progress and next quarter’s plan.

5.    Resource Allocation

The last key pillar of a successful partnership – and often underestimated – is allocation of appropriate cross-functional resources to support the partnership. 

• In addition to day-to-day partner management, there should be resources allocated for technical integration, documentation, creation of sales tools and collateral to be used by the partner, co-marketing efforts, pre-sales and post-sales support, and sales operations.
• Don’t forget – every partnership requires nurturing. Give it a lot of TLC (tender loving care). Without nurturing and TLC, a partnership will wither away without bearing fruit. And that requires resources.