I don't understand partnerships - is MECE the answer?

IN THE BEGINNING

Most sales and marketing teams I've met hate partnerships.

The usual line is -

'They steal 10% of my quota.'

or

'They aren't revenue focused enough.'

or

'They try and change systems that already achieve our goals.'

or

'They move too slowly.'

or

'They couldn't hit our numbers if they tried.'

Hands up who has heard any of those before?

Sounds super-negative, right?

But what if it was actually a massive opportunity staring at us in the face to change that perception?

Not just across marketing and sales teams, but CS, AE, OPS, etc.

What if we changed our protocols to adopt strategies, principles and frameworks that that placed interdepartmental cohesion at the forefront of our best practice?

Afterall, successful program adoption relies on internal alignment - sometimes more so than IPP or ICP alignment.

If the the people you work with, or for, to create a result don't believe in what you are trying to achieve, then short-term success is your most likely and only outcome.

THE MECE FRAMEWORK

A strategy I've utilised in the past to foster internal collaboration through understanding is the MECE framework (pronounced mee-see)

MECE was invented by consultant Barbara Minto in the 1960's.

She was a modern-day trailblazer notable for being the very first female MBA that McKinsey ever hired.

During her time at the firm, she created a framework for thinking, adopting and problem solving that most modern consulting firms still utilise to this day.

MECE is an acronym in two parts for -

?? Mutually

?? Exclusive

?? Collectively

?? Exhaustive

In a nutshell, it is a principle that helps sharpen focus, and simplifies complex ideas into something that can be easily understood by all.

As mentioned, MECE is made up of two parts.

1??

'Mutually Exclusive” is a principle/concept from probability theory that says two events cannot occur at the same time.

Here's a simple example.

If you roll a six-sided die, the outcomes of a six or a three are mutually exclusive, right?

When this principle is applied to partner information, mutually exclusive ideas would be distinctly separate and not overlapping.

2??

'Collectively Exhaustive' means that the set of ideas is inclusive of all possible options.

As per the six-sided dice example above, the set (1,2,3,4,5,6) is mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

Here it is in visual form -

USING MECE IN PARTNERSHIPS

In the context of interdepartmental collaboration to increase partner program adoption and buy-in, presenting the information in this fashion is much more memorable and persuasive to the teams you're trying to communicate your message to.

For example, solving a problem for a potential customer as a business requires basics such as -

• sales strategy

• paid advertising
• co-sell product development
• growth strategies
• market positioning
• brand awareness
• prospecting
• repeat purchasing
• networking

Now using MECE as a guide, we can begin to construct mutually exclusive groups, which might consist of -

Sales: sales strategy, repeat purchasing, prospecting

Marketing: brand awareness, paid advertising, market positioning

Partnerships: networking, co-sell product development, growth strategies

Therefore, these 3 groups are distinct and could be classed as separate, i.e. - they are mutually exclusive.

But they are also collectively exhaustive as well, because they cover all items on our list.

This process is referred to as synthesis, i.e. – taking detailed information and summarising it into a higher-level classification.

'But why not just keep the list as a whole?'

Because consolidated information is much more memorable and persuasive.

Remembering two or three things is easier than nine or ten.

So whether it's the internal teams you need to be able to work with to make your partner program a success, or the executive team that you need to convince to adopt your program by way of impact, focus not on the 25+ actions to take, rather -

'I can help you reach your quota faster by producing bigger deals that will generate repeat business.'

Faster. Bigger. Repeat.

I guarantee these are the aspects they will remember that will ultimately trigger them to dive deeper into the specifics once underway.

ENABLING MECE

So how could we use MECE in our day-to-day to help increase said buy-in?

• Breaking down partner program requirements into distinct workstreams
• Helps to I.D. and break down internal alignment issues to be more manageable and actionable
• Can use to create 'issue trees' to help solve large and complex interdepartmental problems (as it facilitates splitting them up into smaller, solvable problems)
• Sorting lengthy partnership presentations into clear and distinct sections
• Breaking down lists of required collaborative information into relevant and distinct groups

MECE is a great framework using it to improve understanding of what your partner program is trying to achieve.

When enacted and utilised cross-org, it can be an influential framework to convince departments that helping each other can actually create something far more productive and successful than what any one department could come up with on their own.

Because we'll always stand out when we stand together.