It all boils down to why we partner. Usually a growth driver. Of course there are strategic reasons like market creation, cost reduction, and others that in the end get distilled to a business case with positive ROI driven by revenue growth and/or cost reductions. The answer to why we partner is usually in one of the below categories:
- Better together story: classic examples in the tech industry are the complementary technologies. If you are using Teams in meeting rooms, you should pair it with "Amazing Widgets" for best 3d?audio and video control. The sales teams of both partners will leverage each other and work together so the customer has the best experience by combining the offerings. If very different in size, that also builds a good candidate for vertical integration (Acquistion, I love M&A prep)?
- Reach: a great offering is not enough for growth. Many times you need a Go To Market partner that has web infrastructure or feet on the ground that can accelerate your business beyond your own ability.?It can be in a vertical market or another country.
- Adoption Enablement: you must not forget that there is a cost associated with adoption of new technology. It can be training, people, new hardware, process change, or others. If you are offering a Software as a Service (SaaS) - you probably want a consulting partner to step in and help your customers use the offering to the best of its ability and realize the value they seek sooner and with less pain.??
- Creation Enablement: there are more than 200 companies represented in your phone. The processor, the screen, the software components, and they all come together to enable the production of the phone. I don't know of an example where there is no "sourcing of components" - It takes a village to do any product in an increasingly specialized world. Integration requires solid partnerships.?
- Socket for light bulb: think of a Personal Computer as a socket for an Operating System. If you are Linux or Windows, you can partner with all the PC makers of the world so that your light bulb is used in as many sockets as possible. Many offerings are in the same predicament. Phone cases to phones, software solutions that "require" a specific stack to run.?Your SAM (Sales Addressable Market) is defined by another offering.?
Deciding your partner strategy can be a game changer in a startup and a competitive advantage in the long run. How do you think about your partner strategy? Did you grow it organically as needed or did you build an umbrella strategy to align partner efforts? Would love to hear your thoughts!?
