There are many types of partners for technology vendors. Picking the right type for your go-to-market or go-to-ecosystem approach is a much larger subject that we can cover in a blog. However the right type is only part of the puzzle.
Partnerships can get complex quickly, especially if you are partnering with a much larger organisation that has formal processes, often leaving agile start-ups frustrated. It is also true that large partners will enter agreements with many many vendors, which can often lead to problems getting attention, focus, funding and traction.
These organisations rarely will cut communication with you, as quite rightly, they are hedging their bets, have metrics to meet etc etc. Very few partners are "bad" business partners, but when you are small it can feel like you are being taken for a ride when you are putting in all the time and effort. Partnerships are also big bets for startups, so are internally high profile with high expectations.
There are very few bad partnerships, but problems do arise from issues like mis-alignment. For example if you partner with a large GSI and expect them to bring you leads like a channel reseller might, this is unlikely to bear fruit.
Partnerships require effort, focus and investment and they bring new revenue streams, market access and business benefits for both sides. But, you can also spend a lot of time, and therefore money, chasing after after partners that bring you none of these things.
So what are the top 5 symptoms you should be looking for:
Is everything always great? business is rarely always great, if you are having regular calls and there is always a big opportunity of the horizon, but no basic traction, joint events or account introductions happening then this should be a red flag. Selling through partners should be like running a sales team, multiple threads, multiple accounts, campaigns and events.
Access above your contact? Just as with a sales opportunity you should not be single threaded. There are multiple streams that are required, process work, executive bridging, sales inspiration etc. If your contact seems unwilling to network you to others, if you are finding it difficult to get NDA's and agreements signed or be able to access senior leaders. Then you may not be very much of a focus for your partner.
Is the relationship balanced? If your company is doing all the work, investing time and budget into a relationship, but there is no balance, no reciprocation, then this should concern you. You should not view this like for like, partnership at it's core is about mutual benefit. However, if you are bringing leads, then you could expect account access, if you are following their process steps, then you should be seeing joint marketing funds or marketplace status improvements.
Is there an operational model? Do you have regular calls/meetings? Do they cover multiple streams? and are you making progress? There should be a plan/framework you are working to that includes not just sales opportunities, but also how to jointly market, events, target customers, aligning sales teams, exec introductions. If your cadence is inconsistent and its difficult to make any real progress, then is this the best use of your time?
Do you know what success looks like? While this may seem obvious: we want leads, customers and revenue right? From a start-up perspective correct, but do you know what a cloud marketplace wants from you, or a GSI or Technical Alliance wants from you? e.g. a cloud marketplace may want you to be a SaaS solution, as that drives consumption, they don't care about your license revenue, but they do care about cloud consumption.
Market Access Partners is a boutique management consultancy based out of London. We offer specialist services to tech vendors to help them navigate, set strategy and leverage partnering whilst avoiding the pitfalls.
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