Strategic Partnerships: a journey in long term growth
A big part of this series — and more coming by way of podcasts, communities, and more — is defining the term “partnerships”, and what it means to various people, companies and industries.
One type of partnerships are strategic. What I mean — and it might be different from you mean — is top of the funnel, strategic change, moving-the-needle kind of deals.
Pressure to close strategic deals early is a killer to long term potential of your growth as a business.
Alex Glenn shares an apt analogy to gardening. It is so important the entire leadership team understands the long term aspect of partnerships — not just the “gardener”.
New #partnerships managers: DO NOT put yourself on the hook for a quota in the first 6 months of a brand new partner program. Regardless of how confident you are in yourself or your product. And I say this not because quotas are tough or usually unrealistic…
It’s because:
1. A looming quota turns you from an aligned “partner” into a misaligned “salesperson” — and no agency partner wants to talk to a sales person.
2. Partnerships are like your garden — you wouldn’t plant a bunch of seeds then dig them up every few days to see how much they’ve grown would you? No. You plant a ton of seeds and your “water” is co-marketing, co-selling, free accounts, marketing development funds to sponsor their content or events, webinars…. water it for 6 months or until you have 20–50 active partners (submitting referrals) before you go back and ask for anything.
The suggestion: get rid of revenue quotas for those 6 months and replace with a clear definition and goals for: “how many seeds and saplings do you have” with seeds being signed on partners and saplings being highly engaged partners…
All kinds of partnerships are way more than just the close of a deal. Strategic partnerships are often about 1+1=3 — working together to make something better over time than you could have made alone. That kind of result takes coordination, effort, and more than anything else real relationships.
What do you mean by “strategic partnerships”? What are other types of partnerships and deals that fit into this world?
Want to join our Partnership community on Upstream? Valuable virtual events — interviews, 1 on 1s, networking — great people, and everything partnerships: https://link.upstreamapp.com/6cB7r69rFbb
Looking to hire in the space, are you thinking of making a move yourself, want to partner with us? Reach out: dave@recruitedinc.com
