Michael Ross

What does success look like? Define and quantify that from the beginning. "We're aiming for 5% penetration on your existing customer base at the end of the first 12 months. 10% would be exceptional. Anything less than 2% indicates we have some work to do." Use a pro forma to calculate potential based on revenue or those metrics that define success. Incorporate and commit to these in your agreements. Add multipliers for exceptional performance and penalties to ensure a minimum level of commitment/investment. Be wary if a partner is averse to contract terms that commit them to performing or rewarding exceptional results. Make sure you're not entering into a vanity partnership with no teeth or incentive to ensure accountability and success.

Partnerships are long-term relationships, and you have to invest time in developing rapport and trust across teams. Try to meet in-person, especially at trade shows. Schedule a closing dinner to celebrate a significant milestone. Send those holiday or thank you gifts. It's easy to shift into a transactional mindset, but the best partnerships revolve around strong relationships.

Company Goals > Department Goals > Individual Goals A good internal process for linking company goals and strategy to those of each department and their individual team members using clear objectives and key metrics is critical to alignment across partners. Furthermore, aligning incentives at the company level (e.g. rev share) with those of the individuals (e.g. commissions, bonuses, spiffs) on whom a partnership's success is dependent is also critical. "Incentives drive behavior." Partnerships centered around demand gen (i.e. referrals) driven through partner reps will not succeed unless there is some performance metric and, typically, monetary incentive for them tied to these goals. Reward behavior that aligns with partnership success.

Great partnerships evolve over time. With a technology partnership for example, you may start out with a data integration. That may lead to an integration across applications using a mechanism like single sign-on to link the user experience. An even deeper user experience may have one or both partners embedding functionality from one app into another. This progression requires consistent investment in the relationships and ideation around the partnership, so make sure you are cultivating both.

There is often an imbalance in a partnership: one partner is often chasing the attention of another. A minimum commitment of time is needed on both sides if a partnership is to succeed. Explicitly identify what that is for both partners. Quantify it, and acknowledge whether it is being met during regular review. If it is, assess whether you can increase the commitment. If it's not, ask why, and perhaps lower the bar. If you find yourself repeatedly missing the mark on either side, you have a zombie partnership that should likely be dissolved.

How is the industry evolving? How should Product evolve with it? Partnerships and Channel Sales teams often see how/why deals are both won and lost. They have a great purview to relay critical feedback to Product specific to how it should evolve. What are the competitors doing? Should you follow suit or find an alternative solution to address functional gaps? Should it be built or internally or added via a partner? You need to be selling these idea internally to Product and, externally, to Partners. Most will not be implemented, but the one or two big ideas with significant potential will.