Here's how you can align partnerships with your organization's strategic goals.
Aligning partnerships with your organization's strategic goals is a vital step in ensuring long-term success and growth. Partnerships, when managed effectively, can provide access to new markets, enhance brand reputation, and contribute to achieving key objectives. However, forging partnerships without a clear strategy can lead to misaligned objectives and wasted resources. By understanding how to align these relationships with your organization's vision and goals, you can create mutually beneficial partnerships that drive your organization forward.
Before seeking out potential partners, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of your organization's strategic goals. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Once defined, these objectives will serve as the guiding principles for selecting partnerships that can help achieve them. It's not just about finding any partner but finding the right partners who share similar values and have the capabilities to help you meet your strategic goals.
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Erik van Weert
Director of Partnerships | Organizational Leadership
It can be helpfull to also have a look at the overall strategy and value you aim for, also to see if and how they are aligned to your potential partners.
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John W. Ryan
📶Helping B2B companies drive top-line growth by providing GTM leadership | ⬆️Leading impactful projects for CMOs | Fractional CMO at Authentic® | B2B Market Strategist
We retain the narrative if we regularly meet and work with our partners. What should sit at the center of those meetings is "What is our North Star?" What are we hoping to achieve together? We must know what that is and make quarterly adjustments if needed. Partnerships are only as good as the overall joint goal and our willingness to work for each other in the hopes that the partnership improves customer outcomes.
Once your goals are clear, the next step is to identify potential partners that align with these objectives. Look for organizations that complement your strengths and can help mitigate your weaknesses. Consider partners that could help you break into new markets, offer new technologies, or provide expertise that you lack. The key is to find synergies where both parties can benefit from the partnership, creating a solid foundation for collaboration.
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Erik van Weert
Director of Partnerships | Organizational Leadership
You may also have a look of partnerships your competitor have in place for inspidation and look beyond the usual suspects. Make a long and shortlist and try to actually speak with them.
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John W. Ryan
📶Helping B2B companies drive top-line growth by providing GTM leadership | ⬆️Leading impactful projects for CMOs | Fractional CMO at Authentic® | B2B Market Strategist
1 1 must equal 3. If it doesn't, you don't need to pursue that partner. In the end, a partnership in SaaS or an IT service provider, for example, must serve the end customer with additional value. In many cases, you'll need to decide if it is an equal partnership or which partner is the lead. Please remember this: ensure the customer understands the joint value provided. Choose partners relevant to customer issues and add value to what you do. One more thing: if you choose a partner, be prepared to take care of that partner. Otherwise, you won't be able to know if the partnership was an excellent strategic decision.
After identifying potential partners, assess the strategic fit between your organizations. This involves evaluating the partner's values, mission, and business practices to ensure they align with your own. It's also essential to consider how the partnership will contribute to your strategic goals. Will it help you reach new customers, improve your product offerings, or perhaps streamline your operations? A partnership that fits strategically will be more sustainable and productive in the long run.
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Erik van Weert
Director of Partnerships | Organizational Leadership
Think how you can add value to your partners, what is in it for them, why should they invest time and/or money. How would a partnership look like from both sides?
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John W. Ryan
📶Helping B2B companies drive top-line growth by providing GTM leadership | ⬆️Leading impactful projects for CMOs | Fractional CMO at Authentic® | B2B Market Strategist
In assessing fit, you'll need to look at their business model, products/services, target markets, position in the market, unique value prop, channels, and sales capabilities. How well do you complement each other? Moreover, what is their culture like? Are they ready for a partnership with you? What will be the incentives on both sides? How does your collaboration benefit their goals, and how will their partnership benefit your goals? How does the targeted customer benefit from the partnership? Who owns the relationship from both sides? If you think the questions are hard now, watch what happens when you fail to answer them. Answering them before you choose the partner is the first step to a partnership that works.
Negotiating the terms of the partnership is a delicate process that requires a balance between achieving your strategic goals and maintaining a fair relationship. It's important to establish clear expectations, define roles and responsibilities, and set milestones for evaluating the partnership's success. Ensure that the terms of the partnership are conducive to achieving your strategic objectives while also providing value to your partner.
Building strong interpersonal relationships with your partners is just as important as the formal agreement. Trust and communication are the cornerstones of any successful partnership. Regularly engage with your partners, share insights, and be willing to adapt as the partnership evolves. A strong relationship will foster collaboration and innovation, helping both parties to achieve their strategic goals more effectively.
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John W. Ryan
📶Helping B2B companies drive top-line growth by providing GTM leadership | ⬆️Leading impactful projects for CMOs | Fractional CMO at Authentic® | B2B Market Strategist
There's the partnership we agreed to and are working on. The latter is more important. The former can be a waste of time and resources. The relationships are where the money is. Conviction and effort ensure the partnership works and everyone gets what they hoped from the collaboration. As I mentioned in another article, we need to know who is responsible on their side and make it clear who owns our side. That will lead to quick conversations that speed things along outside formal settings.
Monitoring the progress of your partnerships is essential to ensure they remain aligned with your strategic goals. Set up regular check-ins and review sessions to evaluate performance against the established objectives. This will not only help you measure the success of the partnership but also identify areas for improvement. If a partnership is not yielding the expected results, be prepared to make adjustments or consider alternative strategies.
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