And really it is so easy…. I mean, call it selling?
Sound Right?
In truth, (sad to say) wining and dining is rarely part of the job description any more.
Partner Management, done well, is actually one of the toughest roles in the
industry. Your employer expects you to accurately forecast and achieve testing
sales figures. Your Partner needs you to provide leads and insight. Actually, your
Partner wants much more than that, they want an extension of their management
team, their marketing team and their sales team as well as a gateway to muster
additional resources. You need to have the credibility and ability to support your
Partner in a customer engagement one day, provide strategic advice to the senior
management team the next day and forecast revenue (or billings or both) to your
Employer accurately and timely.
• Your Partner is seeking a trusted advisor.
• Your Employer requires that you deliver a number.
This then is the Scylla and Charybdis challenge for the Conscientious Partner
Manager… How to please all the people all the time…. As this is usually impossible,
what tends to happen is this…
The Conscientious Partner Manager dances to the Piper’s tune and follows the
money, basking in vicarious glory from time-to-time and blaming the incompetence of
their Partner when success is not forthcoming … Which means that you lack the
bandwidth (and credibility) to do be much of a trusted advisor and so sooner or later
the money well dries up.
Where is Your Value?
Let’s make a Plan….You know it makes sense… You need a sound plan, with a
middle a beginning and an end. A plan with plenty of measurable objectives
(remember SMART?) One where we will get the buy in from executives from both
sides of the table. You may have been around for a while and so had a little CHAMP
training or something similar and understand how your plan needs to have goals and
milestones, qualitative and quantitative objectives…. And so, with the very best of
intentions, you spend a good few days of your and your colleagues’ time so that
you can write down the detail of everything you are planning to do, as well as
everything you have already done.
And then go and forget the whole thing
Look, it really is not your fault… Compelling events got in the way, the quarter end
required attention, fires needed to be fought, forecasts had to be updated. So,
naturally you did not have time to implement the plan… I mean who would, given the
pressure you are under? And so, it will lurk somewhere near your desktop, but will
rarely, if ever, be used. (Well it might come in handy for end-of-year reviews).
So, if one accepts the inevitable truth that your built with best of intentions,
beautifully constructed, detailed, shared, win-win Plan is never ever going to be
used, what does one do?
Everything you do and everything you expect your Partners to do must lead
directly to a financial return for both parties. Without this essential ingredient
everything you are doing is a complete waste of time.
I hate to be crass and unsubtle, I know many may disagree and believe in more
esoteric goals. But I have to tell you that
Money talks above all else.
If you cannot demonstrate a financial return for what you are doing and asking others
to do in a reasonably short period then stop doing it.
Your Job, Conscientious Partner Manager, is to translate your targets into Goals for
your Partners and reward them for achieving them.
There are many ways to demonstrate value, the key is understanding how Your
Partners measure their success. You must speak their language – whether it is
ROCE, Client Satisfaction, Margin, Revenue, Billings, Total Contract Values or
something else. Then you must demonstrate how You are the key to them achieving
this.
Much of this is down to you – the Conscientious Partner Manager. Aligning Your
Employer’s resources with those of your Partners requires you to be truly adept at
sales. It is your ability to speak the language of your Employer and your Partner and
show both sides how they will see a return that will be the difference between a
successful Partnership and ships that pass in the night with the odd chance
encounter.
That is why Partner Management is probably the best job in the world…
But, this relationship is built on numbers, once the numbers stop adding up, it
will collapse and so You Must
MEASURE EVERYTHING!
• measure the result of every marketing campaign
• measure the success of every event
• relentlessly record and track the progress of every lead & every opportunity –
even the outcome of every meeting
• measure the sales made by every salesperson in every partner that you are
responsible for
• score your partners – don’t waste your time with yesterday’s news – be
ruthless with whom you select to spend your time and your employers’
precious resources.
The only problem is that this requires a Plan… And we all know about the problems
with Plans…
Like new year resolutions, they are difficult to keep….
To avoid the hangover problem, keep the plan really simple – focus on results and
alignment. Keep the detail to a minimum and never forget to stop playing WIFM
(what’s in it for me) in your head….
And this is why Partner Management is one of the most difficult jobs in our industry
