In today’s interconnected global economy, small companies must avoid isolation; forming partnerships is essential for establishing a successful and sustainable brand.
Throughout my career in software, I’ve held various management roles and consistently found that alliances are crucial for expanding both market share and brand recognition – whether at industry giants like Sun and Citrix or at my own growing venture, Komprise, which I co-founded in 2014.
While there are many types of partnerships, this article will focus specifically on forming alliances with major players in the tech sector, such as Amazon, Google, HP, IBM and Microsoft.
Setting goals for an alliance partnership
When companies look to partner with a big brand, they typically view the arrangement in terms of gaining a faster route to the marketplace. They want access to the big brand’s customer base. While that is certainly an advantage, where is the win-win component? Saying you’ve got the hottest solution for XYZ is not a differentiating pitch and a large vendor will be cautious to proceed.
Instead, start by finding a problem the larger company has with retaining customers or growing customer satisfaction; the problem should be one which you solve uniquely. A joint solution also needs to benefit your customers. Through the lens of ‘better together’ you will have faster buy-in and more successful outcomes with the larger company.
The first 90 days
Once your pitch is refined and you’ve piqued interest with the company, create a go-to-market plan that is enticing but also viable. Test the value proposition with prospects and customers before even approaching the alliance partner. Include ample ramp-up time for training and education so that the company’s reps and product managers are fully engaged and have everything they need to succeed.
A successful alliance partnership follows the crawl, walk, run playbook. Both teams learn by working together on strategy and messaging and going in together on a few deals at the beginning. This will help the partner team understand what defines a good deal and can avoid common roadblocks.
Here’s one approach:
Establish a foundation for expertise. In the world of technology, this means ensuring that your top engineers and pre-sales specialists are certified in the alliance company’s core technologies. This shows commitment and your willingness to play by the rules. As part of this training, look to get a clear understanding of the processes and cultural norms at the big vendor. Talk to friends and peers at other companies and do research online to get the intelligence you need.
Hold a kick-off call followed by a regular cadence call with the partner manager and other stakeholders. Relationship building is critical, especially when you are David and they are Goliath. Establish regular communication across teams and ensure there’s a way to track and manage regular touchpoints. Look for common ground and sort out any problems or misunderstandings quickly as they appear. Pay attention to news coming from the larger partner and make sure your field organization and channel partners have talking points. Be sure to provide easy materials (short demos, two-page briefs) for partner managers to pass off to their sales team. Offer short, live training sessions at the beginning of the engagement and periodically thereafter as needed.
Bring a marquee customer to the table who validates the joint value proposition. Approach a happy customer who’s already working with the big player. Determine if you can create additional value for that customer that improves their experience with the alliance company’s product and solves common issues too. A launch customer helps build momentum for the entire program and establishes best practices for working together. Look for ways to co-promote the customer win and ROI, such as through a webinar, a case study, blogs, or featuring the customer at an industry event.
Dealing with conflicts
As the smaller vendor, you may feel pressured to acquiesce to any demands that the larger company makes. This may come down to sensitive issues such as pricing. Try to be flexible but don’t give away too much. Demonstrate and communicate your unique differentiators. Don’t try to be everything to the big partner. Distinguish one or two strong use cases that will create the most joint revenue and momentum for both companies. Another way to manage conflicts around pricing and contracts is to always revert to the customer’s needs. If the partner wants to undercut your pricing, explain that a reduction will impact your ability to adequately support the customer.
How to partner with two competitors
A young upstart needs to work with everybody, and it’s possible that you will have alliances with two companies that are archrivals. Be careful to respect each relationship and not over promote one alliance over the other or do anything to undermine one partner when you are working with a customer of the other.
Deal registration ensures that everybody always knows which customer came from which partner. That way our reps, customer success and technical staff will know to be loyal to that partner in any negotiations or communications with the customer.
Growing the alliance
Once you’ve built momentum with the partner, look for ways to expand the relationship. Build new connections at different levels, such as by meeting with regional sales teams, internal subject matter experts, or product leaders. As you create more awareness for your offerings, find opportunities to create new, unique offerings for customers. This will make your company stand out from other similar vendors that are working with the partner and can lead to a stickier relationship.
What happens when an alliance partner decides to build a competitive offering or adopt a strategy that no longer aligns well with yours? This doesn’t have to mean the end of the relationship. Reconnecting on the customer need and joint customer value can often work out any conflicts and build the foundation for a deeper, long-term partnership.