Partnering 2.0
Last week, a client-friend of mine and I were having a conversation about how they should be approaching their partnership strategies in this fast paced world that now includes precision digital marketing, an internationally integrated economy and a business landscape that can still be quite litigious. After negotiating or forming something like a 100 strategic and reseller partnerships for large and small companies alike, it can be all too easy to just give the stock cliché’ responses of “partnerships are relationships and the rest will follow” or “your best partners know how to make money for you.” While these precepts remain fundamentally true, what else is missing that we need to think about in 2009 going forward?
To begin with, sound partnering begins with a few basic principles that I’ve turned into the 4 C’s which I believe are crucial to understand:
Collaboration and Cooperation: joint, value-oriented partnerships are dependent on a sound quid-pro-quo. If you start with a one-sided contract, it usually ends up disastrously. There has to be something in it to help both parties grow, financially and otherwise. If you don’t have that, consider walking away.
Coopetition: almost any large company that partners with another company today (large or small) often has overlapping capabilities. In the world of technology, IBM and Microsoft have huge partner ecosystems, yet in many cases overlap some set of technology delivery with their partners. Overcoming and understanding how to deal with this phenomenon is key to working with large multi-dimensional partners.
Chemistry: good partnerships span more than just one individual. Executives, sales, marketing, finance, legal and engineering all get involved at some point in the partnership continuum. It’s up to the partner managers for both companies to build joint long-term commitment and to help forge multiple relationships with their key counterparts.
Given the above, what elements of partnering 2.0 should you be giving consideration to? Here are a few thoughts on what you can point towards:
Web and SEM: leverage all the key elements of web marketing to elevate your partnership’s value to your customers. Go beyond just building out a partner tab and page on your web site. Cross-link web pages of value from your partner as links on your page and vice-versa. Exploit jointly agreed upon keywords on both sites.
Joint Marketing Collateral: Build multiple pieces of collateral between both companies. Use multi-media where possible such as videos. Make sure joint webcasts and other web collateral are easily accessible from both sites.
Social Media Campaigns: use blogs, Facebook and Twitter to play a role in a joint marketing/branding effort. Keep your joint social media dialogues slightly less glitzy and be prepared for honest criticism – as this is a two-way street that is less controllable from the corporate side. Offer something of value (a Starbuck’s card for $5 as an example) for completing a survey for instance.
Joint digital branding, PR and advertising also play critical roles into your joint efforts. But more on that later.
One of the companies that you should be looking at include Intel’s latest partner efforts, as well as their new branding campaign. Admittedly not everyone can afford 7 figures, but you can get creative with 5 figures quite easily.
Please feel free to comment on your best partnering ideas as well as the companies that you think are doing it well.
