Partner Success is everyone’s responsibility
Why companies struggle to unleash the power of their partner community?
There is no question about the impact your partner community can have on your business. Still most companies fail to unleash the power of their partners. A key for this untapped potential is found in the organizational set-up we see across most companies we engage with.
Partnerships has yet to reach the c-level. A company might have an outspoken channel/partner strategy and at the same time neglected to elevate partnerships to the right level in the organization.
Leading and running partnerships is a complicated job. It requires the same overview and leadership skills that successful CEOs possess. Partnerships touch every single part of a company, from engineering, sales, marketing, CX, legal, IT and ops.
The recourses however tend not to sit with the partner organization, resulting in the partnership professionals needing to go hat in hand to beg for help and support across their own company. The internal sell is oftentimes much harder and time-consuming than building interest and momentum externally.
The organizational silos across the corporation tend to optimize for themselves first and foremost rather for understanding how they can work with and leverage the partner team and their partner and ecosystem community. This pervasive “silofication” creates sub-optimization and prevents the company from truly accelerating with their partners.
IT & Tech is one of the real complicating factors for Partnership Leaders. As each silo run and operate their own “optimized” and “best of breed” tech-stack there is little or no interest in supporting the partnership professionals on their journey with their partners.
A few recommendations:
Successful companies of the future will need to elevate Partnership Strategy & Execution to the c-level. The partner team does not need to own and control the resources themselves, they do however need to have a seat at the table and each or the organizational silos need to be carry a Partnership KPI and be held accountable to the CEO for delivering towards the needs of the partnership org.
Additionally, successful companies understand the need to build a Partnership and Ecosystem Experience (PX) that unites the best of all the other functions into one unified and effective partner journey. This is where the Next-Gen PRM & Ecosystem software comes into play. Multi-business service and build to break down the silos of the organization to deliver what the partners need to accelerate your business.
Time is now to Simplify, Unify, Grow, Together breaking down silos with Next-Gen Tech and elevating the Partnership Strategy & Execution to the c-level.
Reach out to us for a discussion and learn the best practices we see emerging in the market.