Meeting after meeting, the conversation tends to go a certain direction with various emotions on either side of the table.

‍

"We want to do better". "We are doing it this way and it’s not great”. “It mostly works”

‍

Does it though? Does it really work? Are you getting the results because of your ownership over partnerships, or have your founders and product team hit it out of the park and you're riding on their coat-tails of success. It's a fair question, no?

‍

Would, what you are currently doing, work the same way if the product wasn't selling? Is your team truly driving your company's growth? If you are driving growth, fantastic, I'm delighted for you. It's a great feeling to know what you have ownership over is making a difference.

‍

But, let's be real. If something just works, is that the best way to do it? 

‍

Where is the gusto, the pride, the spirit to strive for something better?

‍

A lot of self-introspection, I apologise. But stay with me here.

Over the course of a year, I've had the unique privilege of being a fly on the wall, seeing how different teams run their partnership programs. What they've been using, what's been working and where most of them have been falling short.

‍

Product as a denominator

‍

The first common denominator of an unsuccessful partnership team is their product. Not much you can do but that's the reality. 

‍

The second, caring too much about themselves and not the experience they've been giving to their partners. What do I mean by this? Trying to get deals out of their partners, no matter the cost. Pitting partner against partner on potential deals they send out. Making them go through loops upon loops within their hacked together software stack.

‍

Let's collaborate on this Notion/Asana/Google document. But first, make sure you enter any deals you send us at this link. Yes, you also need to create an account and register your details over here as well so we can pay you a commission. Ah but let's communicate over on a different platform. Your sales team can log in to this other service here to go through our company information and training. I can go on..

‍

During the meeting your partner's look at you. It's a resigned look. A deep unsettling resolve to try and make this work, but know it will most likely fail. Why? They have 200 other partners. They have limited time and budget. Their sales and marketing team have better things to do.

‍

I told you at the start I'm a programmer at heart. Anything software related strikes a chord with me so let’s hone in on that.

‍

So what does the other side of the coin look like?

‍

They put their partners first. Simple right? They give their partners an easy process to follow which scales in line with their own partnership growth. Automates the mundane and focuses on what matters. What matters? Time, money and enjoying life.

‍

How?

‍

They pass deals to their partners that are already sold on the product, no asking necessary.

Why are they sold on your product already? Because it's addressed what their customer wants, what their customer needs and it's coming from a company the customer already trusts.

‍

It's all done in one place. Everything. Communication, collaboration, deal registration, payments, documentation, company information, automation. One single place. One source of truth for all things Partnerships related. It’s a stretch, for sure, since there are so many awesome products that are so specific and solve real problems in their niche. But if the solution requires your partners to do anything, the question is, is it worth it? Does it improve anything? Do you want to send your 200 partners to this product as well?

‍

CRM at the core of partnerships?

‍

If you say your CRM is where all of this happens, well, I wish I could come through this screen and give you a big long hug. A CRM is not built for partnerships. It’s not built for 2 way collaboration and communication, deal registration, payments etc. A CRM should have your deals being passed to and from your sales and marketing team so they can take care of their business, and that's it. Creating multiple 3rd party widgets and iframes are all well and good, but they don't solve or even address most of the core issues within the partnership space.

‍

Make your partner's life easy. Make your partner's life the core of your program. Make your partners feel like they matter. 

‍

One solution. One place for all partnership data.

‍

Haydn Martin

‍

Co-founder of Journeybee

‍

‍