Aligning Business Goals with Partnership Objectives

This is the most underrated problem I've seen when trying to build or expand partnership GTM: Leadership is initially fully behind a new partnership, excited about its potential, but that enthusiasm never makes its way down to the sales teams who are expected to execute. Without alignment, even the best partnership can stall before it has a chance to succeed. Why does this happen? Sales teams are often focused on their core products, and if a partnership doesn’t clearly benefit them or fit into their day-to-day operations, it becomes an afterthought. To turn things around, you need to make sure your partnership incentives, compensation, and training are in lockstep with the teams that will be selling your product. Here’s how to align incentives and drive results: 1. Ensure your incentives are compelling enough for frontline teams. It’s not enough to excite leadership—sales teams need a clear, tangible reason to sell your product. - Introduce a financial incentive or bonus structure that’s competitive with what reps earn on their core products. This could be a one-time bonus for the first sale, or an ongoing commission that rewards consistent effort. -Tie the incentive to their existing sales goals. If your product helps them hit their targets more easily, they’ll naturally prioritize it. 2. Structure partner compensation to motivate co-selling. If your partner compensation doesn’t align with their core goals, they won’t push your product. - Design a compensation plan that aligns with both the partner’s and your business objectives. For instance, if your partner’s core offering is hardware, incentivize bundling your software as part of the sale to create a win-win situation. - Offer performance-based incentives that reward partners for hitting key milestones—whether that’s a certain number of units sold, a specific revenue target, or even customer engagement metrics. Keep it simple and measurable. 3. Provide consistent training and engagement so your product isn’t just another checkbox. Sales teams won’t advocate for your product if they don’t fully understand its value or how to sell it. - Develop ongoing, bite-sized training sessions that fit into their schedules. Instead of overwhelming them with lengthy sessions, focus on 15-minute, high-impact trainings that teach them how to identify the right opportunities. -Pair training with real-time support. Join sales calls, offer one-pagers, and provide direct assistance during key customer engagements. When they feel supported, they’re more likely to feel confident pushing your product. This kind of alignment can make the difference between a stalled partnership and a thriving one. When sales teams are motivated, equipped, and incentivized to sell your product, the partnership stops being just another checkbox—it becomes a key driver of growth.

Remember the childhood game of telephone? One person whispers a phrase, it passes through a chain, and by the end, it’s completely distorted. Funny as a kid. Disastrous in business. Recently on Friends with Benefits, we talked with Franz-Josef Schrepf about how this same dynamic plays out in partnerships. You have one vision, your partner has another, and by the time that vision moves through sales, marketing, and leadership, it’s often unrecognizable. This is how deals stall. How expectations misalign. How “strategic” partnerships turn into transactional ones. So, how do we avoid a game ofCall me maybe?"Over-communication and executive alignment. It’s not just about making sure your teams are on the same page, which can be a challenge in and of itself. It's also about making sure each stakeholder understands the partnership in a way that ties to their goals. 📈Executives care about revenue and growth. Frame the partnership in terms of impact on pipeline, market share, and competitive advantage. 🤝🏼 Sales teams care about ease and speed. Make sure they understand how the partnership helps them close more deals, faster. 👀Marketing cares about positioning and demand. Ensure they see how the partnership expands reach, adds credibility, or unlocks a new audience. Before you can communicate effectively, you have to deeply understand what each person values, the goals they're trying to reach and how they define success. Otherwise, you’re just playing a giant game of telephone where no one walks away with the right message. Great partnerships aren’t built on handshakes and hype. They’re built on clarity, consistency, and alignment at every level. If your partnerships aren’t driving results, ask yourself: • Do I fully understand what my partner (and their leadership) actually cares about? • Am I communicating their value in a way that makes sense to them?

I’ve been asked a few times lately: What does a successful partnership actually look like? It’s a great question, with a myriad of answers, but the one I keep coming back to is this: Two companies fully functioning in the market together, driving impact to the bottom line of the business. Not JUST co-marketing. Not JUST a signed agreement. Not JUST a “good relationship.” Not JUST a couple mutual customers. Not JUST a logo swap on a slide deck. Not JUST a press release. Not JUST a one-off webinar. Not JUST a referral here and there. Not JUST some overlapping ICP. Not JUST a Slack channel between partner managers. A truly successful partnership means both companies are actively generating revenue together…whether that’s through co-selling, product integrations, or joint customer acquisition. So how do you actually make this happen? Here’s what I’ve seen work time and time again: 1️⃣ Deep Business Alignment: Make sure your goals actually align. A partner that drives meaningful impact is one that fits into your customers’ existing workflows, pain points, or decision-making processes. 2️⃣ Embedded Sales & Marketing Plays: If your sellers aren’t actively working with partners, the partnership isn’t real. Equip your sales team with clear, repeatable motions: 3️⃣ Clear Revenue Attribution: If you can’t measure it, you can’t prove it. Define what counts as sourced vs. influenced pipeline and make sure there’s clear tracking in your CRM. Otherwise, partnerships will always feel like an afterthought instead of a strategy. 4️⃣ Mutual Investment & Skin in the Game: The best partnerships aren’t transactional. They evolve over time, with both sides actively investing, whether that’s through product roadmaps, dedicated teams, or joint market expansion. If one side is doing all the heavy lifting, it’s not a partnership. 5️⃣ Consistent, Executive-Level Buy-in: Partnerships die in silos. The most successful ones have top-down commitment, with CROs, CMOs, and even CEOs recognizing that partnerships are core to revenue growth, not just a side of the desk project. If you can embed partnerships this deeply, you’re not just “working with partners.” You’re creating a competitive advantage in your market. Tell me: what does a successful partnership look like in your world?

Constantly having to explain what value partners add 😤? Internal Alignment is table stakes if you want your partnerships team to be successful. If you keep running into any of the following issues: ⚠️ misalignment and lack of buy-in from sales, marketing or CS. ⚠️ internal teams don't pay attention to partner deals. ⚠️ compensation isn't neutral and there’s channel conflict. ⚠️ you keep having to explain why partners are important or how they provide value. Then you have an internal alignment problem that needs to be solved immediately. So, what can you do to solve this? 1️⃣ Make compensation channel neutral – Your teams should focus on closing, not competing. 2️⃣ Seek alignment and buy-in – A partnership strategy can’t be siloed; for teams to work together, strategies must be aligned. 3️⃣ Track the right metrics – Use data to clearly show how partnerships are impacting the corporate goals. 4️⃣ Build internal champions – Find champions throughout your organization that can advocate for your strategy and can lead by example. 5️⃣ Educate & enable – Everyone should understand your strategy, how it works, and how to execute. 6️⃣ Communicate & celebrate – Provide updates and highlight wins, external and internal. Internal alignment isn't optional, it's a critical and foundational element that you can't avoid. #Partnerships #PartnerOps #GTMStrategy