Tips for Communicating in Business Partnerships

Over the weekend, I reviewed around 100 emails in Superglue to figure out what drives partner engagement. Here's what I learned: 👉 Keep it short and sweet Keep your emails short, 150 words max. (50 is better). Challenge yourself to communicate concisely. Partner teams tend to overload emails in an attempt to cover all bases. Aim for one key message or insight per email. Splitting your content into several messages performs about 3x better than one long email with 17 links. 👉 Tone matters A casual, friendly, personal tone performs the best and can double reply rates. Drop the formalities. If it sounds too grandiose or something you wouldn't say in person, rethink it. Instead of sounding overly authoritative, aim to sound interested and engaging. Initiate the conversation. 👉 Subject lines play a crucial role Stick to 1-3 words. When it comes to partnerships, mentioning your company's name and the partnership actually works well. What surprised me was how well emojis performed. 👋 Bonus 1: Portal adoption Systematic communications via email can actually drive portal adoption. Imagine an eCommerce merchant without a loyalty program. The loyalty program is what drives people back to the site and ensures they engage (and buy). The same is true for partner communications. Some of our customers saw a huge increase in portal adoption by sharing portal links at the right time, e.g. when sending deal updates or as part of enablement flows. 👋 Bonus 2: Sender importance Avoid sending messages from impersonal email addresses like partners@... Few things impact open and reply rates as negatively as a generic domain (and using HTML templates). Messages need to come from individual people and should feel personally crafted. Anything less tends to be ignored. Partnerships thrive on personal connections, so don't risk alienating your partners with impersonal communication. If you're looking for more insights, feel free to reach out. We've dedicated the last two years to identifying best practices in leveraging data to drive more partner revenue. Our experience could provide valuable guidance for your strategy.

Consultants: pump the breaks on that partnership for a minute. Sensitive subject I know, but I've made some observations. For independent consultants in particular relationships are critical for credibility, learning & business development... also our psychology. It sucks to be truly alone. This dependency on relationships leads us take some "partnerships" way too far way to fast. We get distracted, frustrated and lost. Here's the natural progression of partnerships as I see it and some tips for making the relationship successful at each stage. That said, remember business partnerships are no different than personal partnerships... most end in break up, some get ugly & all are emotional. Stage 1: Introductions Basic networking... you know what someone does and are you're willing to make some introductions. Super valuable. Low risk. Tip: If you want someone to make an introduction for you, make an introduction for them first... speed things along. Stage 2: Recommendations With some more confidence and experience together you're willing to recommend them to others... taking on a little more responsibility. Tip: Be very clear about your level of experience with the person you're recommending. Stage 3: Co-Deliver You start working on client accounts together. Tip: It's much easier when both services are delivered separately (one after the other) and both fit into the same delivery format, timeline and fees. Stage 4: Co-Market You position yourselves in the marketplace as a package offering - going after new business together. Tip: Don't dilute your positioning by simply adding services to your menu. There partnerships work when you get more focused... more unique. Stage 5: Co-Business You share in the costs, development of resources and management of the business outside of client work and business development tasks. Tip: Never start here... it's like moving in with someone you barely know. There's a big shift between stages 2 and 3: your decision making process changes. 1 and 2 can work for anyone but partnerships 3, 4 and 5 work best when you've got DIFFERENT & complimentary skillsets so the domain in which each person has decision making authority is clear. The most frustrating thing for an independent is not being able to make decisions - and it is that friction that leads to the emotional break up These are just my observations so I'd love to hear what's worked and not worked for you. #consulting #partnerships #entrepreneurship

Partnerships 101 PSA for something that happened today (AGAIN!): Don't use a partner's Partnership Manager's name in a cold reach out to a large company without their approval. This may seem like a quick fix, but it can actually do more harm than good. For many reasons but here's a few: 1. Personal Brand Reputation Risk: Don't use my name (or the PM's name) in an unauthorized email. It is very simple to run it by the person where we could have avoided this whole situation. You just make me want to not work with you and I take my personal brand very seriously. Trust me you, you want me to work with you, not kick my feet to help you and this only does that. (1.5 - You burn the rep of your own PM by doing this spray and pray reach outs that rarely give you the return of actually booking the meeting. I would never allow any employer to use my name on a non-strategic message like this. Don't allow folks to tarnish your reputation Partner Manager friends! It is your brand equity 💙 ) 2. Creates Communication Chaos: You confuse the distribution group and cause a million slacks, emails and requests to know if this a legit ask. To which I say no an inevitably the team marks you as SPAM or JUNK and now you've just negated everything you were trying to accomplish. Also you create A LOT of unnecessary communication requirements on the PM, see point 1 ;) 3. Where's the Strategy? All this tells me is that you are not strategic and short sided in partnerships for a quick fix and you get moved to Tier 3 or 4 or never work status. Work with your partners and the PM, they are your best advocate and internal champion! And if they aren't, figure out why or ask. I bet you quickly align when you do. So, let's be strategic and avoid short-sighted tactics. Work with your partners and their PMs to establish a mutually beneficial partnership. Okay, rant over...I mean Partnerships 101 PSA over. Have a great week friends!

I got asked in multiple LinkedIn messages and texts about my post yesterday on constant communication. Here's how both the selling center and the buying center can benefit... It's all about one thing: building trust; it's the cornerstone. During my tenure in, when I was selling & managing partnerships, I learned something invaluable: the power of truly understanding your partners. It's not just about transactions; it's about forging lasting relationships. One of my successes was getting non-traditional categories to become partners, such as Biometrics, government, Trade Unions, Agriculture & education. Over time, I became their trusted advisor in many aspects of partnerships, sales & marketing. This transition took time to happen. It was built on a foundation of mutual trust and authentic engagement. Here's what I discovered: - You must truly understand their business: Earning your partner's business transforms the relationship from a transactional engagement to a strategic alliance. - Authentic Relationships Lead to Growth: Becoming the trusted advisor opens doors to more opportunities, such as upselling and a thorough understanding of your partner's network. - Leveraging Account Mapping: Understanding your partner's top customers, complements, and supply chain intricacies can be game-changing. It helps in building an entire ecosystem around your partner and their industry. This strategy can help your current partner forge more partnership deals and enhance the relationship. This approach is about more than just achieving short-term gains. It's about creating a sustainable, mutually beneficial partnership where both parties grow and succeed. We're here to help. #Partnerships #Trust #Sportsbiz #heretohelp. 

Communication Tip 101 Working collaboratively, especially in highly matrixed environments, requires some diligence and skill around framing conversations. There will be times when you don’t agree with every stakeholder, and may even be on opposite sides of the fence. Therefore, I offer the following: If you want to land your point of view with intent, first consider what is in the best interest of the project. Begin every collaboration, especially a negotiation, with strong consideration as to what an optimal outcome would look like. State that approach with emphasis. “In the interest of X, should we consider Y.” Eliminate the subjective. It’s not, “I think… or my position is….” Your opinion will never matter as much as you think it does. Whether your way may be best, how you express it is key. Interests over positions. You will be recognized and acknowledged for your creativity, collaboration, strategic thinking, and possibly problem-solving skills. You may even be seen for your leadership, which will be remembered, versus your opinion which will likely be forgotten by the time the next Zoom begins.

Want to succeed in enterprise partnerships? Here are six tips to keep in mind: 1. Ruthlessly prioritize: Choose your partners wisely and sparingly. Enterprise partnerships are a long-term play with very few quick wins. When planning for the year, choose two to three partners to go big with and outline the entire playing field. Where do you fit with their customer base? Their marketing? The way they sell? Where do they fit? Why can you be the winning solution over your competitors? 2. Clarify your story: Revisit your story over and over. This is an exercise in messaging and positioning. Why would a customer use your products together? How does your solution solve a customer pain point? What do you and your partner do together to provide clear value for the customer? Everyone at your company should be able to communicate this. 3. Focus on references: Find customers who use your joint solution and get case studies together. Provide proof that your product actually solves their customers' pain points and provides value to their day to day. Insert this into your messaging, build worlds around it. 4. Build relationships: Working with large companies means getting to know the people who work there. What are their goals? What is their mission? What kind of work do they want to be doing? How do they see their future? 5. Deliver: If you can't do the big things yet, start with the small things. Do the work to highlight your partner and drive joint adoption, usage of integrations, great stories. Show your partner that you're dedicated and ready to play. 6. Communicate internally: Enterprise partnerships are often step-by-step wins that may go unnoticed internally. Shout about these wins, highlight your customers using joint solutions, highlight sales wins where partners played a role. Make the relationship known internally and it'll be easier to get things done when it counts. In order to do all of this, strong relationships with product, product marketing, sales, channel, brand marketing and comms are all necessary, not to mention executive alignment. Good luck! #enterprise #partnerships