Tips for Managing Complex Partner Relationships

9 things I wish I knew as a first-time partner manager: 1. IT'S NOT SALES. I tried to push, charm, and buy my way into getting business from partners. Epic fail. Real relationships are built on mutual value and trust, not schmoozing. Partners can smell a salesperson a mile away. Don't be that person. 2. REAL RELATIONSHIPS TAKE REAL TIME. I wasn't patient when I started and I burned bridges. Big mistake. Take time to understand what drives your partners. Partnership ROI comes to those who wait. 3. PARTNER ENABLEMENT ISN'T SALES ENABLEMENT. Partners don't care about your 47-slide deck. They have their own business to run. Make your enablement 1000x simpler than anything you use internally, or they won't use it at all. 4. QUALITY > QUANTITY. I came from sales where everything was a numbers game. Partnerships is different. Fit matters more than volume. Focus on the customer value prop and your better-together story. 5. DATA IS YOUR BEST FRIEND. I was always too busy “doing” to track outcomes. My VP said it best: "You can't optimize the road ahead without studying the road behind." Set up metrics early. It's the only way to build predictable revenue. 6. PROCESS IS WORTH THE EFFORT. I hit bandwidth constraints fast and found myself doing the same tasks over and over. You can't scale without process. Start simple, then iterate. 7. INVEST IN INTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS. I naively assumed internal teams would automatically support partnerships. Wrong. Your colleagues have their own priorities. Build internal alignment early and often. 8. PARTNER EXPERIENCE MATTERS. I learned this the hard way through negative feedback. Every touchpoint matters - from first interaction to mutual customer experience. Make partnering with you feel effortless. 9. ALWAYS ASK "WHAT'S IN IT FOR THEM?" I thought partners would help "for the sake of partnership." Reality check: Partners don't owe you anything. Figure out their win first. Don't make the same mistakes I did. *Successful* partnerships aren't easy. But they're worth the effort. Let's raise the bar in 2025. The seat at the table is ours to take.

Partnerships are alluring, but they demand significant commitment. Here are 5 things I've discovered through multiple calls and onboarding sessions. As we lean into partnerships for 2025, I've been on a steep learning curve. 1. Team Certification: Your team members (sometimes 3-5!) need to get certified in your partner's offerings. This isn't just a checkbox; it's an ongoing process of learning and staying updated. Whose going to do it? Do they have the time? 2. Sales Training: Your sales team needs to be trained specifically on selling these new partnerships. It's not just about knowing the product; it's about understanding how it fits into your existing offerings and client needs. Everyone's hyped. Now what? 3. Process Adaptation: Your sales process may need tweaking to identify partnership opportunities effectively. This could mean adjusting your discovery calls, proposal structures, or even your target client profiles. Remember, you committed. Need to ask the right questions/audit the right things to make sure they have an at-bat. 4. Continuous Learning: The partnership landscape is dynamic. Your team needs to commit to ongoing education to stay relevant and valuable to your partners. It's a market, and being unable to implement the new things in their product is not going to keep you on the top of their list. 5. Upfront Investment: Most partnerships require you to show some good faith on your end – time, resources, and especially prospects – before you start seeing returns. It's about building credibility and proving your commitment. Here's a hint: your partner rep is probably bonused on net new, not on how much like they like you. Key Takeaway: Select partnerships that either align as closely possible with your core business or match the most frequent customer problems you solve. The more congruent they are with what you do or the problems you frequently solve, the easier the integration will be. Alternatively, identify common issues your clients face and reverse engineer solutions through partnerships. Remember, becoming a partner is just the beginning. The real work starts after. Be prepared for a long-term commitment and the resources it will require. But when done right, partnerships can be a game-changer for your business growth and client satisfaction. I'm thankful for great partners like Drift, a Salesloft company, HubSpot and Funnel, great partner reps over like the years like Bennett Boucher and Alex Lemieux, as well as a great conversation with Jason Yarborough 🐻 at B2Bmx last year who doesn't even know how helpful he was to my thinking here. (Hey, he's speaking on partnerships there this year!) Are you leaning into partnerships for your business in 2025? What challenges do you anticipate?

If you’re new to partnerships, start here. (Bookmark this. You’ll want to come back to it.) There’s a lot of noise out there. Advice about marketplaces, PLG, attribution models, AI overlays… But when you’re just stepping into a partner role, here’s the truth: None of that matters until you get the basics right and start lighting up the scoreboard. Here are a few things I learned over the years and want to share: 1. Don’t chase logos. Chase alignment. Big names look great on a slide, but if you’re not solving a shared problem for the same personas and ICP, you’ll waste months. Start with mutual value, not brand recognition. 2. Define outcomes before you launch anything. A great partner strategy doesn’t start with “what can we do together?” It starts with “what are we each trying to accomplish?” Then reverse engineer the plays from there. 3. Co-selling is not a meeting. It’s a motion. If you’re not treating partner-sourced deals like a sales play with a clear who, what, when, and why you’re just making intros and crossing fingers. 4. Learn the AE language. You don’t need to be a quota-carrying rep, but you do need to understand their world. What matters to them, what slows them down, and how your partner can actually help them win. 5. Write it all down. The best partner leaders I know document the frameworks, the “why” behind every motion, and the proof points along the way. Not for slides. For scale. Bonus tip: Build your personal productivity hack. My brain moves fast, and if I don’t capture ideas in the moment, they’re gone. I use Notion on my iPhone as my second brain, one tab for new partner ideas, one for running to-dos, and one for notes I’ll turn into follow up later. It’s not fancy, but it’s mine, and it helps me work with more clarity and intention. Partnerships aren’t magic. They’re systems. And if you build with intention early, you don’t have to fix chaos later. What do you wish someone told you when you started in partnerships? Or personal productivity hack? Drop it below, I’m building a list.

A few weeks back I was talking with a director of partnerships at a fintech startup who shared a fascinating strategy for deepening relationships within large partner organizations. When he joined, his company had one partner which is a massive global organization with layers and layers of political and bureaucratic structure. He had to get creative in how he navigate these relationships. Here’s what worked: He pushed for a sales education meeting to directly engage their account managers. He followed up directly, reaching out to each account manager to explore client opportunities. He asked for a map of their team, so he could target the right people without causing friction. He took risks, particularly around asking for what he needed Today, they're on the verge of closing their first multi-million deal with the partner. The next move will be to encourage broader connections between teams beyond sales and into product. Be bold. Take risks. Ask for what you need. Build relationships. These are the foundations of successful partnerships.

The right partnership can 10x your business growth. The wrong one can set you back years. My firm has had dozens of successful partners over the years. It's one of the reasons we've been in business for 20 years. We actually built our business early on through partnerships.  This got me thinking about how these partnerships are formed and why they succeed or fail. As a result, I've come up with five critical elements.  I'm sure more can be added, but if you can get these right, you're chances for a successful partnership go way up. 1. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 Don't chase brand names or surface-level synergies. Look for partners whose long-term vision matches yours. The best partnerships amplify both companies' strengths while filling critical gaps. 2. 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Excitement about the potential isn't enough. You need to define: • Specific goals and metrics • Resource commitments • Decision-making process • Exit scenarios 3. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 Begin with a pilot project. Test the working relationship before going all-in. The most successful partnerships I've seen started with a 90-day trial period that proved the concept. 4. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 Share both wins and challenges openly. Regular check-ins aren't just about progress reports, they're about building relationships that survive tough times. 5. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 The best partnerships aren't 50-50. Both parties should feel they're getting more value than they're giving. That's when magic happens. A partnership is like a marriage. The courtship is easy. The long-term success depends on how well you handle the daily challenges. What's been your experience with business partnerships? Anything I'm missing?