Getting Traction in Partnerships Part 2: The People Component

*Note, we updated the title from Building Traction to Getting Traction. It might seem like a simple word change, but after thinking through our vision and passion for the partnership team people, we want to help everyone get traction as they build their partner programs. Maybe that will be internal traction, potentially external, or, even better, both. Thank you for following along with us on this journey.

Building partnerships is like building a business. Every time we meet with a potential partner, we follow very similar steps as entrepreneurs who desire to give their business the best chance of success. 

As CoPort is growing, we’re learning so much about how to grow a company—steps, processes, people to meet, etc., and there is a common thread among so many—giving us the best chance possible to succeed. There’s no promise, no guarantee, but there is opportunity to make something truly special.

And every new business partnership does the same. There’s something new and exciting at the prospect of working with another company—whether an MSP, a reseller, VAR, tech partnership, you name it. It’s an exciting opportunity to build something new that no one has ever seen before. 

At the same time, there’s some key frameworks that can help us succeed and give us the best chance at helping our companies grow through partnerships. 

So, for the next 6 weeks, we’re going to mine the gold in Gino Wickman’s book, “Traction” to help us build partnerships. We’re going through the process ourselves at CoPort, making sure we give ourselves the best chance at success. 

Once partner leaders begin to see partnerships as an entrepreneurial journey, then we can get our footing to get going and keep going. It’s a long process to build a strong and sustainable partnership program. The good news is, there’s some handholds along the way. I don’t think Gino Wickman intended for his content to be applied to partnerships, but that’s what makes it amazing, it does!

So without further ado, let’s get into it!

Getting Traction in Partnerships Part 2: The People Component

“It all comes down to getting the right people in the right seats.” - Gino Wickman

This post isn’t just for the partner leaders looking to build out their team, because let’s face it, not everyone will have the budget or opportunity to build a team. Sometimes it’s just going to be you, but you still have something to learn in this content. Whether you have a team that reports to you or not, there’s gold here for you and for me in building out partner program.

People matter, and at the end of the day, companies don’t partner with companies, people do. It’s people that make partnerships work. 

So you can use this post to help you build out your team, with your partners, your team, and your company.

First, let’s define “the right people.” 

“The right people are the ones who share your company’s core-values. They fit and thrive in your culture.” (Wickman) This requires you and me to build out core-values (step 1). You can’t create alignment with partners if you don’t know what to align to. We came across this in a previous partnership role. I had the opportunity to build a net new type of partnership for our company, but we never aligned our core values. When we started to come across sales issues and our AEs told us they didn’t like working with this particular partner we soon realized that cultural alignment was vital for the success of partnerships. We just simply didn’t ask our partner in the beginning and our results suffered for it. 

When you’re building a new partner, make sure your cultural values align. Getting the right people in your program requires alignment with your cultural values in your program.

What it doesn’t mean though is that every partner looks the same, or every person looks the same. Monochromatic partnerships are not helpful. If the other company is just like you, what’s the point of partnering? Wouldn’t that be considered a competitor?

In partnerships we’re looking for companies and people who are complimentary to and extend our Unique Ability™ in the market. “The right seat means that each of your employees (partners) is operating within his or her area of greatest skill and passion inside your organization and that the roles and responsibilities expected of each employee fit with his or her Unique Ability™.” (Wickman)

This is going to require some due diligence on your front when pursuing and onboarding partners. You already know your values, now you need to learn theirs. Then, you ask the question, do these work together well?

For instance, when I started out consulting I was asked to join a marketplace, ie, become a partner. I thought it would be a great way to help me grow awareness in the market and make some money. But when I really thought about it, my value was in building CoPort, not in consulting. The result? You guessed it, nothing. I don’t even know how to remove my listing on their marketplace. Something that is valuable to one person/company was not valuable to me. And no one is getting the value.

How do we know if we have alignment in our values? Aside from asking, we can take a page out of Wickman’s book here and use his recommendation of GWC. “GWC stands for get it, want it,  and capacity to do it.” (Wickman)

Get it.

Does this partnership even make sense? When you think about your partner and your company is there even a correlation that logically makes sense? Maybe it’s the size of the company you’re working it. Maybe it’s an integration that will help you get into a different market. Be careful with this one. Integrations matter, but sometimes when you pick an industry that is a hard stretch from your core target, this can put roadblocks right away in your partnership strategy. 

Ask the question, “Do we “get” this partnership? Does it make sense?”

Want it.

Does your partner team even want to build this partnership? Is it one sided? Have you asked the question of your partner, “Where do we stand on your priority list?” I just had this conversation the other day. We’re not the top of the list for priorities, and we’re not even in the bucket of type of partner that the company is strategically investing in right now. That’s good to know! It doesn’t mean we’re not partners, it just means we have to reset our expectations of what we’re going to do together. 

Ask the question, “Do you want this partnership to succeed?”

Capacity to do it.

Do you and your potential partner have any bandwidth for this right now? There are times when alignment is there and we’re solving a real problem in the market, but when you look at time capacity or technical capacity, we realize this partnership is a “not yet” partnership. How realistic is it for you to manage 50 to 100 partners? Can you truly give your best? This is where the 80/20 rule comes in for partnerships. You focus on the highest 20% of partners and hope for 80% of the results. Only, the industry experience is more like 95/5. May I encourage you not to get caught up in inflating your program with the number of partners but investing in the quality of your partners? Now this will differ based on the type of partner program you’re building, agencies, resellers, integrations, etc. But make sure you have the capacity to invest in the success of your partnership before you start it.

Ask the question, “Do we have the capacity right now to help this partnership succeed?”

We said it at the beginning and it bears repeating, “Companies don’t partner with companies, people do.” Partnerships is about people, and so we can do better for our companies when we get the right people, and the right partners on the bus.

Gino Wickman shares a lot more than the GWC framework in building great teams and getting the right people in the right seat. We encourage you to pick up his book and grow in leadership, business development, and yes, partnerships.

Because we know that our companies win when our partnerships get better.