Often, it is essential to work with other companies in the design, manufacture, sales or support of products and services. Distinction should be made between suppliers and partners. Suppliers provide goods or services required by the business through a straight commercial relationship. These should be interchangeable to make sure you have a variety of sources you can go to form a similar product or service. Partners or “Channel Partners” are organisations that add value to your business and are a vital part of your strategy. They will provide unique value and will have an intimate knowledge of your business and their role in it. You may choose to work with Partners for a variety of reasons including:

• Increase market penetration
• Access new markets
• Innovation – acquiring new skills or technology transfer
• Improving supply chain

It is important to choose Suppliers well but it is vital to select the right Partners, to manage, train, support and reward them well. This requires discipline on your behalf to maximise this relationship and we strongly recommend assigning a named individual in your business to mange these relationships. Contracts with Partners are especially important and must provide clarity in roles and responsibilities. They must create a mutually beneficial situation that rewards both parties fairly. They should always be performance based, giving you the ability to review or terminate the relationship if it is not working. Partner strategies can deliver incredible results, but selecting the wrong Partners or not supporting or rewarding the correct Partners effectively can damage the business and consume a great deal of energy. Many companies often develop a relationship with a potential Partner, allow them to market their products or services in a relatively unstructured way and then sit back waiting for the sales to roll in. That rarely works.

Ideas for how we might help...

• We could help evaluate your existing Partners and review the effectiveness of these relationships.
• We could help re-energise these networks or find new Partners for you.
• We could develop a Partner Management or Partner Training plan either for your existing markets or new vertical markets or territories.
• We could deliver Partner Management or Partner Training for you.
• We could help you identify sources of grant funding to support this work package.

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