When you enter into an alliance or partnership with another organization, your primary reason to do so might be for your own gain. The partnership will bring you benefits that you would not have without the partnership. Recently, a company presented a partnership proposal to a client of mine. The proposal had exactly this starting point: The company was completely focused on what was in the partnership for them only.
What do you think, is this a good basis for a healthy collaboration?
No, clearly not. What is missing here, is a clear triple win for all parties involved. Obviously both partners in a partnership need to get better somehow by working together. That’s the win-win. However, that’s not all. The third part in the win-win-win in a partnership, is for the customer. That is where the value proposition should start. If there is no value for a customer in a partnership, then don’t bother thinking about working together.
In one of the exercises in the Alliance Masterclass, the participants discuss an example of a 3-way value proposition in one of their alliances. Sometimes this exercise is challenging for the participants, like for the executive who wrote the proposal to my client. The exercise always creates a moment of awareness and more often than not participants take action to improve their triple win alliance value proposition.
Try it for your own alliances: write down the value your alliance creates for your customer, your partner and your company. Is there a clear triple win? One tip: don’t focus on money, but on value!
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