The other day I received the following high level question from John through email:
“I am a world-wide alliance manager. We are a big company but our BU’s product line is relatively weak compared with other BU’s. My job is to build up relationship with other big companies. Do you have suggestion?”
This is what I answered:
“You mentioned that your company is a big company and even though your BU is relatively weak, I would leverage the brand name and awareness of the big company. This will help you get a foot in the door with other big companies. But be prepared, think about what is in there for you, for the other company and for the customer as well. Draft the contributions matrix as included on page 21 of my ebook and use that to open the conversation with other big companies. When the value proposition is right, anybody will be ready to listen and talk to you!”
What additional recommendations would you give to John?
*The situation is real, I changed the name.
Hi having managed some key startegic alliances i can say that you need to answer the following questions:
– value proposition is key but you need to have clear view of what your competition is offering. Why your alliance should sell your products/solutions instead of the one that your competitors are offering?
– make sure that your comapny has a clear long term strategy on the alliances. Is not enough to say “make more revenues”.
– always think what is in for the Alliance partner and what for its customers!
Hi Francesca, thanks for your contribution, I absolutely agree with all your points, especially also the strategy remark is an essential one that many companies overlook.