"If you want to go far, go together." Why Partnerships May be the Key to Your Success
At a company like Ferrazzi Greenlight, where relationships are the cornerstone of our methodology, we think of all of our clients, employees, fans of Keith’s books, speaking agents, etc. as valuable partners in our business because they are! But businesses, especially when your business is a somewhat niche change management consulting firm, need formal partnerships as well. These partnerships can run the gamut from recruiting to sales development to quasi-competitors to completely complementary businesses that could tee up or sustain the work we do, or even technology tools or services that simply improve the way we work and to which we can lend our endorsement.
As VP, Director of the Publishers Partners division at one of the biggest lecture agencies in the US, I was responsible for our partnership with two major publishing houses. We ran the operations of their speakers bureaus, functioning, as we described it, as a “back office” for the speaking careers and/or tours for their authors. A couple publishers had begun to form their own bureaus, but what my former boss pitched was that his team knew that business inside and out and publishers were not in the business of selling speeches; they were in the business of selling books. By partnering with an established agency, publishers avoided the overhead required to run a speakers bureau, had access to a team of agents that could promote their authors, not to mention a database of leads stretching back for decades. Having had experience at an in-house bureau already, I was hired to continue the launch of these two new ventures and work with the agency and publishers to advance the businesses as much as possible.
Partnerships should make both companies stronger and not advantage one exponentially more than the other. In that sense, I felt like these were near perfect partnerships. We needed the publishers as an inflow of talent and a marketing platform to advertise the bureaus, and they needed the talent, time, and infrastructure to sell and execute on these events for their authors.
When I came to FG, I made the switch from agency to in-house speaking manager. All of a sudden, all my colleagues at other speakers bureaus were now my partners and, as my role evolved, partnership opportunities seemed to pour in from every direction. Some brands and companies want Keith to endorse a new tool, product or service. Other firms or agencies want to determine how we can align our businesses to share leads or co-pursue projects. Associations, societies, and elite membership groups value Keith’s coaching and connections, and in turn their membership is valuable to our research and business development. Finally, many people want to function as evangelists or channel partners and sell our IP directly into organizations where they have connections.
Evaluating which of these to pursue can be quite daunting, so it’s important to answer the following questions when considering a partnership.
Will this partnership create mutual and lasting value for both parties?
What does each of us bring to the table that is unique?
Where do we overlap?
What are our core competencies and competitive advantages?
What are our mutual strategic goals for the future?
Will this partnership help us meet or exceed those goals?
Will this partnership in any way damage our reputation or any existing relationships, contracts, clients, etc.?
Do your due diligence on the partnering organization. Ask for referrals from clients and connections you may have with people who know them.
Will this partnership limit our growth in any areas?
Complementary partnerships are great, but if you partner with a company that provides a service, product, or tool you’d like to add to your business offerings in the future, it may pose a challenge down the road.
Depending upon how you answer these questions, you may want to consider how long to structure a partnership agreement. Major movie studios will partner with a brand for a movie’s release, but may not maintain an ongoing relationship. Other companies will combine for longer terms and would require more complex arrangements. Let’s call this the beginning of the discussion for partnerships.
Originally published on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-want-go-far-together-why-partnerships-may-key-your-nichols/