Understanding Partner Needs

One of the greatest failure points in any relationship is the inability to understand the perspective of the other person. I would argue this is especially true regarding PS organizations and their partner relationships. Based on where product companies are in the product adoption life cycle, partners have very different requirements. Understanding the basic needs of the partner is the first step in crafting a successful partner relationship.

Can PS Partner?

Every services organization eventually establishes partnerships of one form or another with other services organizations.  For PS organizations, those partnership opportunities present themselves in three categories:

Sub-contractors: These are partners that help the services organization deliver services engagements. The services project is booked by the product company and these partners provide resources to help deliver the engagement. These partners provide skills that complement or augment the resources of the services organization.

Resellers: These are partners that resell the products and services provided by the company. They most likely provide their own value add services to help implement the products of the company. Their capabilities can overlap with the capabilities of the embedded services organization.

Influencers: These are partners that my not necessarily resell the products or services of the company but they can have a significant influence on what products companies purchase. Think large system integrators like Accenture which help companies decide what technologies to implement.

Last week I buried myself in the data we collected from our 2009 Partner Practices survey. Forty companies provided information on both practices and results surrounding their engagement with these types of partners. From my perspective, the results were a little disheartening.