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Do strategic partnerships trump the sales process?
What is happening with strategic partnerships that would overshadow the need for sales process when selling to large B2B accounts? What is your opinion on this perspective?
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3 Answers
Dean, this is a really interesting set of topics. To a large degree I think this is an apples and oranges discussion. What strategic partnerships do, effective partnering and managing strategic partnerships is different than selling (and the inherent criticality for an effective sales process).
Strategic partnering requires a level of interdependence and commitment of each party to each other--which is very difficult (depending on the surveys 70-85% of strategic partnerships fail). At the core, strategic partnerships required shared risk, reward, resources, values and vision. It's a significant commitment on the part of both parties.
Too many sales and marketing people toss the strategic partnering word around too loosely--they want the rewards of strategic partnering, with out the risk, resources, values and vision. Too many sales an marketing people present partnering as a surrogate to "please give me a purchase order."
There is great misalignment in perceptions on partnering. A couple of years ago, PWC conducted a survey of CEO's of very large organizations. 72% said establishing partnerships with customers was a key priority. Fewer than 40% of those CEO's said establishing strategic partnerships with suppliers was a key priority---interesting conflict, different perspectives of the same issue and a huge gap in perspective---also betraying real misunderstanding of the partnering process.
There are many types of strategic partnerships. Select vendor supplier partnerships can be very powerful. But the development of these partnerships mandates highly aligned buying and selling processes. Without this, it's highly unlikely that a partnership can be successfully established.
You colleagues comment also displays a view that strategic partnering is a selling approach--and then we go back to normal relationships. The hard work of strategic partnering starts after the sale is made---it's about making the partnership work.
Your marketing colleague also was confused in saying strategic partnering was for enterprise accounts and solutions selling was for SMB's. It's a meaningless statement. Take a look at one of the biggest initiatives in B2B Enterprise Selling right now--the Challenger Sale. At it's roots, it's a form of solution selling (oh and by the way it has nothing to do with strategic partnering). Solution selling does not define the selling process. The selling process underlies solution selling. The selling process is unique to the organization (and there may be several processes). The various approaches to solution selling are methods that overlay the process and enhance the effective execution of the process.
I'm really glad you raised this question Dean. There are fundamental misunderstandings of strategic partnering, sales process and solution selling (though this confusion in the latter 2 continue to amaze me.) Each has it's place, in some circumstances all may be at play in the same situation. Thanks so much for raising the issue (and bearing with my diatribe).
In short, I would offer: no. However, what does need to come into play when selling with a partner are the "rules of engagement." That is to say, if a partner brings you into a deal, the rules you've agreed to play by may (and likely will) alter how your company would sell if going it alone.
This is why having buy-in by the sales leader to any strategic partnerships/alliances that touch sales is key. Those rules of engagement should be baked in to the sales process your team lives by.
Hi Dean! Perusing the Wall Street Journal and other business publications, one might reasonably conclude that all money and profits come from strategic alliances and “partnerships.” It’s almost as if the folks running the organizations think that the mere fact of collaboration or linkage generates money, which of course it does not.
Customers are the only real source of revenues and profits. But for some firms, customers are becoming incidental; subordinate to the businesses’ apparently overriding urge to hobnob with each other. To be sure, business alliances are intended to bolster the participants’ total product and service offerings, making the whole greater than the sum of the parts. It’s a fine strategy as long as actual customers don’t become bystanders to the companies attending mainly to each other. That is why sales process, professional sales behavior, and top-flight sales communication outweigh alliances.
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