This blog is part of the SCOPE: Partner Qualification Blog Series. All series content is powered by insights from our community experts.
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Choosing the right partner is like building a puzzle – every piece has to fit just right, or it all falls apart. In this first blog of our Partner Qualification series, we’ll explore the essential pieces you need to evaluate before locking in an alliance, and improving partner relationship management efforts.
These tips will help you avoid wasted resources and focus on partners who truly fit into your bigger picture. Ready to find the right piece? Let’s start!
1. Market Opportunity and Growth Potential
You need to look beyond what a partner offers right now and think about where they’re headed. A partner with a small market presence might not be able to scale with your company as you grow. Conversely, someone in a growing market could unlock new opportunities for you both.
Chris Lavoie emphasizes evaluating the total addressable market (TAM) and scalability.
A partner might have a niche audience, but if that market is expanding, they’re worth a deeper look. Market growth potential signals long-term success, so it’s essential to understand how much room they have to grow and how they plan to do it.
The bigger their market potential, the better your chances of success. This foresight is crucial for partner relationship management.
2. Alignment with Strategic Goals
Even if a partner has growth potential, if their goals don’t complement yours, the partnership will struggle to deliver value. Steve Hellin shows how crucial it is to ensure your objectives are in sync. If you’re headed in opposite directions, no amount of growth will help your partner relationship management efforts.
“When objectives are not aligned, there was no reason to prioritize a partnership or put any effort behind co-marketing/co-selling with them.” – Steve Hellin
Sonia Marie Groff highlights the importance of aligning your partner’s profile with your company’s Ideal Partner Profile (IPP) to refine your partner relationship management strategy.
Consider these questions when evaluating this alignment:
- Do their product or service offerings enhance yours?
- Are their long-term goals compatible with your vision?
- Is there a shared target audience or Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?
“To truly be able to qualify partners, reprioritize partners, articulate joint-value propositions, etc we’ve found it helpful to revisit and clarify our IPP definition.” – Sonia Marie Goff
But don’t stop there – evaluate how well your teams will work together. Sonia also recommends using scorecards to assess strategic fit. Here’s what to consider:
- Do they have a champion or executive sponsor invested in the partnership?
- How strong is the existing relationship between your teams?
- Is there mutual trust and transparency?
3. Relationship Strength and Executive Sponsorship
Even if a partner checks all the strategic boxes, the partnership will struggle without a solid relationship. As Chris Lavoie notes, strong working relationships and executive sponsorship are crucial for long-term success. Without these, even the best strategic fit may not reach its full potential.
Bertus Van Overmeiren emphasizes the importance of executive sponsorship in his company’s “Partner Heartbeat” framework.
If a sponsor isn’t driving the partnership, it may lack the necessary internal backing to thrive. A dedicated sponsor can ensure that both teams stay engaged and aligned.
Trust between teams also plays a huge role in partner relationship management. Progress will stall if your teams don’t work well together or trust isn’t established early. Building that trust and finding champions within the partner’s organization can make all the difference.
4. Track Record and Reliability
Past performance matters.
If they’ve consistently delivered on promises and met expectations, they’re more likely to be a dependable partner moving forward. Even partnerships that look great on paper can crumble if the partner doesn’t deliver as expected.
Look for partners with proven success stories, solid case studies, or references that demonstrate their ability to perform. A partner who has delivered reliable results in the past is less of a gamble and more of an asset to your business.
Operational stability is another critical factor in partner relationship management. A partner with a shaky foundation, high team turnover, or technical issues could slow down your projects.
5. Revenue Potential and Scalability
It’s not just about having a good relationship or aligning on goals – your partner needs to deliver revenue. Early investments in high-revenue potential partnerships can pay off in the long run.
If the revenue upside isn’t there, the partnership may not be worthwhile.
Scalability is key.
A partner with a small customer base or limited growth capacity won’t be able to support your ambitions. Evaluate their ability to grow alongside your business in terms of market reach and resources. If they struggle to keep up now, they’ll only slow you down later.
6. Alignment with Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
If a partner is targeting a completely different audience than you, it’s likely to cause friction down the road. Matching buyer personas is crucial for driving value in a partnership. When you and your partner speak to the same audience, co-marketing and co-selling become far more effective.
“Buyer persona is a huge one because if both technologies are not speaking with the same buyer persona, it could get tricky.” – Samantha Samuels
To ensure alignment, consider these factors:
- Shared target audience: Are both you and your partner targeting the same type of customer?
- Customer needs: Do their customers have needs that your product or service can fulfill?
- Buyer persona overlap: Are your sales teams interacting with the same decision-makers?
Confirming alignment with your ICP will maximize the chances of creating a successful, revenue-generating partnership. This streamlines messaging, sales efforts, and joint campaigns, making everything run more smoothly.
7. Culture and Communication Fit
Culture fit is just as crucial as technical or business alignment. A partnership thrives when both sides enjoy working together and communicate effectively.
“I like to monitor, get feedback, and make an assessment of how the teams are working with one another. Simply put – does the partner like working with my team and vice versa?” – Maurits Piper
Assessing culture fit means looking beyond surface-level interactions.
Do your teams collaborate smoothly in meetings? Are there open lines of communication between departments like marketing, sales, and customer success? If there’s tension or miscommunication early on, it will only get worse over time.
Good communication is the backbone of any partnership. If your teams trust and respect each other, they’re more likely to resolve issues quickly and work towards shared goals.
Conclusion
Choosing the right partner involves more than just looking at numbers. By focusing on market opportunity, strategic alignment, and relationship strength, you set the stage for a successful partnership. Remember these critical factors to avoid mismatches and build partnerships that drive value.
In the next post of our Partner Qualification series, we’ll dive into how to recognize and disqualify a bad-fit partner before it’s too late.
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