Partners ARE your Scaling Factor

If you are in business you have to make a decision.

To Partner or Not to Partner?

There is No Wrong Answer

Not every business is designed to be partner oriented or partner friendly. However, if you do decide to go The Partner Route you need to make sure you treat your partners with respect, treat them as equals and make sure they are an integral and integrated part of your business processes.

The reason why is because if you and your business decide to go The Partner Route you need to realize, recognize and reward partners.

Because … Partners ARE your Scaling Factor!

It cannot be stated often enough. If you decide to go The Partner Route your Partners need to be treated as equals and integrated into the business plans and processes. After all … they are called partners for a reason.

Building Partnerships Takes Effort

If you decide to go The Partner Route you need to be prepared to invest the time and effort to create a successful model. Good Partnerships are like Good Gardens Both require pre-planning & work to build, grow, maintain, and extend

Ignore Partners at Your Peril

If you have decided to go The Partner Route you have placed a premium on the relationship. Make the most of it.

When done right partners become integral to your business. Sure, they’ll help drive more sales. But there is more to it than just sales. Partners carry your message to the world. Partners have a vested interest in your mutual success. Partners become your Scaling Factor.

Partners are an extension of your marketing, sales, technical and executive teams. Partners can help you scale your business in many different ways – by region / geography, by vertical market, by horizontal market, by industry segment, by job title and many more ways.

Choose Wisely. Engage Partners. Leverage Partners. Succeed Together!

Partners Represent You. Partners are the face of your product, your company, and your brand. When done right partners know this. And perhaps more important … Customers Know This. If you have decided to go The Partner Route you need to realize, recognize and reward them accordingly.

Because … Partners ARE your Scaling Factor!

What Do You Think?

• Do you place a High Value on Partners?
• What Value do Partners Bring to Your Business?
• What’s your Best Partner Success Story?

For a few of my other posts on Business Development, Alliances and Partnering take a look at these:

• Business Development is Like Painting
• Partners Make The World Go Round
• Transparency Saves the Day

Jeff Shuey is a veteran in the Enterprise Content Management industry. Over the past 20 years he has worked with customers and partners to design, develop and deploy solutions around the world. Jeff is currently the Director of Strategic Alliances at Winshuttle. He has worked for Microsoft, FileNet, K2, Captaris, Open Text, Kofax and Kodak. He speaks and blogs about ECM and the Intersection between Social, Mobile and Cloud Computing.

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