Strategic Partnerships for Quick Commerce Success

The right partnership can 10x your business growth. The wrong one can set you back years. My firm has had dozens of successful partners over the years. It's one of the reasons we've been in business for 20 years. We actually built our business early on through partnerships.  This got me thinking about how these partnerships are formed and why they succeed or fail. As a result, I've come up with five critical elements.  I'm sure more can be added, but if you can get these right, you're chances for a successful partnership go way up. 1. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 Don't chase brand names or surface-level synergies. Look for partners whose long-term vision matches yours. The best partnerships amplify both companies' strengths while filling critical gaps. 2. 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Excitement about the potential isn't enough. You need to define: • Specific goals and metrics • Resource commitments • Decision-making process • Exit scenarios 3. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 Begin with a pilot project. Test the working relationship before going all-in. The most successful partnerships I've seen started with a 90-day trial period that proved the concept. 4. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 Share both wins and challenges openly. Regular check-ins aren't just about progress reports, they're about building relationships that survive tough times. 5. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 The best partnerships aren't 50-50. Both parties should feel they're getting more value than they're giving. That's when magic happens. A partnership is like a marriage. The courtship is easy. The long-term success depends on how well you handle the daily challenges. What's been your experience with business partnerships? Anything I'm missing?

I've wasted too much time on the wrong partners 🙈 Like a VC, partnerships people need allocate their resources to build a balanced partner portfolio. The best way I've found to visualise this process is Boston Consulting Group's "Growth Share Matrix". I always show this slide in strategy meetings and split our partners into four buckets: ❓Question Marks High growth opportunities, but our company hasn't captured significant value from these partners... yet. The goal here is to quickly validate these opportunities and turn them into "Stars"... or discard as "Pets". ⭐️ Stars The perfect mix of a fast growing partner and your ability to capture a large share of their customer base. These partners have lots of future potential so pour resources into them. Once growth stalls, turn them into "Cash Cows". 💰 Cash Cows These partners have a lot of shared customers, but their growth stalled. Your job here is to milk these "cash cows" and re-invest profits into "Stars" and "Question marks". 🐶 Pets Slow growth and/or customer churn will sooner or later turn most "Question Marks" and "Cash Cows" turn into "Pets". They're called this way because these partners are often kept around as pet projects. There is no current or future potential, so you should divest or reposition. Why does prioritisation matter? Because your job is to grow every quarter. Junior people often waste a lot of time on question marks and dogs because they don't know better. Experienced partner leaders often invest in cash cows and forget to plant seeds. They don't develop the business further and are caught with their pants down once the milk runs out. Consistency is key. You need a process to validate, invest, milk, and discard opportunities in your portfolio. #partnerships #businessdevelopment #partnerprograms

Something I'm frequently asked is "What does commercetools look for in a systems integrator (SI) partner?" As a partner-led organization, we look for partners who meet the following 10 criteria: 1) Throw your whole company behind making commercetools implementations fast, successful, and as cost effective as possible. Publicly showcase joint customers and their success. I could actually just stop here – this is all we really care about at the end of the day. If you do implementations well, you'll earn a great reputation and we'll keep you well fed 2) Invest in building out intellectual property – accelerators, blueprints, guides, demos, etc and ensure that what you’re building is aligned with our roadmap 3) Clearly define your specialization in our ecosystem. Do you build amazing iOS apps? Do you integrate commercetools back to SAP ERP? Do you focus more on business strategy? Do you do mid market B2B in the Midwest? Carve out your niche in our ecosystem and be known for that 4) Sell solutions – not implementation services. Our customers want their business problems solved. Tech is how, it’s not the what 5) Invest extensively in a few partnerships. Don't do the old "spray and pray" approach. Your value to our customers is that you can do our implementations spectacularly well – not that you can implement five different commerce platforms OK 6) Partnerships succeed or fail at the AE/SE/CSM-level. Those in the field talking to prospects and customers on a daily basis are the ones you need to win over. CEOs and investors can exert pressure, but the partnership has to be done at the field-level to be successful. No AE at commercetools ever calls Dirk and asks him which SI to recommend 7) Have someone (not an executive) manage the day-to-day of the partnership and make sure that person is well known. You need someone driving the partnership on a daily basis. Then, continually measure the effectiveness of the partnership - opportunities, revenue, win rate, # of thought leadership pieces, etc 8) Invest in the partnership. Deeply. Build integrations. Build IP (#2). Sponsor events with us or through the MACH Alliance. Get developers certified. Do thought leadership together. Come out to a QBR and sponsor a happy hour for the team. Be visible, engage, be present. We'll do the same - after all, it's a partnership 9) Have internal alignment between your executive team and local field offices. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had executive-level alignment only to have a local manager do something totally random because they had people on the bench and needed to hit their number. Internal alignment goes a long way! 10) Staff projects with fewer, more specialized developers and architects. A dozen or two at most. You want a handful of people gluing stuff together, not dozens writing a lot of code from scratch

Partnerships can be transformative and drive growth across different verticals: sales, product, marketing… But they have to be done properly. What’s the difference between failing partnerships vs flourishing partnerships? Failing Partnerships ❌ Lack of understanding of the problems that matter to the organization ❌ Lack of stakeholders buy-in across the organization, resulting in the lack of resources and high friction to execute ❌ Lack of ideal customer profile (ICP) and not understanding customer’s behavior and ecosystem ❌ Lack of ideal partner profile (IPP) which leads to pursuing the wrong types of partnerships which don’t generate results (vanity partnerships) ❌ Not able to demonstrate the value and impact of partnerships to stakeholders ❌ Lack of clear and regular communication inside the organization Successful Partnerships ✅ Clear understanding of the goals and problems across the organization - answer the question: what problems are worth solving with partnerships? ✅ Full alignment and support from the executive and cross functional teams ✅ Be customer-centric and identify the value gaps which can be bridged with partnerships ✅ Working only with partners aligned with the IPP - alignment on ROI, resources, timeline is critical. Partnerships should be valuable for all parties ✅ Define clear partnerships objectives, measure their impact in terms of the KPIs that matter to the organization and demonstrate progress and impact with small wins ✅ Develop and deliver a clear partnership strategy deck with regular milestones updates to preserve stakeholders’ support

Partnership led growth is a theme I'm seeing in a lot of 2024 marketing strategies. And for good reason - it's an incredible growth lever for B2B businesses, but only IF they are willing to put in the time. Partnership led growth is like organic growth's hip fun cousin - it's a long game, not an overnight game. We launched our Certified Partner Program last quarter from the ground up. Here are a handful of recommendations I'd provide to anyone doing the same this year: 1) Know your business objective. What's the goal with this program? Are you looking to expand your product into a new market? Looking to drive bundling opportunities by attaching your product to another product? Know this, because without this you can't do the next requirement which is - 2) Know your ICP. Who is most likely to help you achieve number 1. 3) Know why your prospects should care. This is incredibly important when you're talking to prospective partners. Yes, some care about revenue share, but not all. Be mindful of who your audience is and what's most valuable to them. Better yet, build the program with them. 4) Be accessible and be consistent. Partner managers are sales people. You need to show up the same way a sales rep would. Be consistent, be accessible, and be valuable. 5) Set expectations. This is the basic of any partnership. Define what eligibility looks like, and have an up front conversation about how the partnership should be run. Do it FIRST during an exploration call, NOT after they've signed. 6) Invest in robust onboarding. Just do this. #partnershipmarketing #partnermarketing #marketing #b2bmarketing #b2b #b2bsaas

Listen in before you start your afternoon. Think strategic partnerships are just buzzwords? Think again. Let’s dismantle this myth and explore three critical strategies for CROs to leverage strategic partnerships for growth. First, embrace Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG). It’s not just a trend; it’s the future. By integrating your solutions with diverse tech ecosystems, you’re not just expanding your market reach, you’re leading the innovation charge. Second, let’s be real: not all partnerships are created equal. Tailor your partnerships to complement your strengths. Pool resources and expertise for greater impact and revenue generation. Third, forget short-term gains. Build enduring alliances for sustained success. Strategic partnerships are more than transactions; they’re about long-term, symbiotic relationships. Here’s a controversial thought – the most innovative solutions don’t always come from tech giants but often emerge at the intersection of diverse, smaller technologies. Your partnerships should reflect this dynamic. If you found this valuable, shake up the status quo by liking, commenting, and sharing. Your engagement helps challenge and change perspectives! Connect with me for more on revolutionizing your revenue strategy. Crossbeam