WHY PARTNER?

For Goliaths, alliances can expand addressable markets, increase revenue and average deal size/contract value, fill solution gaps, and fend off competitors – all while minimizing risk, conserving resources, and speeding time to market.

Often times, a partner’s product is just the thing for a sales rep to go back into her accounts with to reignite conversations and uncover new opportunities.

For Davids, alliances can bring critically needed market access and sales “feet on the street”, creating the ‘pull’ that drives top-line revenue growth. Partnering with Goliaths can also strengthen credibility, generate heightened press and analyst attention, shut out competitors, and ultimately provide more access to large projects and major accounts.

SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

The good news is that the Goliaths in the IT business are increasingly looking to alliances for innovation and growth – in a Q409 survey of top alliances executives at predominantly large IT companies, 27% predicted that 2010 alliance performance would exceed expectations (up from 16% in 2009), and 14% predicted that performance would fall short (down from 2009's 51%).

However, alliance management headcounts are flat to down, and so these Goliaths are focusing the bulk of their resources on their largest partners – the other Goliaths – and the Davids must more or less figure out on their own how to gain access, stimulate interest, develop sponsorship, and drive sales and marketing activities.

Beyond strategic and operational fit, smaller prospective partners are judged on their ability to build and run alliances - a partner that cannot do this well takes more time and effort than a large company is willing to invest.

THIS IS WHERE I COME IN

To successfully partner with Goliaths, a David must increase its appeal as a partner (positioning, sales-readiness, and alliance competence), sharpen its partnering approach (targets, materials, and internal operations), and execute flawlessly – penetrating the partner and driving results.

With 28 years in the technology industry and nearly a decade building high-growth strategic alliances with some of the biggest names in the business, I have developed a specialty in helping Davids partner with Goliaths - having been on both sides of that table many times & delivering some real breakthrough results for Davids and Goliaths alike.

Offering a comprehensive set of services ranging from Executive Advisory Services to support strategy development and portfolio planning, to hands-on development of specific partnerships, I can help you to achieve your own alliance planning and development objectives, maximizing the return you reap from these relationships while minimizing your risks and resource commitments.

I invite you to drop me a line – let’s talk about how I can help you leverage the potential of alliances to achieve your own growth objectives in this tough business environment.