Partnering

The biggest mistake a company can make is to allow the sales organization to recruit strategic business partners -- either alliances or true partnerships. Why? Because salespeople, members of the direct channel, are not strategic; they are tactical. They are not well-suited to identify, recruit, and sign members of the indirect channel.

Alliances and partnerships are strategic relationships that must fulfill the enterprise's long-term channel objectives. It follows, therefore, that professionals not on commission -- those compensated to take the long view -- must manage and, yes, babysit these strategic relationships. Yet, many companies send their salespeople out to recruit strategic partners and totally ruin business development.

In the diagram below, one can see that all products, channels, and programs must emanate from the customer-segment-driven marketing strategy. That is why it is logical for business development to be an arm of the marketing organization. But, business development must be run by street-savvy, customer-trained folks -- not quants or market researchers or marcom people.

Copyright © 2003-2008 by Marc H. Rudov
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