I have a question for you: Do you think a strategic alliance partnership needed for the success of your B2B organization for this fiscal year?
Drop-in a Yes or No in the comments section.
Let's dive into it. The quick answer is - Yes, strategic alliance with the right partner to create the right solution for the right set of customers will be beneficial for your organization.
But just because it's could benefit you, doesn't mean you should jump into it.
60-70% of the alliances fail within the first 12 months, and you do not want to add to those statistics.
I know, we are inundated in the news about top tech companies such as Lenovo, IBM, Red Hat, Google, Tesla, etc. forming alliances,
An alliance partnership is like a marriage, you want both parties to have an equal stake and know what to expect going in.
So before you embark on a journey to forming an alliance, think thru these points:
- Can you build that technology in house?
- Stake out your partner's commitment level.
- The co-solution you want to create - is it going to help 1 customer or 100? - Because your solution should serve the needs of multiple customers.
- How easy or difficult will it be to get funds to promote the solution? Are those MDF funds going to come from you or your partner or what is the split?
- Are both organizations aligned behind the shared vision?
Run through basic housekeeping before you commit to it because it will take a lot of time, and effort and you want your alliance to last for 5 - 10 years so both of you can leverage the benefits. and avoid adding to the statistics of failed alliance partnerships.
If you have any additional housekeeping checkpoints that you believe everyone should keep in mind, do share them in the comments section so all of us can learn and grow together.
Vishal is the Director of Content Marketing & Social Media and leads our Alliance Aces Community. He has been in marketing for 14+ years and writes about ecosystem cloud, alliance strategies, and digital transformation.
