Partnerships are more than agreements. More than what’s on paper. In fact, what’s on paper is just a fraction of what a b2b partnership should be.
Instead of framing things in terms of just revenue shares and spiffs, the framework I use to evaluate partner programs is Interactions and Incentives.
They’re the pillars to the Revenue Relationship Bank.
I sketched this out for a new friend I met this week at the Montage Deer Valley in Park City. (Thanks to Nick Hansen For invite and kudos to the IMA Financial Group team for a solid revenue relationship centered experience.)
I‘m not an graphic artist, so no promises it makes perfect sense in the photo. However, painting revenue relationships in real life is what I do with much finer strokes.
Your partner revenue relationships are held up by pillars of quality incentives and interactions.
Your revenue bank can look gorgeous on paper, but lack internal stability if not careful about the design and diligent about the upkeep. Not to mention being refined on the outside, but the vault empty on the inside.
I like to have a bank that’s simple in it’s design, while not cutting corners on the elements that make for grandeur and substance.
Here’s a breakdown of what I mean by Incentives and Interactions in the context of anyone who does business development through partnerships.
Incentives
Typical b2b partnerships, especially in the SaaS Tech world, are revenue shares. If that’s all your partner agreement is, then that’s fine. Call it a “Revenue Share Agreement”. There’s plenty of those, and they’re meh.
If you want to development a meaningful “partnership”, then make it about incentives. Both revenue oriented, and not. Both business-to-business, and not.
One mistake I see a lot is business development individuals being overly zealous about pushing the b2b incentives to individuals.
One time I was visiting a fairly large (in terms of revenue generation for our business) partner. I was running through the corporate prescribed QBR shenanigans when the partner stopped me on the revenue share slide.
“Brian, this presentation is great, and I can tell you’ve really prepared and understand the metrics really well. Seeing as your new in managing our partnership, I just want to be clear on one thing. I don’t care about the revenue share we get from your company. Our business makes $50M+ a year, your $50K doesn’t move the needle enough for me to be motivated by it. I care about how well your business cares for our clients. If our clients are satisfied, no - overjoyed, by your solution and service, that’s what matters.”
That started a wonderful partnership between us of me working on and reporting out on the client challenges / opportunities / satisfaction more than anything revenue related.
Understanding what a business (or the individual running it) wants most guides what should incentivize the partnership.
Instead of sending spiff gift cards to that owner, we’d coordinate mutual client dinners. He found that way more incentivizing to bring a new client to than just getting the revenue share or spiff.
Partnerships are about both B2B and I2I incentives. The business-to-business is what’s in it for the business. That’s usually more transactional. Revenue shares, shared leads, etc. I2I is individual-to-individual.
Your individual incentives can and should be more flexible. Hence the rise of platforms like Sendoso to enable gifting that’s more dynamic. Talking it a step further though, make the individual incentives individual. Allow your teams to be creative. Maybe it’s mailing a partner a book they mentioned wanting to read? Maybe it’s inviting their spouse out to dinner? Maybe instead of spiffs, it’s a personalized incentive trip to heli-ski in British Columbia? Maybe it’s golf at their favorite course nearby, and/or far away? Maybe it’s sponsoring them and their grand kids in going for a night out to Disney on Ice?
You can see that my preference leans towards the experiential. Especially where I get to be apart of it. From experience, that’s proven to produce way more incentive to do business together than gift cards and 1099-able cash.
Oh, and connect the incentive to the reward. Recently, a “partner” told me that an introduction and subsequent series of interactions I had supported with a key prospect resulted in one of their largest deals of the year. While we’re not formal, signature-signed, partners… he said, “Just know, lunch is on me next time!”.
If you want more revenue relationships, especially big ones, make it more personally incentivizing than and someday, somewhere lunch.
Interactions
This isn’t talked about and trained on enough in business development roles. A partnership requires interactions. Exchanges. There’s both B2B and I2I in this pillar as well.
The business-to-business interactions are evident in email campaigns from partner@company.com or marketing@company.com. Just because my name is in the headline doesn’t make it an individual interaction. Those are good, but they’re not best, and shouldn’t be the only thing that is driving communications.
A good I2I is personalized. One way to take a B2B and make it I2I is to come over the top of a generic email blast with a message like, “Hey Brian, you should have received our partner newsletter about our latest product developments. Knowing your business, the one about XYZ is probably most relevant to your clients. I attached a one pager on that one specifically. If you think something more formal like a webinar, introduction would help some of your clients take advantage, let me know.”
The individual interactions should go beyond the business deliverables as well.
For example, say one of your partners mentions going on vacation to Hawaii. You chit chat about it on a Zoom for a few minutes. Don’t let it end there.
Send them something before their trip. Maybe a tidbit from your personal experience there in the past. Maybe it’s something you read and share. Maybe it’s just, “When you do that volcano hike, I want to see pics!”.
Then, on the backend, remember and reengage. Maybe it’s just on the next Zoom meeting, “Hey, where’s that pic at?”. Maybe it’s a text message the week they get home. Maybe it’s sending them a box of those Hawaii chocolates??
Those interactions are money.
Vary your interactions across multiple mediums. Just like it’s important to go wide in your interactions with an organization (multiple contacts), you should connect across various methods like phone, text, phone, zoom, in-person in office, in-person out of the office, in-person at conferences, etc.
If your interactions are one dimensional, your revenue relationship will be subpar.
Get creative. Photos from a golf tournament I attended were posted publicly. I grabbed a multiple string of shots from throughout the event and folded it into one image for several people. Then I sent them it a couple months after and said, “Can’t wait to get back out on the course with you! Look how you had that swing dialed in!”.
Whether it’s crafting a new partner program, or evaluating the effectiveness of an existing one, take this to the bank… it’s all about incentives and interactions. I help enhance and improve each from a business and an individual perspective.
If you’d like to ‘incentive and interact’ further, here’s three ways to go beyond the lifeletters…
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Whether you’re a business or an individual, I bring people together for events that generate revenue relationships. See my hosted events at lu.ma/PartnerPhilosophy. I also help companies know what and how to attend, sponsor or host events that build meaningful relationships. It can be as simple as a business group meal, a golf tournament, or even as sophisticated as a retreat / seminar / conference.
Let’s collaborate via email brian@partnerphilosophy.com