When it comes to sales and strategic partnerships/alliances, there are no truer words than “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”. Many of us rely on deep domain expertise and experience, but you have to use data as a validation point. Otherwise you could end up wasting valuable time with little or no returns on your investment. With that being said, you also have to be careful not to manage to a dashboard. Data is absolute, but in sales and strategic partnerships/alliances there can be a great deal of subjectivity involved. You have to have a balance and use data to validate assumptions and identify trends (both positive and negative). Data is the truth serum that will allow you to change course or put your foot on the gas.
We live in a digital age where there’s more data than we know what to do with. The trick is how to make that data actionable. I could pick any number of topics, but I’ll focus on strategic partnerships/alliances. You must go into these relationships with the goal of a win-win outcome for both parties. If you’re only interested in achieving your goals/objectives, then you’re not really engaged in a strategic partnership/alliance. It’s a two-way street and there has to be mutual benefit to both parties. Define those goals/objectives upfront so that proper expectations can be established. Once defined, then you have to measure in order to manage.
What does it mean to measure? For most companies, the pulse of their sales organization and partnerships is monitored through their CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform (e.g. SalesForce, Dynamics CRM, SugarCRM, etc.). You must establish best practices within your sales organization and partner team to maintain good data in order to properly manage your partnerships. There’s a commonly known saying for SalesForce users, “If it’s not in SalesForce, it didn’t happen”. Some may view this is micromanagement, but in reality it’s about collecting and maintaining good data on your sales and partner engagements. There’s another commonly used saying for CRM users, “The data coming out is only as good as the data going in”. Measuring on bad data means your managing on bad data. That can be very costly both monetarily and in the utilization of time.
In closing, a lot of strategic partnerships/alliances can easily come together, but they can just as easily fall apart if they are not being measured based on the goals/objectives you defined upfront. It’s critical that you know whether your strategic vision and efforts are paying the dividends. If not, you may have to pivot or redefine your relationship with a new set of expectations.