Growth is always a business challenge, but partnerships can help you overcome the difficulties and drive growth. For many organizations, strategic partnerships are the best way to expand their offering, meet evolving customer demands, and maximize their reach. These long-term collaborations enable both partners to leverage complementary capabilities, share resources, and advance innovation.
Companies that serve small and medium businesses (SMBs) benefit greatly from strategic partnerships. Your SMB clients are working hard to remain profitable in challenging markets and they look to you for help to achieve their goals. They need your assistance to identify the right, affordable tech solutions for their needs and adopt them effectively, while their larger corporate rivals typically race ahead in adoption.
There are a few ways to provide your SMB clients with efficient tech solutions, but we feel (and judging by the fact that you’re reading this article, so do you) that strategic partnerships with experts in SMB technology are the best way forward. After all, SMB technology is evolving all the time, but you have to focus on your core business offering, and probably don’t have the resources to rapidly develop new tech.
But while the partnership seems obvious to you, your board members might be less enthusiastic. You’ll need to present your case to a board that could be hesitant, even reluctant, to try something new. It’s especially difficult if this is the first time your company has considered entering a strategic partnership, so you need to approach the discussion in the right way.
In this blog, we’ll share actionable advice for proposing a strategic partnership to your board, with specific tips for how to make your case and win their support.
1. Understand the board’s perspective
Every discussion goes more smoothly when the other side feels that you get where they’re coming from. Start by demonstrating that you understand the board’s point of view. Identify their primary concerns, which probably focus on issues of risk, return on investment (RoI), and impact on the company’s long-term vision. It’s best to acknowledge that there’s always an element of risk when entering a partnership, while explaining how you’ll manage those risks and why the benefits will outweigh them.
It’s a good idea to anticipate board member questions. Bring information about both the expected costs and potential increase in revenue, and prepare to explain how a strategic partnership is compatible with your organization’s broader company mission and what makes it a good fit for your business goals. You should also be ready with details about the predicted outcomes of the partnership, including factors like improved service offerings, increased business growth, and higher customer satisfaction.
2. Communicate the value of strategic partnerships
After you address their fears and concerns, it’s time to communicate the benefits and value that strategic partnerships can bring. These should include:
- Access to new markets. Working with a strategic partner allows you to tap into their current customer base as well as leverage their existing trust relationships to raise awareness about your brand with new audiences. You can also attract new customers that wouldn’t have considered your brand previously.
- Resource optimization. Collaborating with another business enables you to share resources such as technology, expertise, and infrastructure, bringing cost efficiencies and improved operational effectiveness.
- Competitive advantage. You’ll be able to leverage your partner’s specialized skills and innovative solutions to enhance your offerings and sharpen your competitive edge.
- Faster go-to-market and innovation. With a strategic partnership, you can innovate, develop, and roll out new products and services more quickly, enabling you to react faster to changing customer demands.
- Improved customer retention. When you offer a broader range of solutions and respond quickly to your SMB clients’ evolving needs, you’ll drive up customer satisfaction and loyalty and reduce churn.
- Enhanced flexibility and scalability. Partnering with SMB tech experts gives you the flexibility to scale operations according to demand, and enables you to adapt quickly to changing market conditions.
3. Present the strategic partner you have in mind
Come to the meeting ready to showcase a specific strategic partner that will be a good match for your company. Introduce your potential partner with an overview of their corporate values and unique strengths. Emphasize how those strengths complement your own abilities, services, and products, and explain the ways that their mission aligns with your own company goals.
Take the time to illustrate what makes them a good partner, whether it’s their years of experience in the field, specialized skills and resources, or shared vision and values. Outline the impact that you expect them to have on your business, and the boost they can deliver to your company. Finally, include success stories and case studies about strategic partnerships with your proposed new partner, which help board members envision the positive results.
4. Build a data-driven business case
It’s important to arrive armed with hard information which makes the business case for a strategic partnership, including statistics, figures, and graphs. Bring a financial overview of your plan, with visualizations of elements like potential costs, predicted savings, and a forecast of the increased revenue, brand awareness, and reach that will result from the partnership.
Don’t ignore the possible risks of a strategic partnership. Instead, outline the strategies that you’ll take to minimize those risks and ensure that the whole project remains aligned with your company values. Industry benchmarks and case studies can help you demonstrate the success of similar partnerships, and show how other companies overcame the risks to drive revenue and growth.
5. Address potential objections
Be ready to discuss each one of their potential objections, and to give a detailed response that reassures board member fears. Cost is probably going to be top of their list, especially initial investment costs, so provide strategies for phased or RoI-backed investments that allow you to prove the value of the partnership at every stage before you move ahead to the next level.
Another common issue concerns control and dependency. Explain the contractual terms that you intend to include, and specify KPIs that you’ll implement to protect your company’s autonomy. At the same time, make a positive case for the benefits of a partnership. Discuss the long-term scalability that you’ll enjoy and the potential growth opportunities that a partnership will open up.
6. Outline an actionable implementation plan
Follow up your excellent presentation with an actionable, realistic plan for implementing a strategic partnership. This allows you to keep the momentum going and gain their buy-in without having to wait for another meeting. Describe your proposal for a pilot program that will test the waters, and list the KPIs and metrics that you’ll use to track success and measure progress.
Include suggestions for points when you’ll evaluate the partnership and adjust it for greater impact or to overcome teething problems. Finally, while you’re convinced that the partnership will be a long-term success, you should also present an exit strategy. Explain the scenarios that would drive you to end the partnership, including failure to reach specific goals and a point when you’ve outgrown the partnership or need to renegotiate it.
Make your case for strategic partnerships
Strategic partnerships are one of the best ways to drive sustainable growth, especially when you’re serving the challenging and competitive SMB market. Gaining the support of your board is vital for successful partnerships, but with these steps you won’t need to worry. When you address board member concerns, communicate the value of the partnership with data-driven visualizations and case studies, introduce the potential partner, and reveal a practical and realistic partnership strategy, you’ll be sure to win your board’s approval.
