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I would like to introduce to you the
first in a monthly series of newsletters that will address the many
issues related to developing key partnerships (both with solution and
other channel partners) that will increase sales in public sector
information technology markets.
As most of you know, technology
developers MUST develop effective channel strategies if they have any
chance of being successful in the government market. It’s easy to
recognize this, but very difficult to successfully execute. If you don’t
believe that channel/partnerships are critical to your success, then you
might as well just stop reading this right now!
There are so many gates to go through in
the development and execution of the business strategy/plan for creating
these partnerships. To name a few:
- Developing a strong value proposition
that speaks to partnerships
- Mapping your technology to business
problems that actually have funding
- Determining the hit list of potential
partners (small, medium & large) that actually have a business
practice in addressing the problems your technology maps to
- Creating the account plan (prospect
profile). You better know who they are and what they care about before
you approach them!
For this newsletter, let’s just take on
the discussion of creating a value proposition that speaks to a
solutions provider, a system integrator.
Why should an SI spend time with
you? How are they going to grow their business by partnering with you?
What new markets or new agencies are you going to help them capture? How
will you help them beat their competition in a competitive environment?
To develop good partners, you better be
able to address these questions and you better be able to do this better
than YOUR competition. It’s not about you. You are not just providing
some cool technology. You are helping to solve business problems.
You also need to able to articulate the
business problems that your technology helps solve and what you bring to
the table that will drive revenue. And you better be ready to
address…..what revenue, how much, where are the services dollars in
this, where’s the money, how do we work together?
Remember it’s a partnership! Do not
expect that you can talk with them a few times, walk away and they just
start plugging in your technology into opportunities.
Developing really meaningful partnerships
is hard work but critical to your success. Governments are buying
solutions to business problem, not technology for technology’s sake and
that means the dollars are going to solution providers.
Let me know of any good success (or even
failure) partnering stories and I’ll be happy to use these newsletters
as the conduit to trade war stories, examples and case studies.
I hope you find these thoughts and
opinions useful as you move forward in building your channel
relationships.
See you next month.
Scott Lewis
President
slewis@pspartnerships.com
PS Partnerships
www.pspartnerships.com
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