Senior Executive Involvement

 A company’s senior executives need to show support for the Alliance team and believe in their contribution.  The involvement does not have to be frequent, but must be visible and consistent.  For example, brief CEO to CEO semi-annual meetings can be adequate to handle priority items and demonstrate the commitment.

​

Honest, Direct Feedback

​

Again, this is related to the previous point.  Being open about what is going well, and what needs improvement, is critical.  Letting issues fester is bad for both parties.  Being direct does NOT mean being confrontational or negative.  The feedback needs to be professional and focused on resolving/improving the situation, not winning the argument.

​

Regular Touch Points

An obvious but not always performed success factor.  The Alliance team should have regular touchpoints with their counterparts at multiple levels – executive, management, and field.  The frequency and topics may vary by level, but having regular contact provides time, at a minimum, to share information and confirm positive activities.  Even with very strong ecosystems, we have been in multiple meetings where the discussion went from “Why are we having this meeting, everything is going so well?” to “Now that you mention it, there is one thing we should think about…”.

​

Minimize Overlap, Competition

It is not unusual for some members of the ecosystem to have overlapping products/services.  And, depending on partner market share and other factors, that can actually be a good thing.  But when you have many partners competing furiously within the ecosystem it does cause conflict and bad behavior.  You need to identify the appropriate amount of overlap for your specific ecosystem.  The argument for having a large number of competitors within the ecosystem has many adherents, but we believe there is a diminishing return.

​

Clear Metrics/ Objectives

It would be hard to have success without clear metrics for the ecosystem.  You have to know what you are striving for in order to be able to meet or exceed your target.  And you need to be flexible in the metrics used.  You may realize that a metric used for years is now no longer important; perhaps your new sales force is providing all the opportunities required and the number of partner leads is not adding value.  Be open to updating the metrics but know that constantly changing them is a bad sign.

​

Transparency

​

This is related to the previous point.  Keeping other members of your ecosystem informed of your intentions is very important.  There will be times that you decide to work with one partner and not another (who provides the same product/service).  Being open about this may irritate the partner not selected, but they should understand that 100% of the business is not coming their way; they may even grudgingly acknowledge special circumstances such as the customer requesting a specific partner.

​

Checking In- How Can I Help You?

Rarely do we see partners in an ecosystem ask others this question.  And even rarer still are times when the question is genuine.  All the ecosystem partners need to be getting as much out as they put in.  When a partner feels this is not the case it leads to frustration, resentment, and bad behavior.  Asking your partners what you can do to help them succeed, and then undertaking a joint plan of action, will help cement the ecosystem value for all.

​