How can you measure partner performance in different industries and markets?

I believe the key metrics highlited above should be taken in account but not only that, You should also include market share, ability to reach goals, customer care and revenue growth. Regular performance reviews and open communication with partners are crucial for a comprehensive assessment

In a few simple points, describe your cooperation with this partner. What do they do for you and what you do for them? HALF WAY THERE! Search for main KPIs that will help you evaluate the points above. They might be industry specific, but you will find many common points regardless of the industry.

‘Partner’ could have various meanings in different industry verticals, sometimes used interchangeably with ‘Supplier’. While the context determines meaning, both are important links in the value chain of any business. In the traditional industrial manufacturing context, ‘Suppliers’ are a critical part of the value chain that helps deliver goods to customers. For an automobile manufacturer, quality of output from a ‘supplier’ is critical to the ultimate quality of the final product. Shifting focus to knowledge based industries like business software, or market research, the role of ‘Partners’ becomes critical, because the quality of output from a ‘partner’ determines the quality of services & outcomes delivered to the end client.

Granularity is Key when setting SMART Objectives, and this is best obtained by a top-down approach. SMART objectives for partner or supplier organization would be broad based, while the level of granularity in SMART objectives for a functional team within the same partner organization would be narrower. The secret sauce is to ensure that each functional SMART objective at the bottom of the organizational pyramid contributes to a SMART objective at the next higher level, and likewise, all the way to the top.

A real-life example of SMART objectives could be taken from Xerox India, as it prevailed in 1995. Customer Satisfaction (C-Sat). 95% or more, measured yearly. Relevant for the Field Service Organization (FSO). Employee Satisfaction (E-Sat). 80% or more, measured yearly. Relevant for the Human Resources function. Emphasizes the importance of people. Return-on-Investment (RoI). Relevant for the finance functional area. Emphasizes the fact that the business exists to earn profits, and deliver value to shareholders. Market share. Relevant for the Sales and Business Teams. Xerox and its partners across functional realms of field service, territory sales etc had their performance aligned to the relevant organizational objective above.

Extending the same example of Xerox, the following SMART objectives were in place for field service engineers within the partner organization: Response Time (RT) Performance. SMART objective that measures how quickly field service requests are responded to. Service Quality (SQ) Performance. SMART objective that measures the efficacy of field service undertaken by an engineer. Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF). SMART objective that keeps track of the frequency of equipment breakdown, based on usage. This is critical to identify the right product fit for a client based on their usage patterns. All these SMART objectives at field service partner level, feed into the broader area of C-SAT.

In addition to SMART objectives, there are various other markers for partner performance: Industry Accreditations, such as ISO 9001 (Organizational Quality), ISO 27001 (Information Security), OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health), are a few prominent ones relevant across the partner value chain Membership to industry bodies. Invariably, all industry verticals have a platform for collective regulation, in the form of industry associations. Is our partner/supplier a member of any? This could be a key indicator of their standing in the marketplace.