How do you evolve your partnerships for changing customer needs?

1 Assess your current partnerships

The first step to evolve your partnerships is to evaluate your current portfolio of partners and identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). You can use a simple SWOT analysis tool or a more sophisticated partnership scorecard to measure and compare your partners' performance, alignment, and potential. This will help you understand which partners are delivering the most value to your customers, which ones need more support or improvement, and which ones are no longer relevant or profitable.

2 Define your partnership goals and strategy

The next step is to define your partnership goals and strategy for the short and long term. What are you trying to achieve with your partnerships? How do they align with your business objectives and customer needs? How will you measure and communicate your success? Your partnership goals and strategy should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) and aligned with your partner's goals and strategy. You should also consider the different types of partnerships you can pursue, such as strategic, tactical, operational, or referral, and how they differ in terms of value proposition, commitment, and expectations.

3 Communicate and collaborate with your partners

The third step is to communicate and collaborate with your partners regularly and effectively. Communication is key to building trust, rapport, and alignment with your partners. You should communicate your partnership goals and strategy, your expectations and feedback, your challenges and opportunities, and your customer insights and trends. You should also listen to your partners' needs, concerns, and suggestions, and respond accordingly. Collaboration is essential to creating value and delivering results with your partners. You should collaborate on joint planning, execution, and evaluation of your partnership activities, such as co-marketing, co-selling, co-delivery, or co-innovation.

4 Innovate and experiment with your partners

The fourth step is to innovate and experiment with your partners to find new ways to create value and meet customer needs. Innovation and experimentation are vital to staying ahead of the competition and adapting to changing market conditions. You should encourage and support your partners to explore new ideas, test new solutions, and learn from failures. You should also leverage your partners' expertise, resources, and networks to enhance your own capabilities and reach. You should be open to new opportunities and challenges that arise from your partnership innovation and experimentation.

5 Evaluate and optimize your partnerships

The final step is to evaluate and optimize your partnerships to ensure they are delivering the desired outcomes and value. Evaluation and optimization are ongoing processes that require regular monitoring, measurement, and analysis of your partnership performance, impact, and satisfaction. You should use quantitative and qualitative data and feedback from your customers, partners, and internal stakeholders to assess your partnership effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. You should also use best practices, benchmarks, and standards to compare your partnership results and identify areas for improvement. You should then implement the necessary changes and improvements to optimize your partnership value and customer experience.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?