How can you ensure your partners receive the information they need?

Communication: Engage in open and effective communication with your business partners. Regularly discuss their goals, challenges, and expectations. Actively listen to their feedback and concerns.

One of the first questions I ask of my fellow executives is to clarify their communication preference. My CEO prefers a short email with 5 bullet points or less. As she puts it, "Be brief, be concise, be gone." My procurement officer, on the other hand, wants every possible detail you can give. My personal preference is brevity but a clear ask of what I am expected to do. Do you want me to take action or is this just informational?

As rightly said in one of the contributions, communication. Personally, one to one communication is far more helpful than emails or texts as it also helps bring in the clarity one maybe looking for.

This is critical. No two people few things the same way and assuming they do is the path to confusion and missed opportunities. No one is a mind reader and what is obvious to one person is not to the next. Earlier in my career I made the mistake of thinking "If I present all the facts then everyone will see the same thing I do and know what to do." That failed miserably. I now know to convey the desired outcome and by when, and then provide the facts as needed when questions arise.

In our partner program, we have gotten the best feedback and results from monthly webinars. The webinars cover success stories, best practices, any SPIFFs, product updates, and will often include a featured expert from our team. At the end of the webinar, we provide the deck, recording, and a bulleted list of can't-miss updates. This mix has allowed us to serve our community if they are visual learners, value community, or are even more data-driven.

IN my career, being a technical person, I was guilty of overwhelming my teams with as much data as possible. I didn't consider they couldn't absorb it all and many times it was either too late or too early. One thing I did learn was to ask them, "What do you need from me to be successful?" That allowed me to learn their needs and habits and made me a better communicator.

Many partner managers are under constant pressure to do more with less; to scale, scale, scale. This can result in communication getting too automated and thus too impersonal. I, too, love doing things efficiently. But when it comes to partners – especially your top partners – NOTHING beats personal communication. Webinars with multiple partners are a good idea; scheduled 1:1 online calls are nice; being comfortable enough to pick up the phone for an unscheduled chat – now we're getting somewhere. But that personal visit? That open chat over coffee or lunch? That will do more good for your partnership than any amount of emails or automated messages in your partner portal ever could.

A continuous feedback loop is key to any ongoing success in a partnership. Understanding the partners "Love Language" is essential for that feedback loop to be received well and with respect.

I agree. I work in a company where we provided software that allowed for continuous feedback. If you are still conducting quarterly or annual reviews of your teams you are most likely conducting exit interviews rather than career progression.

Na minha experiência vale usar ferramentas e aplicativos que otimizem a comunicação. Use ferramentas de gestão de projetos como Trello ou Asana para centralizar a comunicação, facilitando o acompanhamento das tarefas e prazos. Utilize plataformas de videoconferência e chats, como Zoom ou Slack, para reuniões regulares e atualizações instantâneas. Vale também realizar pesquisas periódicas por meio de Google Forms ou SurveyMonkey o que pode ajudar a obter feedback estruturado e identificar áreas de melhoria contínua.