Partnerships – buzzword, or a way of approaching business in any context?

Partnerships – buzzword, or a way of approaching business in any context?

Partnership is a word that gets thrown around a lot in business today. Is it me or is it no longer obvious what that actually means?

Sales merged into business development has now merged in to Partnerships. By all means having had varied roles in every area there is a lot of similarities, all involve two or more parties, funnels, pipelines and more often than not a contract – but that suitable nuance makes a big difference.

In fact, whilst interviewing a candidate recently I challenged the candidate’s Partnerships experience as being purely business development and he couldn’t disagree. Didn’t stop me thinking he could do the role but did make me question todays perception of what it means.

So what is a true Partnership? We know it’s the ideal of how a client/provider relationship could/should work – it’s mutually beneficial, it fosters open communication, it opens up opportunities for innovation between parties and often involves technology and a deeper understanding of bigger and better outcomes. But not everyone who says they’re open to a true partnership is serious about it.

A partnership has benefits to both parties, but first and foremost to our clients. That’s why we as providers need to be the ones to open up that conversation and our technology to support it. Your client’s journey doesn’t end when they’ve signed the contract – that’s just the beginning of it.

There are those who are serious about building that partnership from the start, and it tends to be the people who are the most forward-thinking in other areas of their business as well. They tend to be the ones providing lots of information and insights, keen on exploring and having those conversations, not leading anyone on a wild goose chase or being hard to get hold of.

It’s always a little bit of a red flag if you can’t pin someone down for a simple conversation – or at least, tends to give you an idea of the level of difficulty in getting anything new off the ground.

Technology and interpersonal relationships may not at first glance have a lot to do with each other. But when you look at it, the integration of services is another form of partnership. And it’s one that clients tend to get really excited about as long as it doesn’t come at a direct cost to them.

For instance in payroll especially, manual processes just aren’t an option anymore. When you’re working with the volume of transactions and accuracy of data that you have in payroll, and the importance of these transactions, you can’t afford to make any mistakes. It’s important to have an accurate, efficient transfer of data. And every time someone needs to manually input you run the risk of them making a small but crucial mistake.

That’s why it’s so important that we do what we can to make sure that the technology integrates.

There are those who are less keen on integration, and unfortunately, it tends to be the bigger software providers in the industry, who enjoy their position at the top. They don’t necessarily see it as being in their best interest to support integration - I can only imagine the thinking is that this then threatens their market share and the fear of loss.

But I think this is a complete misinterpretation of the client/provider relationship. Ultimately, you as a provider are there to support your client, full stop. Your market share will reflect your relationships with those clients, and the service that you provide to them.

And going back to the integration, it can only help. Nobody wants to have to remember several passwords, have to log in several times, introduce break points in the process where something has to happen manually and again open the door to mistakes.

Creating a partnership also means supporting your client through the change of implementing your service. By modelling healthy partnership creation you become the obvious choice to help them also bring that same thinking into their relationship with their employees. There can be a lot of fear and insecurity around change in an organisation and as a provider, you have a chance to add value by bridging that gap and collaborating and involving all parties. It’s game-changing for buy-in and a smoother transition.

You want to be a trusted supplier and build a long-term relationship with your client, their clients and/or employees. And the best way to do that is by helping them solve their problems before they even appear – whether that be by providing integration solutions or by supporting them with implementation, onboarding and general communication guiding all involved through the change successfully.

Still not sure what a Partnership means? Me too. But it does depend on the other parties intentions and labelling it honestly, and we can all play a part starting from that understanding.