Your New Year's Resolution

[Article placed on website: Christmas 2002]

Like me, you have probably just finished signing and sending out your Christmas greetings cards. Every year we look down our list of business contacts and make a conscious decision – do I send him or her a card this year?

It is a gesture, a way of keeping in touch, a way of saying "Thank you" for the business we have done together.

We send cards to our customers, because they are the people who "pay our wages". We send cards to prospects, in the hope that we shall do some business next year. We may even send cards to "suspects".

But how many of you sent cards to your business partners this Christmas ...!?

Partners are, in many ways, more important than customers:

• they are the means of generating and delivering business
• their performance can drastically affect your own reputation
• their goodwill is often called upon to sort out problems
• they are generally more loyal than customers

But we tend to take partners for granted

We think that, because they have a vested interest in working with us, we don't need to try so hard to keep them happy. They will put up with being let down, being messed around, having business goals changed on a whim, being ignored in crucial discussions with key prospects.

It's a bit like being married. We get used to having business partners around. We forget how important they are to us.

Business partnerships that last and are truly successful need to be constantly worked at. It is not enough simply to "do the deal", then focus all your attention on the customers, or the next partner. Many companies appoint Partnership Relationship Managers to look after business partners, but this is often just "boxing the problem" or "passing the buck".

Treat your partners like customers

There have been many initiatives over the last decade to improve the way that every member of the organisation thinks about customers. We are encouraged to be "customer focused"; we have expensive Customer Relationship Management systems; we are sent on courses to make us more aware of customers' business drivers and motivation.

Now we need to do the same with partners.

For 2003, let your New Year's Resolution be: "From now on, I shall pay as much attention to the needs of my business partners as I do to those of my customers."

Next Christmas, send cards to your business partners, to say "Thank you" for the business you have done together.

And for 2003, may you (and your organisation, and your business partners) have a prosperous New Year.

Partnering Points on how to treat business partners

• Ask yourself the question: "Why are we working together?". Has the motivation changed since we set up the partnership? Do we need to refocus our joint activities? Are there new opportunities we should be addressing together?
• How does your company manage partnerships? Is there a dedicated manager or team assigned to each partner, to act as the partner's representative within the organisation? If so, does the rest of the organisation just pay lip-service to partnerships, or is a genuine spirit of co-operation fostered throughout the company?
• Does your company formally encourage partnerships through bonus schemes or objective setting, to ensure there are managers at all levels motivated to make business partnerships successful?
• How much resource does your company commit to partnerships, in the form of technical support, training, documentation, sales aids, marketing etc.?
• Do you and your partners have joint marketing plans, with commonly agreed targets and identified resources committed to achieving them?

Score your organisation on a scale of 1-5 against each of these points, and make a New Year's Resolution to improve the total score by 20% by this time next year.

You'll be amazed at the difference it makes.

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