What makes a good Partner Manager?

When companies form relationships with key partners to distribute their products, they often appoint someone to look after the partner. Sometimes this person has the job title of channel manager, occasionally he/she is called an account manager, but I will use the term 'Partner Manager'.

The Partner Manager performs a vital role of being the primary point of contact within the organisation for dealings with and enquiries from the partner company. Depending on the complexity and size of the business involved, a Partner Manager may be responsible for two or more partner companies. It can be, and frequently is, a full-time job.

Beyond the two-way communication function, a Partner Manager is also likely to be responsible for all or some of the following:

• acting as an interface between the organisation's technical function and the partner company
• liasing with legal/commercial staff to explain how the relationship with the partner is to be set up
• developing the business case for working with the partner
• selling the organisation and the benefits of working together to a prospective partner
• presenting the case for partnering to senior management
• assisting in the development of marketing and sales support materials
• project managing the process of achieving sign-off, both within the organisation and the partner company
• managing the ongoing relationship, including organising and documenting regular review meetings
• dealing with crises

I am frequently asked what skills, abilities, experience, background etc. equip someone to be a good Partner Manager. I usually begin by saying it is not a sales job. If the relationship has been set up correctly, the selling will already have been done. What's needed now is a concerted effort by both companies to deliver what they set out to do.

It is also not a project management task. If you go about trying to manage a relationship as a set of activities to be controlled through some formal or semi-formal mechanism, you will not only alienate staff in the partner company, but you will stifle opportunism and innovation in the relationship.

But no more is it simply about communication, although being able to clearly articulate objectives, plans and results at several levels within your own organisation is important, as is the ability to present ideas and represent your organisation's viewpoint to the partner company.

Always there is an element of trust involved. Key staff within your organisation and the partner company must respect you and be willing to listen to what you have to say. You must in return demonstrate a desire to understand company positions and business drivers and work towards solutions and structures that bring benefits to both parties.

But you mustn't be naive. Underlying every successful partnership is a sound contractual framework that reflects and, through its acknowledgement and mitigation of risk, encourages both participants to grasp the business opportunity that has brought them together. A good Partner Manager will be fair but tough during the commercial negotiations that precede the formal launch of a partnership.

Which brings us to the technical knowledge that is required in order to appreciate the intrinsic value that each party is bringing to the table. Converting this shared value into a business and marketing plan is a task that has to be done, and often it is the Partner Manager who is best placed and therefore expected to do it.

If I had to summarise in just six bullet points what the key attributes of a good Partner Manager are, they would be these:

• An ability to understand the technology and the unique application or aspect of the technology that makes the partnership/product different: this also facilitates communication with technical staff.

• A commercial awareness to appreciate how these advantages can be translated into business and financial benefit, for both one's own organisation and the partner company.

• An overall appreciation of how business works (possibly through studying for an MBA), to identify all the 'pieces of the jigsaw' that need to be in place to make a partner relationship successful.

• The ability to communicate technology business benefits to senior management.

• An ability to represent the partner within the organisation, while upholding the organisation's position in dealings with the partner: this really boils down to taking a logical, rather than an emotional approach to problem solving.

• A high level of professionalism, to earn the trust of senior individuals within one's own and the partner's organisation, which in turn will enable major issues to be attended to and resolved.

The problem is that staff having all these qualities are not often found. And the reason for that is primarily because organisations do not actively set out to train people to have this wide range of attributes. Too early in their careers people are 'pigeon-holed' as technical, or commercial, or sales, or project management material. It is difficult, except in the smallest organisations, to pursue a career that embraces all these disciplines.

So instead you need to be looking for people who have the potential and the desire to take on these multiple roles and learn how to do them well. Recognise the job of Partner Manager as a specialised discipline in its own right. Incentivise and reward Partner Managers in ways that encourage them to make a success of the relationships they are assigned to manage. Give them support, particularly when they come into conflict with direct sales.

And if you do find or develop good Partner Managers, make sure you hang on to them. They are not going to be easy to replace.

Partnering Points on being a good Partner Manager

• It is generally easier to train a good technologist to become commercially aware than to teach a sales person the details of how the technology works.
• You cannot teach people how to be trustworthy and professional. They either are or they aren't. Pick those who are.
• Partner Managers have to like communicating and must relish the challenge of presenting complex information in a lucid and succinct way.
• Generally speaking, good Partner Managers will be older than 30, but will not have lost the enthusiasm and energy of someone younger.
• Staying power, the resilience to take knocks and get up again, patience and sheer determination are useful added ingredients in the personality mix.
• Don't ask someone to be a Partner Manager part-time, alongside another job. Important relationships demand and deserve full-time attention.

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