4 Tips For Winning Partnerships

Regardless of company type or size, we need to form partnerships, because no one can be all things to all clients and markets successfully. We've partnered with companies of all sizes to the benefit of our mutual clients. Here are the four key factors that made these partnerships work:

1. Focus first on building a core of expertise within your company.
What are you "famous for"? Bring that expertise to the table when discussing a potential partnership. In our case, we've built partnerships with several large technology vendors and consultants. For example, our work with the IBM development labs and technical presales reps helped build our reputation as e-commerce experts and allowed us to gain visibility and increase our value to IBM in the long run, helping us grow.

2. Decide up front the roles and responsibilities of each partner in a specific client engagement.
Do what makes sense for the particular client situation and have the flexibility to adapt as the project evolves. For example, sometimes we would provide product demos and presales tech support; sometimes our partners would. We worked together, deciding in advance who was in the best position to make the maximum impact on the client for each step.

3. Leverage your partners' strengths.
With IBM, we brought our technical expertise to the table. Leveraging the WebSphere brand, marketing resources and sales channels, we partnered with its development labs to win more business and increasingly larger, more complex projects. In turn, IBM selected us as a partner on key client projects and to be on its WebSphere Commerce Advisory Council.

4. Make sure your values are in synch with those of your partner.
We've always placed significant emphasis on delivering business value and high-level client satisfaction, and we look for partners that mirror those values. Our clients appreciate our efforts to create seamless teams, and it shows in their willingness to continue working with us.

Remember, a partnership is a two-way street. Make sure you know what you want to get out of it before you get into it. And always give it your best.

Rhett Daniel is senior director of the WebSphere Commerce practice at USi, an AT&T company.