Six things you need to do to be a great business partner
Let’s start by asking ourselves, who are we — a supplier or a business partner?
A supplier (or a service provider) is often someone who provides goods or services in standardized transaction patterns over a period of time, conforming to stipulated terms and conditions. In such cases, the business relationship ends when the transactions end. On the other hand, a business partner has a deeper business relationship based on mutual trust, openness, and shared risk and reward that yields a collective competitive advantage. Business partnerships are more fluid and flexible relationships that depend on honesty and integrity to succeed. These relationships are transformational and go much beyond contracted transactions.
Supplier vs business partner to me is akin to selling vs marketing. The difference is subtle and essentially defined by the perspective that you adopt. Selling focuses on the needs of the seller, marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller’s need to convert the product into cash, while marketing is obsessed with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer.
Instead of wearing the hat of a salesman or a supplier, if you wear the hat of a marketeer in a business relationship, it can help you start with a massive advantage in cementing your place as a business partner in any relationship.
So, let’s think about how you can be the marketeer in a business relationship. What is a marketeer’s mindset, perspective and approach that can make you a great business partner? Here are a few pointers:
1. Understand the need.
Understand the need the buyer is trying to address with your product, or service (referred only as product hereon, for the sake of brevity), rather than just selling what is easy. Be prepared to be surprised when you realize that your buyer’s expectations of what the product will do for them are entirely misplaced. A good business partner understands that it is better to know this now rather than later.
2. Understand the user environment.
Start looking at the whole environment in which your product is going to be used — where will it be used, who is going to use it, in what conditions? If you don’t have this information, make it your job to seek it before committing to a sale.
3. Simulate the user environment.
Simulate or at least imagine the customer’s environment to ensure that your product works when used in real-life situations. How much ever you may believe it, but for the customer, it just doesn’t matter if your product performed when the customer is not there to observe. Doing pilots with the customer’s team is a great way to achieve this.
4. Collaborate
Get ready to collaborate as a multi-organizational team rather than being on two different sides of the table. There is so much more to achieve by doing this, which goes beyond just a single ‘sale transaction’. Collaboration is one of the most significant innovation sources. It allows you to add new features to your product, which could help solve a need, which is not currently addressed by your product.
5. Set the right expectations and always aim to exceed these.
Exercise the choice of setting the expectations right on the product being sold right now, rather than have a dissatisfied customer. Manage upfront expectations to realistic levels but ensure that you can deliver on these expectations at the minimum. Attempt to exceed as you move along.
6. Follow up
The worst thing you can do is not to follow up with the customer. Follow-ups work to your advantage irrespective of the feedback you may get. If the customer is not happy, you still have time to redeem the relationship and set things in order. If things have gone well, then by not following up, you lose an opportunity to seek recommendations and referrals, which could mean more business.
Just a small tip which has always worked for me is asking a simple open-ended question — “What are the challenges your business is facing, concerning . . . . . (fill in the broad area of your product or service)?”. I have been surprised how this single question has helped me understand the buyer and their needs much better and lay the foundation of a more strategic relationship than just a transactional one.
Just one great business partnership can have such an incredible impact on your business success. Are you willing to give it all it takes?
