Building, nurturing and maintaining a relationship with a Vendor partner has some disarming similarities to raising a child. My lockdown brain may be slightly befuddled by too many days in the limited company of my children – but some recent partner conversations led me to draw parallels. Can you can identify with any of these?
- It feels like all your hard work is never quite appreciated
- They seem to speak an entirely unknown language
- They seem to forget everything you told them about 5 minutes after you leave the room
- Just when you think you’ve figured out something they like and you can both relate to, they get interested in something different
A wise African proverb explains ‘it takes a Village to raise a child’. This approach ensures children learn and grow with a collection of trusted influencers and gain a diversity of opinions, styles and experiences – and also helps maintain parental sanity by having others supervise your kids for a bit :-). Yes, it shares the load, but it also improves the experience as everyone grows together.
This village approach is just as valuable for making the most of your partnership with a vendor. It simply cannot be done solo. Organisations that appoint a single individual to champion the relationship are just setting themselves (and that person) up for frustration.
Partnering effectively with a vendor means multiple connections across diverse roles. Marketing, sales, development, C-suite. They all need to be part of the process because each one of them brings a specific expertise and point of view. The relationship will flourish not only because of their diverse expertise but also because the Vendor gains assurance from knowing there are so many people invested in developing a great relationship.
In case you’ve not been paying attention – this year Microsoft Inspire (like many other Vendor conferences) is entirely virtual, and therefore entirely free. So this year, more than any other, you have every opportunity to ensure your entire village is part of building that partner relationship.
A cursory glance of the extensive agenda confirms that absorbing all the content planned for Inspire 2020 is not something that can be managed solo. There is content about technology, marketing, vertical industries, partnership and industry vision. So much diversity and so much expertise.
Make this the year you enlist the collective power of your village to master your Vendor relationship.
