Partners provide meaningful value when the dynamics between vendors, products, partners, and customers are aligned and leveraged. This value contributes to everyone’s success. The value to vendors and partners comes in the form of amplified revenue, increased profitability, expanded solution capabilities, and enhanced customer satisfaction as partners play key roles in the customer lifecycle.
In addition to leveraging their customer relationships, partners provide people, processes, and tools to support customers throughout their relationships and drive successful business outcomes. Customers benefit by experiencing successful business outcomes with a faster time to value, and enhanced support.
Alignment occurs when:
- CUSTOMER needs are acknowledged to be ‘business outcomes based on product and vertical expertise delivered via trusted relationships’
- VENDORS recognize that they need to provide customer business outcomes, optimize time to value, and expand into new markets
- PRODUCTS and SERVICES become components in delivering business outcomes that are delivered as a service in a hosted environment
- PARTNERS are recognized for the value they provide through deep customer relationships, market expertise, and the functional value they add to products
Customers are seeking successful business outcomes, not products or services. They expect vendors and partners to work together as an ecosystem to build solutions that deliver business outcomes. The success of the business outcome is not determined by functionality; it is dependent on the customers’ assessment of usefulness. To improve the usefulness of outcomes it is critical for vendor/partner relationships to have technology, ecosystem, and vertical expertise. This ensures technologies are combined optimally for the customer’s industry.
An example of this would be implementing ‘mobile patient management’ in rural healthcare, where multiple technologies would need to be implemented in a secure, HIPAA-compliant environment with limited patient capabilities and experience. Since customers depend on partners and vendors to deliver these critical business outcomes, they work exclusively through trusted relationships, either with the partner, the vendor, or both. These trusted relationships are established when vendors and partners bring their combined experience and expertise together to deliver business outcomes consistently with a seamless customer experience.
Successful business outcomes lead to increased sales opportunities, both new sales and expansion, improved customer satisfaction, and increased customer retention, which leads to renewals and referrals.
In the upcoming blogs, we will address the remaining dynamics that drive meaningful value for vendors, partners, and customers, including:
- Optimizing time to value
- Expanding into new markets
- Enhancing solution offerings
- Reducing sales and delivery expenses
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