Types of Partnerships
Assess your readiness to partner or mature your partnerships
Take our assessment to identify your company's readiness to develop or further cultivate your partnerships and what type of partnerships might benefit you the most.
Based on your results, we'll provide you with some insights into the next steps you can take with your partners and what types of partners may benefit your companies and meet your needs.
The Partner Spectrum
Successful businesses thrive on strong partnerships with diverse stakeholders who contribute to their growth and development.
To achieve this, businesses need to identify and engage with partners who align with their goals, values and expectations. This process of finding and collaborating with the right partners at the right level of complexity, accountability and impact is key to the success of any enterprise.
By fostering constructive partnerships that meet the needs of all parties involved, businesses can unlock their full potential for growth and impact.
Collaborations
Engagements that involve a single task or transaction and require minimal mutual responsibility typically begin and end after the completion of the said task, activity, or engagement.
Examples of such collaborations include collaborating on a webinar or speaking engagement, working together to assist a shared customer with an issue, or sharing a resource for a brief period.
Strategic Alliances
A more formal partnership between companies across multiple areas or initiatives through a contractual agreement. Goals are strategic and long-term but the companies remain independent.
This might take the form of referral agreements, a two-way integration, or a reseller arrangement.
Unified Business Partners
Two or more companies that jointly integrate some of their business operations, resources, systems, or infrastructures to pursue strategic growth opportunities. Requires a significant and formal commitment.
An example might be two companies that go to market together around one product or an agreement between a software and a services company to work together to serve customers.
Partnership Ecosystems
An ecosystem is a diverse range of partners working together in collaboration, alliances, or a unified manner toward common objectives. Some are more aligned and unified than others, and the ecosystem constantly evolves with the needs of the customers or stakeholders it serves.Ways to Partner
Co-Marketing Partnerships
- Low commitment way to expand reach
- Options like cross-promotions, guest blogging, co-hosted webinars
Affiliate Partnerships
- Recruit others to promote and sell your SaaS for a commission
- Leverage affiliate networks or recruit advocates directly
Examples:
Airbnb and Flipboard collaborated on a co-marketing campaign where Airbnb hosts' travel stories were featured in Flipboard's travel section. This increased brand visibility for both companies.
Shopify's affiliate program enables influencers and bloggers to earn a commission by referring customers to Shopify's e-commerce platform.
Channel Partnerships
Tap into existing sales teams to expand reach. Leveraging an existing distribution channel is easier than building one from scratch. However, it still requires the establishment of terms, revenue sharing, etc.
Subtypes like co-sellers, resellers, managed service providers, and referral partners
Example:
Adobe and WPP formed a strategic co-selling partnership to deliver integrated marketing solutions to clients, leveraging WPP's global network and Adobe's technology.
Integration Partnerships
Build direct integrations with complementary tools
Usually, it requires effort to develop APIs but expands functionality for users.
Technology Partners
Co-develop products or features to enable new solutions
These partners create custom integrations to share data and insights. This goes beyond a simple integration and creates a whole new product, both companies benefit from.
Examples:
Zoom and Dropbox integration allows users to access and share Dropbox files directly within Zoom meetings.
IBM and Salesforce collaborated to integrate IBM Watson's AI capabilities with Salesforce's CRM platform, providing enhanced customer insights and personalized experiences.
Service Partnerships
Speed up the delivery and quality of services by allowing each business to focus on what they do best.
Some work is involved in establishing the partnership terms and integrating the supply chain flow.
Example
Airbnb and WeWork collaborated to offer a services partnership called "WeLive". WeLive provides fully furnished apartments with flexible lease terms, allowing Airbnb guests to have a seamless and comfortable living experience.