The great challenge Tech CEOs have with partnering is the pool of assumptions they make about what and how it will work. This post is part of the series, Starting in Partnering: What most Tech CEOs get wrong.

After working directly with 100s of tech companies starting their partner programs, I’ve tried to summarise some regular wrong assumptions and gaps.

Not Recognizing the Partnering Journey

Why do so many companies spend years developing their direct sales business, and then seem to assume they have everything right and jump into partnering forgetting that partnering is a whole new learning journey?

Ignoring the partnering learning journey causes much heartache, and lost time which often leads to companies abandoning their partner plans entirely.

Some tell-tale signs of not recognising the Partnering Learning Journey:

No methodology, framework or road map for their partnering plans
Too small proof of concept to validate the partnering strategy: Too few partner interactions. When starting a business, the opinions of two or three companies don’t determine your whole business plans.
Abandoning partnering too early: First partners are often by chance, and rarely result in ongoing repeat business, despite initial success and much effort to make it work on both sides.
Going straight to the biggest; Many companies target and spend too much time courting Accenture, Deloitte and other global consulting or system integrators thinking they have a proven proposition that will appeal to those companies.
Blaming the partners as not suitable, rather than considering they have simply selected the wrong partner companies or partner types
Treating plans as certain, rather than one hypothesis to be tested and validated or learned from

Tech leaders need to understand the learning cycle, their Partnering Journey, and how to assess where they are, develop and validate each aspect of their partner program while making step–by–step progress.

The best teams are constantly working to capture their assumptions, the unknown unknowns and how to address them. How do you develop your-earn-while-you-learn your partnering model?

NOW, read on with next in the series: Not Aligning Partnering Strategy and Business Strategy – What most Tech CEOs get wrong when starting in partnering #2