4 Key Lessons in Negotiating with Partners

4 Key Lessons in Negotiating with Partners

(5 minute read)

Disclaimer: The information provided below is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. I recommend consulting with your legal counsel or a qualified professional to address your specific situation. 

I recently took an in person training on negotiating in Chicago. 

That's a photo of me in the hotel room, saying hello to you all!

Anyway, here's what I learned and how it can be applied to partnerships:

1. When negotiating, do not have a bare minimum in mind. This anchors you to a "not great" outcome and gives you an out to lose value. Instead, anchor on value for “what your best day looks like” and set that as the aspirational outcome.

Examples of how this could be applied to partnerships below:

Let's say you're looking to recruit a highly strategic partner for your program and you're trying to persuade them that the highest tier of the partner program is ideal for them and will help them build out a sustainable business model around your platform.

Here are practical ways to anchor to "what your best day looks like":

• Baseline other partner programs and demonstrate where yours ranks in comparison, with context as to why.  Doing this research in advance by interviewing other partner leaders and/or partners is critical, because it shows what the market is willing to do and establishes a baseline. 
• Instead of cutting out your partner program requirements, opt to explain why you chose your partner program benefits to be the way they are, and outline for them in a financial model and business justification document how you will successfully drive business with them.  This should be rooted in both qualitative analysis (case studies and proof points) and quantitative (cohort analysis, # of leads you can give them, pipeline growth that you anticipate going to partners, etc) 

For the partner program baseline,  you can use this template slide as an example: 

2. Don’t concede, instead, trade for value. For ex: “I can grant you access to the higher partner program tier to start, but given the economic cost to us, in return, I would need a public partner testimonial for our site once we get our first joint win.”

Example for partnerships: If a partner requests additional marketing funds instead of simply agreeing, trade that concession for something valuable in return. For instance, you might say, “We can provide marketing funds for this upcoming customer event, but in return, we'd like to have also be your cohost for your 2 upcoming customer webinars to help drive additional pipeline."  

3. When people say “no” or deny you value in a negotiation, ask “why” and understand their reasoning behind it - then you can try to address the underlying issue.

4. Always acknowledge folks when they have made concessions. Make them feel heard.

Empathize.

A lot of the value in negotiating is also the human value.

People want to feel valued and respected in the process.

Example for partnerships: I understand that you want (insert requests) for this partnership to be successful for both of us. By getting these requests met, am I right in saying that it would drive (insert business outcomes)?  

By reaffirming what they've discussed, this makes a huge difference because they'll feel truly heard and understood.  

You may not end up agreeing on these specific set of points, but the key is to make sure you do this in a way that makes people feel good about the process. 

Hope this helps you negotiate well in your partnerships!  🤝

Whenever you're ready, here's how I can help you on partnerships:

1. The Partner Strategy Deck Template:

I've easily spent 80+ hours building partner strategy decks for a single company.  I don't want you to have to go through that pain. This 80 slide template is critical to saving you a lot of time, helping you get clarity on your partner strategy, getting executive alignment for resource allocation and will help you improve time to revenue.  It's the same template I've been refining over the last 17 years and has been absolutely critical to helping me go from zero to $150m+ ARR.  There's a reason this is the #1 best selling template!  As a bonus, it now includes a video walk through too! 🚀 Get it here.

2. Reseller Strategy Deck - A framework to outline key objectives, identify target markets, GTM, program requirements and define the roles and responsibilities of resellers. This is the same strategy deck I've personally used to drive $250M+ in revenue.

3. $150M PartnerOS Program - Learn the exact system I used to go from zero to $150M+ with partnerships at B2B tech companies like Box, Miro, Airtable, Optimizely and Toptal through (5) 1:1 coaching sessions with me.  Learn more here.

If you need help with crafting a business case to be able to expense this, send me a note and I'll help!

4. The Partner Sales Training Template: 

Have a training coming up where you're showcasing a partner in front of the sales team?

This deck is perfect for that. Over the last 17 years I've run 1,826 partner trainings across companies like Box, Miro, Airtable, Optimizely, Toptal, VMware and Cisco that led to $150M+ in SaaS partner revenue.

Leverage my pre-built template of 35 slides and save yourself hours of prep work.  This deck will help you crush it with your sales teams and lead to co-selling opportunities when executed well.  Get it here.

5. Partner Recruitment Template:

Recruit strategic partners faster to drive revenue. Join 900+ users who have used this template to accelerate partnerships. Leverage this template that I've personally used to recruit 1,479 partners over the last 17 years at companies like Miro, Airtable, Box, Toptal, Optimizely, VMware and Cisco. This includes Global Consulting Firms, Regional SIs, ISVs, Resellers, Referral Partners, Affiliates, Agencies and Solution Partners. Get it here.

6. The Partner Program template: I've personally reviewed 65 partner programs including companies like Box, Zoom, Docusign, Microsoft, Dell, Klaviyo, Hubspot, Atlassian, Miro, Airtable, Optimizely, Toptal, VMware, Cisco and many more and have put together this template to save you hours of ideation and iteration on potential partner programs. Leverage my pre-built template and save yourself 20+ hours of work and build a best in class partner program. Get it here.

7. Sales Strategy Deck - Leverage this 150 slide deck to build a sales strategy from zero to one.  As a leader at 5 unicorns + decacorns, I've worked closely with CROs and other sales leaders on sales strategies to help drive $2B+ in revenue. This deck took 100+ hours to put together. Check it out here.

8. Partnerships Dream Job Course: This 1 hour, self paced online course is perfect if you're looking to land a new job in partnerships and need help standing out from the crowd of resumes. It covers how to write an effective resume, how to revamp your LinkedIn profile, cover letters, email templates, interview prep and salary negotiation. I've personally coached 350+ clients and have helped them land interviews or jobs at companies like Amazon, Cisco, Dropbox, Patreon, Amplitude, Google, Stripe, Salesforce, Apple and more. Get it here.