Why You Need a Trusted Partner - Part One

I work in IT sales today (2021), but up until 2017 I was in Enterprise IT. Having worked on both sides of the fence, I can state unequivocally that establishing a strategic, trusted partnership with a strong vendor is invaluable. Here I’m going to tell you why you need a trusted partner and how to start building that relationship.

I recall reading in the late 2000s and early 2010s about trusted partnerships, often also referred to as strategic partnerships, and how CIOs were leveraging those relationships to achieve greater cost savings. But the story turned out not to be about trust or strategy, just squeezing a vendor. In the last few years, though, I’ve read more about leveraging technologies for strategic business advantage, with sometimes a vendor being mentioned in the profile, but usually not. We’re led to believe these ideas miraculously came out of thin air or were achieved without any help, but that’s rarely the case. The truth is, in my experience, in most technology transformations there’s at least one strategic, trusted partnership that helped lead to the initiative and at least assisted in its execution.

In this three-part series, I discuss why you need a trusted partner, the benefits and risks of having one, and how to begin building that relationship.

But first let me explain what I mean by vendor and trusted (strategic) partner, and what their differences are.

So what am I calling a Vendor?

A vendor is just someone who sells you stuff. In tech, a vendor could be a manufacturer selling you something directly or a reseller who sells you the goods of multiple manufacturers. A vendor to me is a person or company who you do mostly transactional business with. You may have a good relationship with them, but you essentially just go to them when you know what you want. You treat them like any store front, where you go in the store and pick out you want. You might have some small interaction with them to ensure you’re getting the right thing, but you go into the interaction knowing what you want and expecting to get it.

Most corporate procurement teams treat all vendors like this. Vendors provide no value and are simply dealers in commodities. Some vendors may specialize in non-commodity items or services, but they’re still treated like dealers of commodities without differentiation.

Ok, so then what do you mean by a trusted, or strategic, partner?

I tend to use the terms “trusted partner” and “strategic partner” interchangeably because a strategic partner should be trusted, and a trusted partner should be strategic. If your relationship with the partner doesn’t have both qualities, then it doesn’t have either.

But what does it mean to be a trusted and strategic partner? A trusted partner is someone you believe has your best interests in mind, and will work for you without using the information you share with them against you in any way. Someone who doesn’t try to take advantage of you, is honest, and isn’t going to try to sell you anything they don’t genuinely believe is going to solve a problem or be the right thing for you. A trusted partner is someone who you are transparent with, and they are transparent with you. You are comfortable sharing with your partner your strategies, ideas, and thoughts about your services and business. You treat them like they’re part of your team.

How naïve of you. Why should I do this? What do I get out of it?

I know, the first thing we want to know is, what do I get out of this “special relationship” you keep talking about? Potentially, a lot. Far more than you lose if you don’t have a trusted strategic partner.

Here are just a few benefits you can yield from a great partner:

Better prices

A trusted partner knows that they’ll benefit in the long term from the relationship. How do big box retailers make lots of money even though their prices are so low? Volume! Your partner will be less opportunistic about any single deal, and will be happy to take a lower margin knowing they’ll make it up in volume. Just like how you get better pricing when you commit to a three year contract instead of a one year contract, your partner will know you’ve committed to your relationship and will repay you by keeping their margin low.

You’ll also get better prices through additional discounts and negotiating that the partner will do on your behalf. Manufacturers have their own margins to make, and they too can be squeezed. They also have discounts and credits and other programs available. A savvy partner on your side will fight for you with a manufacturer to get their costs as low as possible, and pass that savings on to you instead of increasing their own margin.

Innovative ideas

A good vendor sees A LOT of new technologies. They have research teams dedicated to evaluating new technologies, and relationships with venture capital firms to learn about their new portfolio companies. Your vendor is also likely exposed to a lot of different industries, and a lot of different ways that your peers are doing things. They see all the different ways that different companies solve the same problems, each in their own manner. They see the successes and failures, the pitfalls and breakthroughs, and have an outside perspective that simple peer networking won’t get you.

You can actively leverage this exposure that your partner has to not only improve on your own teams and solve their day-to-day problems, but revolutionize how you do business with your customers, how you run your internal operations, and even how you organize your resources. Beginners tell their vendor “I want this product, give me a demo and tell me how much it costs”. Amateurs ask their vendor “I’m looking for a good X product, who do you recommend and why?”. Professionals say to their partner “I’m struggling with this problem” or “I’m trying to figure out how to do X” and “here’s what I’ve been thinking about, here’s what we’ve tried, and here’s what I’ve found so far, but I’d love to hear what your teams think of this, how other people are solving for this, and what’s new on the horizon that might completely replace how we’re doing and thinking about this topic”.

Your own research and advisory team from a third-party perspective

I mentioned this above, but a good partner can act as researchers and advisors. Their exposure to others gives an independent perspective that’s informed by hundreds of other people all working to do similar things that you do. They see how people do things differently. They see how those change by industry. They see what works and doesn’t work, and the circumstances around each. A good partner will tell you where they see you failing, and be honest with you about what you’re doing well and what you could be doing better. They’ve seen a lot, so you should listen to them.

A good partner also has a dedicated research and analysis team to stay on top of the latest trends in every part of industry. They build research and white papers, working with their engineers to create evaluations and comparisons of new tech, as well as updating comparisons as products evolve. Your partner can not only tell you what’s on the bleeding edge from their research, but can invest their time in doing some leg work for you. After all, that’s part of the value add that you’re paying for.

They can make you look good

When you trust your partner to do a good job on a project, they want to deliver. It’s their livelihood on the line. It’s in their best interest to make and keep you happy with every purchase and professional services project.

A trusted partner who you are open and honest with won’t initiate a project where they don’t trust their own people, or their own sub-contractor. They’ll tell you what they’re good at and what they aren’t good at. And they’ll bend over backwards to make sure you know what you’re getting (and not getting) during the scoping phase, and ensure you get everything you deserve (and a little more, if needed) during the execution. They want you to be happy by giving you the best experts money can buy, and making you look good to your boss for choosing such incredible, competent people for the job.

Conclusion

Having a partner whom you trust and share strategic goals and thinking can benefit you in both the short and long term. The benefits in cost efficiency and pricing, third-party perspective, and innovative ideas shouldn’t be disregarded by any leader.

But with everything in life, there are risks and potential downsides you should be conscious of.

In part two of the series, I’ll discuss those risks and how to mitigate them.