Before Numeracle, I knew Rebekah as a colleague and brought my many years launching technology startups to the table in my role as President at Numeracle. I’ve been involved with and led companies going public, getting sold, re-sold, and the various stages along the way.
Being that my time in Silicon Valley was about supporting the development of solutions for companies in a B2C or B2B environment, it was easy to see that what Numeracle was doing was a tremendous opportunity to address a market that hadn’t been addressed yet. This was especially evident as it related to becoming valuable with the referral and reseller partnerships and to our potential enterprise clients who were in need of a solution in this space.
In considering how meaningful a partnership would be, you first need to define what offers are coming from the prospective partner and which vertical industries and services they offer. Then, ask if those are consistent with what your business is trying to achieve, or where you’re trying to grow.
You have to evaluate the business value a partner or business brings to you, plus what you bring to them. It’s a two-way deal.
Because success within the contact center and communications industry is an evolving journey, it’s not a one-size-fits-all deal. Our clients need to partner with someone to continue that journey towards success in delivering calls within their calling ecosystem.
Firstly, partners facilitate access to new markets that need to be addressed for growth based on their vertical experience and existing leadership or credibility within that space. That’s something that new entrants to the market oftentimes don’t have and cannot easily access without a partner network.
They also allow us to lean on the networks of our partners who are already established in core or niche markets to extend solutions to already established customer verticals. For example, within Numeracle’s Partner Network, Dealer Identity by Volie introduced us to the automotive industry, where they are now the exclusive provider of Numeracle services within that landscape.
It goes without saying that these strategic relationships help you extend your resource reach by having a larger team of resources to interact across, either through direct networking or just getting your foot in the door with new customers or markets you didn’t previously have access to.
For me, it has introduced the ability for a business to scale. Scale and access are critical because, with them, you can service a one-to-many model as opposed to directly to the single enterprise. A number of partners often start off in a referral relationship and later shift into a reseller partnership, creating new opportunities for an integrated revenue stream.
When you’re developing client business and partnerships, what must be developed is a spirit of trust and transparency on the part of the business and the partner. There has to be a foundation of belief and mutual trust in order to lean on your partners (and vice versa) to actionably and consistently deliver on your mutual partnership goals.
Case studies are a great way to build this trust with a partner to prove to potential client prospects and future partners that you, through the partnership, have the skills needed for a successful business relationship.
If you don’t know where to start, a good place to begin is with market research. First and foremost, you should consider the vertical you are trying to address, and then do your market research into various events, associations, and potential connections that service those verticals. Go through the lists and find people you can meet and evaluate which events to attend. You have to start by truly understanding the vertical you’re looking to break into, and how your solution also benefits that vertical before you can attract an ideal partner.
Serving over 40 years in the technology sector in senior and executive leadership roles driving growth and innovation, Peter spearheaded transformational efforts leading to Avaya’s acquisition of Vista IT in 2003 as CEO. His successes with several other startup companies, including International Network Services (INS), which was acquired by Lucent Technologies for $3B+ in 1999, and Xtreme Spectrum, which was successfully acquired by Motorola in 2013, are a testament to his skill in creating organizations to positively execute on goals.
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