5 steps to finding the right alliance partner

On this blog, I have discussed the benefits of seeking out the underdog, the partner that is going to give it all to drive your company and theirs to succeed, the partner that is willing to collaborate and innovate rather than push an agenda. But that partner must also be the right fit for your company and what you’re trying to accomplish. As in any relationship, finding the right partner plays a key role in the relationship’s success. The question is: how do you find that perfect fit?

Following are five steps that I have found helpful when assessing a potential alliances partner:

1. Build a simple matrix of partner attributes.

Your matrix should list both soft and hard attributes that you will use to measure the value of your potential partners, such as geographic footprint, brand relevance, core products and services, and cultural fit. The goal in creating this list is to identify all the key areas that will impact the outcome of your potential alliance.

2. Rate the attributes.

The list is valuable enough on its own, but you can make it even more valuable if you rate the attributes that are most important to your potential alliance. Sort the list from highest in importance to lowest. You are looking at your new priorities when looking for an alliance partner.

3. Identify key industry groupings.

The market is full of many different kinds of players. The best way to begin assessing the potential for each player to contribute to your alliance business is to determine which industry group they fall into. Some examples include retail, supermarket, airlines, transportation, online movies, etc.

4. Rate the top players in the grouping.

With your list of industry groupings in place, you can now move on to identifying the top five players per industry grouping (in less mature economies, you may only find three). The top players in this case are the ones that best fit with the priorities you determined in Step 2.

5. Ask the key questions.

Now that you have identified a short list of potential partners, start researching. Download the potential partner’s 10K reports, annual reports, and other recent postings. Determine whether they partner already, and if so, with whom? Find out whether they have a VP of partnerships. Determine how important their partnering strategy is. Figure out how they make money. Understand at a basic level their need to grow and how your vision would complement their growth strategy.

The steps above may seem rather straightforward, but it’s remarkable how many alliances leaders attempt to enter into an alliance without considering them. This is maybe the main reason so many alliances fail. Leaders must formulate a strategy for identifying potential partners and do their due diligence up front.