Partners need a reason to sell with you.

A signed agreement becomes useful when both companies commit to customers, economics, and execution.

Lane G.K. Perspectives · By David L. Clement

Start with the partner’s business

A system integrator or reseller is deciding where to spend scarce sales and technical capacity. Your offering competes with its existing priorities. Explain the customer problem you help solve, the service opportunity you create, and the support your team will provide. Product differentiation alone rarely answers the commercial question.

Design a joint customer proposition

Agree which accounts to pursue and how the combined offering reduces risk or creates value. Define delivery responsibilities, support boundaries, and escalation paths. Customers need to understand why the relationship makes the solution more credible. Both sales teams need to know when to bring the other into a conversation.

Activate a small number of real pursuits

Choose a focused set of accounts. Assign an owner on each side, agree the next customer action, and review progress together. Use those pursuits to find gaps in messaging, enablement, commercial terms, or delivery readiness. A narrow plan that produces learning is more useful than a broad agreement with no operating rhythm.

Measure commitment through behavior

Look for shared account planning, customer introductions, technical participation, and visible executive support. Track the quality and progress of joint opportunities. Those signals reveal whether the partnership has become part of either company’s business, and where leadership intervention may be needed.