There was a recent question posted on an alliances discussion board asking how do you get sales teams in your key partnerships to work in harmony?
This is a question worth asking, since in my experience, this is where alliances most often fall down. The only way to validate your joint selling proposition is to sell your first customer, and the only way to get to the customer is to get your two sales teams collaborating.
How?
Fundamentally you have to address "WIFM" (what's in it for me?) for each sales team. Will selling with this partner get me access to decision-makers? Increase my deal size? Facilitate upsell/cross sell? Will I make money through and be rewarded for collaboration? The tops down "you will sell it cuz management says so" only gets you passive aggressive compliance. There must be something in it for the sales guy or gal, and that something is usually money, but could also be prestige, props, career leverage, etc.
Identifying the WIFM for each sales organization, developing a clear sales engagement process, and focusing on both as a central part of your alliance strategy is critical if you want to get sales traction. As we used to say at IBM - nothing happens until you sell something!
