Soft skills matter!

I get a little crazy when I hear people refer to critical alliance management skills as "soft skills". There is absolutely nothing "soft" about the skills we employ as alliance professionals to establish, develop and manage alliance relationships!

Alliance managers with skills in verbal and written communications, critical thinking, problem solving, leadership, alignment and negotiation - create winning alliance partnerships.

Companies with alliance managers lacking these skills don't make good partners. They do things like:

• Call you with 24 hours notice telling you they're "bringing an exec with them to the meeting and can you set up a meeting with your VP of Sales". Ah no.
• Insist you connect them with your sales rep without providing a compelling reason for the connection.
• Continually promote their interests without attending to your company's interests.
• Set up exploratory calls with my company with a ton of their stakeholders on the line without having had "the call before the call" to get his team aligned before engaging us.

These are but a few examples I've experienced. These moves didn't exactly inspire confidence. I'm careful with my credibility and chits with stakeholders. I won't put my internal credibility on the line for a partner that doesn't understand basic alliance management principles.

Deploying unskilled alliance managers on your partnerships has a material impact on whether or not companies want to partner with you. Over the years, I have de-prioritized partners who assigned unskilled alliance managers to manage the relationship.

If a partner doesn't value the partnership enough to assign skilled professionals to manage it then neither do I!

Survival Tips for "Flying Solo" in an Alliance

I often say that the alliance manager plays a role similar to an airplane pilot when it comes to managing a strategic alliance relationship. Like pilots, alliance managers are responsible for getting the alliance "off the ground", navigating the partnership through turbulence and weather conditions (changing market conditions, competing interests, conflicting organizational models, competitive threats, etc.), and "landing safely" (delivering the goals of the alliance).

Throughout the flight, we have to get our passengers - internal and external stakeholders (sales, marketing, legal, professional services, etc.) aligned so we can achieve alliance results. During most flights, an airplane will be off course for about 95% of its flight. Similarly, during the life of an alliance, the alliance manager has to work continuously to keep the partnership on course. Alliance management, like fllying looks effortless, but doing it well requires a lot of skill and expertise.

Pilots usually partner with skilled co-pilots to build successful flight plans and coordinate actions during flight. Alliance managers on strategic, complex partnerships also work with a "co-pilot" - their alliance counterpart at the partner's organization - to help build the joint alliance plan, manage conflict, and navigate the partnership.

But what do you do when you are "flying solo" - when you don't have an alliance manager assigned to the partnership from the partner's company?

1. Determine if you're flying a "Cessna or a Dreamliner". 
• If this is "Cessna" - a partnership with a start-up or a small partner - it's highly unlikely that they'll have a full time alliance manager on staff. Just make sure the person they assign to work with you on the partnership has authority to make decisions and expect that you are going to have to lead the joint development and execution process. If this is a "Dreamliner", and this is a strategic partnership with a large company, you are going to need a skilled co-pilot to get this thing off the ground. Without one, expect a very bumpy ride.
2. Build your Flight Plan. 
• Weather you're flying a Cessna or a Dreamliner, if you're flying solo you really need to make sure you have a flight plan. Your flight plan, or alliance execution plan is what you'll use to ensure you get to your destination. Without a co-pilot, you'll be doing most of the heavy lifting. 
3. Communicate frequently with the "Control Tower". 
• Identify and build strong connections and relationships with executive sponsors at the partner's company. Without an alliance counterpart, you'll might not get a lot of assistance navigating the partner organization and building executive relationships, but it will be critical that you identify executive sponsors and get them connected with their counterparts within your company. You will need to ensure that you understand their interests and that you align the partner plan to support their interests and the interests of your internal sponsors.
4. Plan for turbulence. 
• Even under the best of circumstances, alliance management can be challenging work with lots of ups and downs. Good alliance managers always plan for contingencies and identify and manage risk. Flying solo adds another level of risk to the flight, so you'll need to set expectations with your executive sponsors accordingly. 

Follow these survival tips and you'll help guide your partnership through friendlier skies!