In Episode 20 of the COLD ONES podcast, Alex Shyshko delves into the complexities of building successful partnerships. His insights offer a clear, actionable framework for companies looking to leverage partnerships to drive growth and customer success.
Alex begins by emphasizing the importance of mutual understanding and desire between partners. Successful partnerships require both parties to want to collaborate and to have a unified vision for what they aim to achieve together. To simplify this process, Alex introduces his acronym, USER, which stands for Unified Success to Expansion and Revenue. This model encapsulates the essential elements that any partnership should aim for: unified objectives, successful customer outcomes, expansion opportunities, and revenue growth.
Every company aims to increase revenue and recognizes that their customers often underutilize the products and services they provide. Customers need support to succeed and to avoid churn. By focusing on unified success, partners can align their goals from top to bottom, ensuring that both parties understand why they are partnering and what they hope to achieve together.
A critical aspect of this alignment is having the necessary resources to support the partnership. Unlike sales, which can be transactional, partnerships are long-term engagements that require legal agreements, clear objectives, and continuous nurturing. Commitment from the highest executive levels down to the operational teams is crucial.
Without this alignment, even the most promising partnership ideas are unlikely to succeed.
Customer success is at the heart of successful partnerships. When evaluating potential partners, it's essential to consider whether combining forces will enhance customer outcomes. Will customers benefit from the integration of both companies' solutions? If the answer is yes, and if both companies are prepared to commit resources—people, budget, effort—towards this objective, then the partnership is worth pursuing.
Alex advises companies to initially approach partnerships with caution, effectively saying "no" at first to test the true necessity and potential of the collaboration. However, when the objectives are clear, and both companies are aligned, the benefits can be substantial. By working together, companies can increase their customers' use of their platforms, expand their reach, and win new deals. Shared marketing efforts, streamlined processes, and mutual endorsements can all contribute to faster deal closures and greater customer satisfaction.
Ultimately, the USER model helps companies establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that track the success of their partnerships. By measuring these KPIs, companies can ensure they are achieving their goals of faster time to value, increased product use, and higher customer retention rates. In today's business environment, where many companies prioritize net revenue retention (NRR) over acquiring new customers, these outcomes are more critical than ever.
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