You’ve probably already heard about business-to-business partnerships. These are expressions that arise more and more often. Indeed, one of the objectives of companies is to generate turnover. This requires innovation, creativity, and the ability to be different from the competition, since, if you do the same thing as the others, you get the same results. This is where collaboration between companies can help.
Find out more about my role as a partnership manager at J2S in this interview . In this article, I will explain the importance of partnership at J2S and the means by which we can develop our market.
The Partnership Manager’s role
Let’s first take a look at the job itself. For many of us, it doesn’t necessarily mean much. To be transparent, it was unclear to me too when I started. I thought that the job was simply to exchange with partners or to prospect for new ones. I was far from it, it is a real skill that can be vital for a company.
To be concise, being a partner manager is a fairly central position. At J2S, we need to have reliable and orderly product data in order to automate print production. In this sense, my role is to develop partnerships to interconnect our solution with other solutions used by our customers. This requires being close to the field, understanding the needs of our users, and studying the technical possibilities that we could make available to them to enable them to create additional value.
In addition to the promotional functions (webinars, events, trade shows, etc.), the partnership manager acts as a real project manager and interacts with all the company’s teams. The marketing, communication, legal department… The other important point is to keep an open mind to everything that happens on the Internet and the ecosystem of new technologies. Indeed, this job requires carrying out competitive reviews in order to remain up to date with what is done on the market or to seek new development guidelines for the company.
The different partnerships
At J2S, we have developed 3 types of partnerships.
Technological partnerships: A partnership with other software publishers to provide a unique solution that meets the needs of many users.
Partnership with agencies: It consists in helping agencies to answer the problems related to print automation of their customers. We offer expertise so that they can expand their field of action.
Partnership with integrators: It allows our customers to be autonomous in their response to customers’ needs. One of our main goals is to help our customers to be more efficient in their print automation.
Why use the partnership?
The target of the partnership between companies is generally to increase its turnover. The connection between two structures enables to development of a common offer on a given market. Moreover, the partnership has the effect of reducing certain costs. Consequently, the weaknesses of a company can be compensated by the performance or expertise of a partner, and vice versa. This partnership allows the exchange of good practices and expertise.
We often hear the expression “Unity is strength “. This term can also be applied between companies. The collaboration will take place between the two people in charge of partnerships, but also several departments of the company such as sales, marketing, communication, or IT. It will be possible to develop marketing partnerships, do joint selling or put in touch with the teams in charge of innovation. The idea is of course to join forces to offer a unique product.
However, the partnership does not only have advantages. It implies:
- A sharing of risks between the two companies;
- A commitment on both sides;
- The risk of conflict between partners would lead a business union to failure.
A challenge that is not always simple
The complexity of setting up a partnership often lies in knowing how to delegate or share part of its revenue. Indeed, many software publishers, for example, believe that they are fully able to meet a customer’s needs, even if it means developing a tool that they do not fully master. One might think that this allows the company to earn a maximum revenue, but at what price?
In this case, the company will have to invest in development in order to offer a global solution. This will scatter the forces at work, potentially reducing expertise and by domino effect, lowering customer satisfaction.
At J2S, we understand one fact. It is better to have 50% of something than 100% of nothing. That’s why we develop our partnerships with companies in different sectors. The objective is threefold. To propose a unique offer, to focus our expertise on what we do best, and to bring customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
Our partner approach allows J2S to focus its strengths on automated document production. Thanks to our partnerships, we can now connect to other solutions, share our knowledge, and generate more revenue. Together, we are able to offer a more comprehensive range of services and become essential to our customers because of our own specificity.
If you wish to know more about our partnership offers, do not hesitate to contact us .
B. Chauvel
Sales manager