The Partner Channel Magazine Summer 2016

teams have different expectations of why
they are making this investment – and often
times those expectations are not aligned
or may even be in conflict. If that is the
client’s problem, then as service providers, it
becomes our problem, one way or the other.
The best practices of Partner organizations
that I have observed create courageous
dialogue, genuine facilitation, and honest
feedback from the very beginning. The lack
of clarity of expectations in client projects
has the potential of draining profits from a
service business and perhaps even damaging
our reputations for being able to deliver.
You all know that effective interaction and
communication with the client are important
throughout the project, but never are they
as critical as they are at this stage before a
project plan is delivered and implementation
begins. Skilled business facilitators in a
service business establish a groundwork that
creates long-term relationships and profits
for both the client and the Partner.
PROFIT
When it all comes together, the client has achieved their goals, and the Partner organization has
shown a profit in providing the services, which helped to make it happen. Far too often, project and
client profits are not managed along the way. We focus on “billing” and “benchmarks” but do not
align those with the larger picture, which must be profitable. Effectively managing project and client
profitability is part of the overall management discipline that determines progress and success.
The best of Partner companies are managing client needs, with project benchmarks, and are
experiencing true project profits. Here again, the management discipline of courageous facilitation
and rigorous data can catch or even prevent problems that drain the profit from our services.
Bringing it all together to achieve the greatest success possible for our customers, our teams,
and our company involves best practices of rigorous discipline and constant reality checks. As
one well-experienced entrepreneur once told me, “Hey, if it was easy, any damn fool could do it!”
That sounds like a great market differentiator!
PROCESS
Just as there is not a perfect product
or client, there is not a perfect process.
But consistent overall management
process matters the most. Yes, there
are implementation processes, project
management processes, and client
feedback processes, and most Partner
organizations are proficient at these. But
the most successful service companies
have an overall process that connects
consistently all the other processes together
in a continual evaluation of progress. The
intent is not to add complication to the
business or create unnecessary meetings.
The intent has to be to maintain the overall
picture and vision of what was established
as the desired outcome for both the client
as well as our organization in the very
beginning. It is a form of management
discipline that is based on reality and
open dialogue. While one size does not
fit all, management process fits all sizes
of organizations, clients, and projects.
Without it, we come to a point where we
ask ourselves, “What went wrong? Why
are we so far behind? Why does the client
refuse to pay the recent invoice?” All of
which are after the fact. It is not easy to ask
hard questions when we want to believe
that projects and clients are humming
along, or that the prospect of the next
biggest deal is right around the corner.
Truth is much easier to manage before
overlooked problems derail progress.
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THEPARTNERCHANNEL.COM | | SUMMER SPRING 2016 15