Recently, I sat in an audience of CRM customers who were being presented to by their peers at a user group. As a CRM Partner, it’s always fascinating to find out what customers think.
How to Run Partner and Solution Selection Effectively
The presentation turned out to be different from the norm. The session was focused on, “How to run partner and solution selection effectively”. What followed was a 9 month marathon of procurement behaviour in which the key headlines were:
• 20 companies interviewed
• 12 companies long-listed
• Issue of an Invitation to Tender (ITT)
• 5 companies short-listed
• Final 3 selected
The final three organisations quickly became a “final 2”, due to a completely unrealistic proposal – a Dynamics CRM Partner and a Salesforce Partner. Then they prototyped and having thought all the way through the process that either solution could work, who did they choose? ….The partner they liked!
Selection Process
However, whilst they were really pleased with their exhaustive selection process, it was apparent they had some real issues including:
• Significant overrun in the project
• A lack of trust, highlighted by the fact they had a 3rd party assessing the selected partner and giving alternative views.
So what are the takeaways?
• Have a realistic procurement process – cut down the list with recommendations
• Don’t spend more time in procurement than in Diagnostics and/or Analysis and Design
• Use an RFI to pre-qualify and quickly carry out due diligence
• Think about how many proposals you can actually review, it is probably less than you expect
• Cultural fit is important – people buy from people
• Try and select your solution upfront – you will reduce your ongoing effort and confusion by 50%!
• Don’t limit your options because you have made your process too time consuming for some partners to entertain.
Customer/Partner Relationship
And last but not least, anyone considering bringing a 3rd party advisor into a customer/partner relationship will blow apart the partnership. By their very nature, a 3rd party will have another agenda which makes your trusted advisor, untrusted. So if the partnership is struggling, talk about it and if that doesn’t resolve matters, reconsider your options. The partner network is there to give you choice and the ability to move.