When a Partner is Really a Partner

“Partner” is perhaps the most overused, rhetorical word in the technology business. When IT buyers want a better price, they want the vendor to behave like a ‘partner”. When vendors want a deal to get done, they speak of the pending “partnership”. Vendor hype (and for that matter, buyer hype) is generally motivated by personal gain. So sales people, service people, contracts people, even CEO’s will often say whatever believed to be appropriate in order to get what they want. I sat in a contract negotiation a few years ago with a bank where the chief negotiator was their outside counsel. He wasn’t even a bank employee. He kept telling me we needed to give them a better deal because of the unique partnership based on their status as our “Inaugural Customer”. Really? I tried pointing out that they were, in fact, not our original (or to use his words, “inaugural”) customer, and that the price that was on the table was, in fact, extremely aggressive already. Then we were told that they had really spent way, way, way too much money with another vendor on the failed project that we were about to help them rescue. Of course, this part was entirely true. They had. But then he followed up with another “partner” request. As their ‘close partner”, we needed to understand that since they really had no money left after their aborted project, they “truly” needed for us to be aggressive. They were so conditioned to assume they were always getting taken to the cleaners that they would not recognize the very behavior they wanted. And herein lies the problem with the rhetoric, and my disdain for vendor blather. It is so accepted to speak in lofty terms without the corresponding commitment, understanding, or concern for the other parties well being that using the words does more harm than good – especially if you are working towards a very real meaningful partnership.

I have enjoyed several meaningful partnerships in my career. Without naming personal names (because they know who they are anyway), I would include FedEx, Bank of America, Barclays, ITG, and a few others on this list. These were relationships where both parties took the time to understand what the other wanted and needed, when there were times of slack and times of stress, and how we could work together, always, towards shared success. The “partnership” was earned in both directions through challenges, opportunities for failure, and expectations of commitment which were often beyond reasonable. In every case, we gave more as a vendor than we would have under normal circumstances, and we received more in return. And in every case, the customer received far more than would have been reasonably expected, but also went out of their way to help with our success.

At Infobright we signed a really nice contract this past week. Hopefully we will be able to announce this in public in the future. But the really meaningful side to this contract was that the signature was the beginning, not the end. Leading up to the signature were times of slack and stress, opportunities and challenges, expectations that were unreasonable yet met, in both directions. The trust, goodwill, and shared sense of direction will be worth more that the value of the contract to either of us. But then again, with true partnerships, however uncommon, they always are.