Many B2B companies have customers who are more than “key accounts” – these accounts have become integral to each other’s business success and are recognised as “partner” status. For example:

• IT outsourcers can be more than just “suppliers” to their clients as their operations depend upon that relationship
• Manufacturers of componentry may have co-developed a unique part with a partner client that is business-critical to both parties
• Commercial insurers may have co-created specialist/niche products with brokers who have unique expertise in that sector, which may include sharing the underwriting

Other companies similarly have recognised partner-status organisations e.g. white-labelling a service or to conduct joint or affinity marketing.

By definition, all such partnerships are important to both parties. They represent an important investment – financially and with resources – and will involve the participation of many stakeholders on both sides of the partnership.

Our Partner Relationship Survey consists of 24 questions that are asked during an engaging c. 20 minute 1:1 telephone interview between a Customer Attuned expert and (usually) 25 stakeholders on each side of the partnership (i.e. c.50 staff), ensuring that counterparts are mirrored on both sides of the partnership.

For each question the participant is asked to score its importance; how well they would rate it; and their sentiment as to whether it is getting better or worse. Comments and examples are probed accordingly.

This gives a wealth of insight into what’s working or not, and whether the relationship is improving, stagnating, or deteriorating – all supported with pertinent comments that bring the sentiments to life.

The report includes detailed analyses of the results, including (typically) comparisons by seniority, tenure and department of respondent from both sides; sentiment; and importance / rating gaps.

This leads to a highly engaging report-back intervention with the senior team.

“Done a lot to work more collaboratively & setting expectations, but not proactive enough yet in working together.”

The report and feedback focus on the “so what” and “what do we need to do to improve” findings:

• Is it getting better?
• What’s working best?
• Where do we need to focus?

And thus, to build better partner relationships based on trust and working together for mutual commercial benefit.

The current start-point questions are listed overleaf. These will be tailored to your partnership’s objectives and situation.