Potential strategic partners abound, but good ones are hard to find. What makes a good partner? I look for three characteristics. First, they are customer focused — someone who will have my clients’ best interests at heart. They value service before selling. Second, they are good at what they do, and regularly go above and beyond to get things done right the first time. Third, they have loyal, happy clients.
I admit it. Good strategic partners make our lives easier (and make us look good!), forming a win-win-win for all parties. When we find a good partner, we make them an integral part of our client support team. Need an excellent cloud provider? We have a partner. Need a great custom software developer? We know one. Need a new copier? We have a partner for that, too.
Waident is a better company because we have a strong network of trusted partners. Yes, I know a lot of other companies claim they have strategic partners, too. But if you look closer, typically their “partners” are just Microsoft, VMware, Dell, etc., which is less an equal partnership and more “value-added” re-seller. Our partnerships are different. We distinguish ourselves by not giving each other kickbacks for client referrals. How can someone be an unbiased client advocate if they are also getting paid by the 3rd party they’re referring? They can’t. We do referrals to help our clients (and yes, to make us look good!). Our clients get the best possible firm to handle their need because our motive is service, not sales.
At Waident we focus on what we do exceptionally well: end-user support, technology management, and strategic technology guidance. We let our partners handle what they are exceptional at – cloud, phone systems, telecom, SharePoint, custom software, and copiers. These partners help us give our clients big business capabilities with small business service and attention. In the next couple of weeks, I will be interviewing a couple of our partners.
