Unlocking Partnerships Through Authentic Care

Partnerships may be celebrated through win wires and press releases, but they are powered by people.  People who have good days and bad days.  People who are filled with feelings. Conflict is inevitable, hard conversations will happen and escalations cannot always be avoided.  With conflict comes battle lines, walls, and a focus on your own position.

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Theodore Roosevelt

The easiest thing to do is to think about yourself.  The most influential thing we can do is to care more about our partner then they do about themselves.  As sellers we’re taught to create tension and challenge customers to think about the opportunity ahead of them.  Who are you most likely to listen to when challenged in your personal life?  It’s probably someone who we believe authentically wants to help you more than they want anything else.  The same is true for business.

Influential alliance managers don’t start with facts or arguments.  They start by caring.  Caring moves past empathy and it moves past customer obsession.  When you truly care you can ask the hardest questions, “how could you settle for anything less than 1,000% growth in this situation”… “why wouldn’t you invest the money to hire 10 sellers and have your own private island in a year”. 

Before your next heated discussion take a moment to pause.  Empathize with your partner’s situation, be customer obsessed and then challenge yourself.  Care more about their situation then your own success.  If you can be authentic, you will be amazed at the doors this will unlock for you.