Strategic Alliances & New Key Accounts

When are “normal” results not enough?

We help you win strategic partners and new key accounts. Winning new customers is usually an outcome of your company’s normal sales and marketing activities. Sometimes, however, “normal” results aren’t good enough. You need a new impulse. Maybe your business faces a major dependency, disruption or stagnation. What’s your plan? The risks and rewards are much greater. Do your people have the necessary experience, capabilities and contacts to make it happen? How confident are you?

How can strategic alliances and partnerships drive profit growth in your business?

Alliances and partnerships serve many purposes, for example, filling gaps in capabilities or enabling entry into new market segments. Several trends drive the value of these partnerships, including:

• Faster time-to-market with new products, services and solutions
• More effective global market coverage
• Specialization of skills and capabilities, particularly in technology businesses

What does your key account portfolio tell us about the health of your business?

Strategic key account development reflects the health of your business. Is your business dependent on very few customers? How strong are your relationships to top managers? What are the consequences, if you lose these accounts? Developing new key accounts is about more than just winning another customer. The value can include:

• Reducing dependencies and risks for your core business
• Strengthening your relationships and influence at the top management level
• Winning a high-visibility customer in a new market segment to establish credibility

What INNOVAND can do:

We help you to complete strategic alliances and make them work. INNOVAND provides support along the entire process: strategy development, partner selection, deal structure and operating implementation. Experience has shown that alliances often go wrong because of mistakes in the first stage, strategy development. Therefore, we focus first on the results to be accomplished and on ensuring that alliances are structured correctly from the outset, with a clear, shared vision and a solid understanding of mutual economics.

INNOVAND helps you win targeted key accounts with a proven approach. How does this differ from traditional selling? We start with the rigorous selection of target companies that fit your company’s core competencies. We then look at your business from-the-outside-in, through the eyes of the target company, to define the true value of collaboration. We use our contacts and experience to initiate a meaningful management dialogue and identify specific projects of interest to both companies. This approach is not about making a quick one-time sale. It’s about developing business opportunities and management relationships that result in sustained profitable growth.

Next steps

To learn more about our work in this area or discuss your situation, please contact us. Or to read about INNOVAND capabilities in other areas, click the appropriate service.