Partnership best practices

Successful partnerships require more than just connecting platforms - they need thoughtful strategy, good data practices, and consistent processes. This guide shares best practices for maximizing the value of your Mantle Partnerships, from initial setup to ongoing management and measurement.

Setting up for success

Profile optimization

Your partnership profile is often the first impression potential partners will have of your business:

Be comprehensive: Include a detailed company description that clearly explains your value proposition and ideal partnership types
Stay current: Regularly update your profile as your offerings or partnership priorities evolve
Choose quality visuals: Use high-resolution logos and professional imagery
Highlight unique value: Clearly articulate what makes your business a valuable partner

Strategic permission configuration

Thoughtful permission settings create trust while protecting sensitive information:

Start conservative: Begin with more limited sharing and expand as partnerships develop
Match to partnership stage: New partnerships may warrant different permissions than established ones
Consider reciprocity: Aim for roughly equivalent sharing between partners
Review regularly: Revisit permission settings as partnerships and business needs evolve

Data management

Customer data quality

The value of your partnerships depends heavily on the quality of your customer data:

Standardize domains: Ensure consistent formatting (with or without “www”) to improve matching
Update regularly: Set a schedule for refreshing customer data imports
Validate lifecycle mapping: Periodically review how customers are categorized into lifecycle stages
Enrich strategically: Focus on adding the data points most relevant to partnership matching (industry, size, etc.)

Lifecycle stage optimization

How you define lifecycle stages affects your ability to identify valuable opportunities:

Align with business processes: Make sure your stage definitions match how your team actually works
Keep definitions clear: Create unambiguous rules for each stage to avoid confusion
Document criteria: Maintain clear documentation of what qualifies a customer for each stage
Consider partner perspectives: When possible, align your stage definitions with common industry practices

Building effective partnership processes

Internal coordination

Partnerships work best when they’re integrated with your existing teams and processes:

Designate clear ownership: Assign specific team members to manage each partnership
Create review cadences: Schedule regular internal reviews of partnership performance
Document partner insights: Maintain a system for sharing partnership learnings across teams
Integrate with existing workflows: Connect partnership activities with your sales, marketing, and customer success processes

External coordination

Effective partner communication is essential for productive collaboration:

Establish regular check-ins: Set up recurring meetings with key partners
Create shared documentation: Maintain joint resources for tracking activities and results
Clarify expectations: Document mutual goals, responsibilities, and success metrics
Build relationships beyond the platform: Invest in personal connections with partner teams

Collaboration strategies

Co-marketing

Effective co-marketing amplifies both partners’ reach:

Focus on shared value: Highlight the combined benefits of both offerings
Leverage the matrix: Target campaigns at specific intersection points in the lead matrix
Share success stories: Collaborate on case studies featuring mutual customers
Coordinate messaging: Ensure consistent positioning across both partners’ materials

Co-selling

Strategic co-selling approaches increase conversion rates:

Define the buying journey: Map out how customers move from prospects to closed deals when both partners are involved
Coordinate outreach: Establish protocols for who contacts which prospects and when
Create joint offerings: Develop packaged solutions that include both partners’ products
Share context: Ensure both sales teams understand the value proposition of the combined solution

Customer success collaboration

Joint customer success efforts improve retention and expansion:

Develop integrated onboarding: Create smooth transitions between partners’ products
Share usage signals: Alert partners to potential churn risks or expansion opportunities
Coordinate support: Establish clear processes for handling issues that span both products
Celebrate joint wins: Recognize and reinforce successful customer outcomes that involve both partners

Measuring partnership success

Key metrics

Track these metrics to assess partnership effectiveness:

Attributed acquisitions: How many customers were directly influenced by the partnership
Stage progression: Movement of customers through lifecycle stages
Conversion rates: How effectively shared prospects convert to customers
Retention impact: Whether customers using both solutions have higher retention
Revenue influence: Total revenue influenced by partnership activities

ROI calculation

Calculate partnership ROI by considering:

Direct revenue: Revenue from attributed customer acquisitions
Influenced revenue: Additional revenue from existing customers who adopt partner solutions
Cost savings: Reduced acquisition costs through referrals
Resource investment: Time and resources dedicated to partnership management

Maintaining partnership health

Regular audits

Periodically review these aspects of your partnerships:

Permission alignment: Ensure sharing settings still match partnership goals
Data freshness: Verify that customer data is current and accurate
Reciprocity balance: Check that value exchange remains equitable
Process effectiveness: Evaluate whether established workflows are working well

Evolution management

As partnerships mature, consider these advancement strategies:

Staged expansion: Gradually increase data sharing as trust builds
New collaboration models: Explore different types of partnership activities
Cross-functional integration: Involve more teams in partnership activities
Strategic alignment: Ensure partnerships continue to support evolving business goals

Remember that successful partnerships balance the structure provided by Mantle Partnerships with the human elements of relationship building and communication. The platform provides the data infrastructure to identify opportunities, but turning those insights into results requires thoughtful strategy and consistent execution.

By following these best practices, you can create more valuable, sustainable partnerships that drive measurable results for both organizations.