Aligning your vendor-partner comms can often mean the difference between a hanging deal and a closed one.
The more aligned you and your partners are, the more engaged your partners will be and, by extension, the more revenue they can influence for your business. And yet, despite the importance of this alignment, many vendors forget one simple fact about communications: your partners aren’t just businesses, they’re a collection of people. When you realize that your comms are being read by people who may not share the same ideas and goals as you, your communications can be tailored to match what they’re looking for and help guide them towards a shared vision. We’ve rounded up five of the best ways to align your vendor-partner comms to help you build better partnerships immediately.
1. Recognize the Importance of Clear Communication
While it sounds obvious, clear communication is crucial to the success of your communication strategy. If you’re sending an email, a newsletter, or even creating a blog, using plain, simple language will give your partners an easier time translating your message into action. Conversely, using too much jargon or buzzwords can dilute your message and make it harder for people to understand what you’re trying to get at. By recognizing the importance of clear communication across your business, you’ll find it much easier to engage your partners and ensure they understand your meaning.
2. Tailor Your Communication Strategy to Different Partners
That being said, not everyone responds to the same thing. A newsletter may work for some of your partners, but others may prefer a more direct approach specific to them and their industry. Tailoring your messaging, language, and even content to specific partners and industries ensures your messaging is seen by the people who need to see it. Sending communications to partners about a topic they aren’t interested in or don’t need is wasting your time and theirs, but by creating bespoke messages for specific partners, you can keep everyone aligned and on target towards your shared goals.
3. Use Active Listening and Feedback to Adapt Your Comms Strategy
While it’s all well and good to say that you should create bespoke content for your partners, many businesses don’t understand where to start. By listening to your partners’ wants, needs, and concerns, you can customize your communication strategy to better suit everyone, yourself included. There’s no point in spending hours creating a newsletter no one wants, and if you give your partners the space to tell you the kinds of content they want and the communications style they prefer, you not only get valuable data to build a new strategy from, but you’re involving your partners every step of the way building a joint strategy that works for everyone.
4. Set Clear Goals and Missions with Your Partners
This brings us into the next step, setting clear goals and missions. What this doesn’t mean is a vendor deciding they want to meet X target by Y date; what we always suggest is creating shared goals with your partners. Ask them what their goals are and determine how to align your objectives with theirs. When both parties are moving towards a shared vision, you’ll immediately find that your partner is more engaged and much more receptive to your messaging. Couple that with the above steps and you’ll be well on your way to cultivating a strong vendor-partner communication strategy that works for your business.
Conclusion
Ultimately, communication is a two-way street. It’s not just about you communicating your goals and objectives to your partners, it’s about an open dialogue between businesses and people to create a shared vision and working towards it. Asking your partners what they’d like to see, read, and learn is a crucial step to creating the content and communications that will engage them, and writing the communication as plainly as possible ensures your messaging doesn’t get lost in translation. If you follow these steps and work alongside your partners, you’ll discover a communication strategy that works wonders for your business.
