These partnership books have benefited me tremendously by providing helpful frameworks to approach partnership programs systematically and structurally.
Structured Strategic Partnership Handbook by Ezra Schneier
Structured Strategic Partnership Handbook is recommended for partnership managers structuring end-to-end partnership programs.
It’s like an instruction manual with detailed frameworks, templates, and action items for each step of a complete partnership program. Ezra Schneier provides very useful instructions for drafting goal statements, partner qualification and prioritization criteria, and communication strategies, as well as roll-out plans to internal and external stakeholders.
This book also includes templates for mutual referral agreements, unilateral referral agreements, mutual NDA, and sample job descriptions. Perfect for any startups looking to bootstrap the partnership function. Wish I had encountered this book earlier when first starting my BD career.
The art of strategic partnering: Dancing with elephants by Mark Sochan
The Art of Strategic Partnering: Dancing with Elephants is recommended for early/small startups aiming to partner with industry incumbents.
Mark Sochan discusses many thought-provoking aspects of collaborating with established players without the risk of being replaced or stampeded. It started with the goal of partnerships and scoping partners. It then gives negotiation tactics on contract terms, followed by specific pointers to manage pre-launch and post-launch relationships and collaborations.
Building successful partner channels by Hans Peter Bech
Building Successful Partner Channels is recommended for mid to late-stage B2B software companies looking to build successful channel partnerships.
I find this book particularly helpful in offering the "Business Model Framework" to think of partnerships considering both company and market factors. It also contains term definitions in the software partnership world, such as ISV, Reseller, OEM, and so on. Hans Peter Bech offers step-by-step guidance on how to scope partners, draft agreements, and post-closure executions.
Partnernomics by Mark Brigman
Partnernomics goes in-depth to discuss a Strategic Partnership Leadership Model (SPLM) that involves Vision, Teams, Goals, Metrics, Processes, and Results. Mark Brigman, Ph.D., SPLP, also encourages organizations to distinguish strategic, functional, and commodity partnerships based on partner collaboration and assign resources and talents respectively.
Would love to hear your book list! Let me know in the comments on this post on LinkedIn.
The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and not the organization he works for.
