Find a partner
What helped make an alliance with Nielsen possible was the fact
that Crafton and John Lewis, president and CEO of Nielsen
Consumer North America, had the same mentor, who said they
had a lot in common and should meet. They took the opportunity
at a conference to do so — and discussed what might be possible
if they built a business relationship. Crafton said that personal recommendation helped because it came from someone they both
knew and admired.
“We had a common vision, and we could be helpful to each
other,” Crafton said. “It was a nice cultural fit.”
Crafton gets plenty of calls from other people who want to create strategic alliances with CROSSMARK, but he doesn’t even
return the call unless he knows the person calling him. Alliances
take time and energy, and he doesn’t have enough to go around to
talk to everyone who might like to align themselves with CROSS-MARK.
“I get these calls from all over the world saying, ‘We want to have an
alliance with you,’” Crafton says. “Honestly, I don’t return most of the
calls because where do I start with credibility? If a friend refers a person, I will give them an audience. But with just a cold call, it’s like dating on the Internet.”
A successful alliance can be a formal, jointly owned subsidiary of
both companies that is governed by a contract and operating policies. It can also be a looser relationship that involves referring
business to each other’s companies and payment of a referral fee.
Alliances can also be with competitors. FedEx and UPS, for
example, put packages on each other’s trucks for delivery to rural
areas to avoid expensive trips for just a few packages.
“We see that there are some strengths of our competitors that we
don’t need to fight,” Crafton said. “Let’s trade my weak spots for
your weak spots and see if we can’t as an industry avoid waste.”
For an alliance to succeed, the companies involved must have
compatible goals, mutual gains and symmetry. Both companies
must gain equally from the alliance. The companies’ leadership has
to trust each other, keep information flowing from one company
to the other and make decisions jointly.
How does a business leader know when to make a deal? First, look
at the fundamentals.
“There has to be a clear and present business opportunity,”
Crafton says. “If there is no tangible and clear win for both parties,
then it is more of a parasitic relationship than it is a symbiotic relationship. Right up there along with that is culture.”
Crafton has met company leaders who he simply wouldn’t go forward with.
“We had one guy who told us that he used to have a building, and
he burned it down and took the insurance money,” Crafton says.
“That’s not a business partner you want to have.”
In other instances, he has had conversations with executives
who indicated their sole focus was on enriching their own bank
account, and they’ve had little regard for how they wanted to treat
the other managers in their company after the alliance is complete.
“It tells you that at the very core of their business, they’ve treated these employees in such a way that they may not be productive
in our culture,” Crafton says.
Third, check the level of enthusiasm. You shouldn’t have to sell
a partner on the business concept. The partner must be just as
excited as you are to embrace the new concept.
Otherwise, Crafton says: “You’re going to be taking two steps forward and dragging your partner. If they are equally as enthusiastic
about the business opportunity and the market opportunity, then
you’ve got a good start.”
Buy-in must occur within the ownership of the partner organization.
“You create these documents, and it goes up the flagpole, and
everybody in the corporate office doesn’t get it, and it doesn’t happen,” Crafton says. “As an owner of this company, I can speak for
the company. You have to evaluate if the person you’re speaking
with has the authority and the power to execute plans that you’ve
developed.”
More than anything, a partnership can expand a company’s offerings to allow better service to customers. The alliance with Nielsen
was an ideal fit, because both firms work with the same sets of
clients but do not offer the same services.
“For them, they saw (CROSSMARK as) a company with over
1,000 clients, and a field force of 15,000 people who could execute
marketing objectives in the field, and for
us, we saw a company that was more
tapped into the marketing departments of
companies,” Crafton said. “We were able to
help each other with relationships and
business opportunities.”
