Partnering and Coopetition
Don't hire ten more reps — recruit partners, and don't rule out your competitors.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 85%
Bova built her career in the indirect channel — brands that sell with and through partners, the way Heinz sells ketchup through grocers rather than heinz.com. The core mistake she names is framing growth as 'do I hire ten more salespeople,' when recruiting a handful of value-added resellers and training them to sell for you can multiply output. The second mistake is if-we-build-it-they-will-come: striking a deal with a Walmart or an Amazon and expecting sales to happen, when partner strategy actually demands time, patience, investment and someone who knows the levers. The third dimension is coopetition — working with someone you compete with because the customer demands it (interline airline baggage) or because society does (rival drug manufacturers on a pandemic). Kylie Jenner is her partnering exemplar: a half-billion-dollar brand with 12 employees, built by partnering for R&D, manufacturing and packaging rather than building any of it.
Origin
At 30, in her first software sales job as the only rep dialing 100 calls a day, Bova read a magazine article about value-added resellers, investigated what a VAR was, and realized she could recruit five of them to sell for her instead. She went on to become one of the first female channel chiefs at a major global tech company and worked across VARs, integrators, distributors and telcos.
Core principles
- 01Recruiting partners who sell for you scales faster than adding headcount who sell with you.
- 02A partnership is not a distribution strategy — signing a deal is the start, not the outcome.
- 03Partner strategy requires time, patience, investment, and someone who knows the levers.
- 04You may not think to work with someone you compete with — but the customer or society may require it.
- 05You don't have to build it all; partner for R&D, manufacturing, and packaging.
How to run it
- 1
Reframe the growth question
Where brands get it wrong is asking 'do I have to hire 10 more salespeople?' Ask instead whether you should partner — recruit others who sell to your end customer already.
Pro tip You only have to recruit and train; the partner does the selling.
- 2
Map the partner types in your category
Identify who sits between you and the end user — resellers, distributors, integrators, retailers, telcos. Understand who already owns the relationship you want.
- 3
Resource the motion properly
A partner strategy requires a lot of time, patience and investment, plus people who know which levers to pull. Budget for that before signing anything.
Watch out Striking a deal with a big retailer and then discovering they don't sell anything is the classic failure.
- 4
Evaluate coopetition
Ask whether working with a competitor is warranted — either because the customer demands it or because a societal need requires shared IP and joint development.
Pro tip Airlines and rival drug makers prove the model works when the need is real.
Watch out You may never think to work with someone you compete with — that blind spot is the point.
- 5
Partner to deliver instead of building it all
Don't assume you're the only one who can develop it. Partner for R&D, manufacturing, packaging and distribution rather than constructing every capability in-house.
In the wild
At 30, as the only sales rep at a software company making 100 calls a day, Bova read about value-added resellers, investigated the model, and went and recruited about five VARs to sell for her — her job becoming recruit and train.
→ They 10x'd the business for the founder she worked for, and it set the direction of her entire career.
Flying used to mean deplaning, collecting your bag, walking to another airline, and checking in again. Now American Airlines and Air Italia coordinate so a passenger flies to London and on to Italy with the bag following and a simple gate change.
→ Direct competitors collaborating because the customer demanded it; without it, travel would still be miserable.
Fifty years ago Kylie would have built her own R&D lab, manufacturing plant and packaging plant. Instead she partnered for all of it, keeping the brand and audience in-house.
→ A roughly half-billion-dollar brand with 12 employees that reached a billion faster than the world's top cosmetics brands.
Common mistakes
If we build it they will come
Striking a deal with a Walmart, Amazon or Target and expecting sales to follow. Partners don't sell your product because a contract exists — the motion needs time, patience, investment and skilled management.
Defaulting to headcount
Answering every growth need with 'hire ten more salespeople' ignores the leverage of recruiting partners who already own the end-customer relationship.
Refusing to consider competitors
Assuming you can never work with someone you compete with blinds you to collaborations the customer is actively demanding, or that a societal moment requires.
Is it for you?
Best for
Companies with a product that others could sell, or a build-vs-partner decision on R&D, manufacturing or distribution.
Not ideal for
Businesses with no partner ecosystem or where the value depends on owning direct customer relationships end to end.
From the transcript
“Why am I dialing 100 people a day? Like, I'm going to go recruit like five VARs and have them sell for me, and all…”
“Brands make the mistake of thinking if we build it they will come — we've struck a deal with a big like Walmart or Amazon…”
“That is coopetition — working with someone you might not otherwise work with, either because the customer demands it, or there's something that happens from…”
From the episode
Tiffani Bova: Growth Hacking Your Business
Tiffani Bova