A tale of two partnerships.

Company A and Company B are similar-sized competitors. Very different approaches to the same market. Company A is tech-centric. Company B is sales-centric.

Both piloted partnerships with us in 2020.

Should we talk about some results?

Both companies are multi$B valuation. Both have millions of customers. Both serve a hard-to-serve market well.

We started working with a Head of Product at Company A. Most of our interactions started in product and rippled out to loop in design, eng, and marketing as needed.

We started working with a BizDev lead at Company B. Most of our interactions were exclusively with BD who coordinated work with legal, customer support, and sales teams, though we rarely spoke to those folks.

The pilots had similar goals to pressure test during Open Enrollment.

Company A got the pilot structured and running in parallel with legal/revenue talk. Company B strong armed us into a very aggressive revenue split by reminding us of their reach and access to our competitors.

It took a week to get rolling at Company A. A month for Company B.

Internally, the preference to work with Company A shot up. Their needs were met. We were always available. Everyone wanted to come up with ideas and make things work for Company A, even if we had other things on their plate. The whole company was tuned in and excited for updates.

Internally, Company B became a massive headache. The revenue split had us pretty bitter out of the gate, and their tactics felt more like bullying than anything else. People deprioritized their asks, because they often seemed like box-checking for "business people."

Company A noticed their were *more* ways to work with us! New opportunities! Multiple paths to reaching our goals! So much strategic alignment!

Company B nitpicked over every sentence of every email and acted as gatekeepers blocking us from those who expressed interest.

Company A launched on schedule with a low-touch integration (5-10 eng hours) and one(!) targeted email with thoughtful messaging.

Company B was 2 weeks late, added in a middleman that all comms had to go through, and refused to put us anywhere near their product without results.

When the pilot was running, no one on our team spent more than an hour a week on Company A. Touching base, tweaking, gathering data.

One of our employees (short straw) spent 10-15 hours a week "managing" Company B. The middleman with each customer added complexity and took time.

Leads from Company A required very little hand holding. The handoffs were clean. The information was clear. Everyone knew who was what.

Leads from Company B were CONFUSED. (Same profile as Company A.) One demanded one of our agents get on the phone with her mom to explain.

We tried to pass some learnings to Company B. If we were putting in the work, obviously we wanted the results. The BD lead was not interested. He insisted we do more sales. More calls. Operationally, a completely unsustainable lift, especially given their unfair revenue split.

At the end of Open Enrollment, we can compare.

Signups: Company A = 42X Company B
Health Applications: Company A = 56X Company B
Revenue: Company A = 70X Company B

Company A is running at 2021 to expand what's already working.

Company B wants to debrief the clear failure.

Our learnings?

We will never allow another partner to pilot with us if their approach is like Company B. No matter how large they are.

- Need product buy in from day 1
- Need revenue split to be fair
- Need alignment on outcomes before legal terms
- Need to value people time

Not only will we be stepping back from our work with Company B, we also will not be opening any new partnerships when these warning signs are set off.

It's been said you ship your org chart.

I think you also ship your go to market.

Choose distribution partners carefully.

Oh yeah! We're hiring. Go to market. Engineering.

(Sorry no generic "strategy or product" roles, gtfo)

DM or email your deets to my first name at http://catch.co