The Dangers Of Establishing Strategic Relationships

You probably know Creo Quality’s pitch as well as we do by now: Creo Quality helps bring medical products to market. We help entrepreneurs and early stage companies with business development, operational efficiency, and program / project management.

In order for us to do our job, we must have a solid network of complimentary service providers. And we do. With some of these businesses, we have established several key strategic relationships. For these relationships to work, they have to be mutually beneficial.

Recently, we’ve been working closely with a particular service provider. We’ve sent them leads, and they’ve done the same for us.  In a couple of cases, we have been working with the same clients. We bring a skill set to this provider that they do not have. They bring a skill set and services that we do not have. Together, we have the potential to be a powerful asset to clients.

One client recently hired CQ to perform a market assessment. The client already had a good working relationship with the other service provider, and they were ready to do more. We were able to complete the market assessment pretty quickly and for a reasonable cost. However, the objective results demonstrated the market was likely too small to pursue.

We delivered the news to the client. The news was shared with the other service provider. Both were kind of upset. We were just doing our job. Believe me, I wish the results were more favorable too.

I’m curious to learn what will happen with the client and with the budding strategic relationship. Early indications suggest the client will proceed. Will the service provider still look to Creo Quality as a potential strategic relationship? Time will tell.

I’m big on trying to learn the lessons from cases like this. So what have I learned?

• Communicate, communicate, communicate. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said this. Just when I think I’ve communicated enough, I realize there’s always more I could have done.
• Be sure that both service providers acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of the other. Talk about them. Be as close to the same page as possible.
• Continue to do the right thing for clients. If something is going to fail, find out as quickly and inexpensively as possible. They may not like the news, but they need to hear it.