In my experience vendors will want their alliance mangers to present alliance plans to showcase alliance growth over the next few years. Of course, they would like to see how that alliance can generate more pipeline.

There is nothing wrong with this, and more pipeline translates to a larger funnel, which means more converted & closed opportunities, which means everybody wins. Experienced candidates will draw from their past success to build out an alliance plan that does just that.

However, for me (and mind you this is just my opinion) what is most important is to set the expectations of the partnership first. Let me explain – for instance a vendors expectations could be that the Partner/GSI be a lead generating engine to provide a steady stream of new lead/opportunities, but the Partner/GSI might be viewing the alliance as one of many in that technology area, as they want their customers to know they can support all vendors technologies, not just one. So, it could be the Partner/GSI treats the partnership as a as-hoc relationship where they will build where they will invest in building awareness/knowledge of the vendor solutions, but will not commit to exclusivity.

Being upfront and clear on the objectives of each is not a bad thing. It means each party knows what the other wants, and will invest accordingly. In competitive situations this will make the vendor think about their overall partnership and if a closer & more committed partnership might have given them the advantage. As the vendor alliance manager you will constantly put forward ideas of areas where there is a gap in the market and an opportunity for your 2 organisations to jointly address.

To me this principle of setting expectations could be applied to other areas as well, not just limited to technology.

I’m keen to hear from people who have done there roles as well as partners & vendors if this is important to them.