One of the most overused and misunderstood business terms these days is “partnership”. It seems like anyone who wants our station to do a promotion calls it a partnership, and we lose sleep when our “partner's” price demand means giving the store away. What’s a radio sales professional to do?

Let’s go back and take a look at the actual definition of a partnership:

partnership 1: the state of being a partner 2: a legal relation existing between two or more persons contractually associated as joint principals in a business 3: a relationship resembling a legal partnership and usually involving close cooperation between parties having specified and joint rights and responsibilities (Webster)

“Close cooperation with specified and joint rights and responsibilities.” Wow! How many of the clients on your list qualify for that description?

What makes a customer a partner? There is a difference in the tone of the conversation in the relationship. There’s less friction about price and item and more time spent talking about business problems and how to solve them. The people in the room are different, or at least speaking a different language: they are businesspeople talking about obstacles, objectives, and solutions. There’s a history of past successes and occasional failures. To be a partner, we should know exactly how we are contributing to the customer’s business. We should know how many units they've moved this month and how far behind their original expectations they may be. Then, we need to use that information and spend time and brainpower putting together a program that will help achieve their business goals. There’s a candor where both parties know what their worth is to the other and acknowledge that they are both stronger because of their business association.

Read the entire article from “The Corner Office” here: