Technology
The challenges faced by the tech industry are always evolving. Decisions and plans are impacted by different stakeholders, different objectives, different solutions, different strategies.
Building and maintaining alignment is the single biggest challenge standing in the way of all of them.
Vantage Partners has over 30 years of experience working with technology firms to address their biggest challenges. That experience allows us to identify the unique business issues and nuances specific to your organization and deliver consulting and training that pinpoints specific needs and challenges.
We Understand Your Challenges.
We realize the challenges faced by companies in the technology industry are unique, and each organization may face a different set of risks and opportunities. These are just a few of the challenges we’ve recently helped our technology clients address.
Aligning Technical Innovation with Business Priorities
The excitement and urgency to innovate and push boundaries often drive a focus on technical solutions, and not necessarily the business problems, opportunities, and priorities that customers care about.
Managing Across Functions
Conflict and tension between functional priorities (e.g., product and commercial, legal and sales) is, occasionally, inevitable. When not properly managed, that tension breeds distrust, productivity loss, and execution challenges.
Collaboration With, To, and Through Partners
Effective partnerships collaboration can accelerate time to market, expand market reach, enable and accelerate innovation, and drive value to shared end customers. And, if not properly managed, partnerships can drive enormous value leakage, and risk.
Developing Technical Leadership
Technical expertise alone does not make for great leaders. Technology organizations frequently struggle to help high-accomplished emerging leaders transition from individual contributors roles to leadership positions.
How We Can Help
Through integrated Consulting and Training Services, Vantage Partners empowers our technology clients to think and do differently — to innovate, get ahead of change, and sustain competitive advantage. Our work in the technology industry spans the development of strategies, their execution, and the capabilities required to sustain them.
Vantage supports our technology clients in defining and choreographing customer engagement around the new product, ensuring that sales is equipped with the right discovery questions and value stories to sell effectively, and with the skills to accelerate sales of new products.
Vantage supports Customer Success by enhancing critical skills: driving cross-functional alignment internally and externally, joint problem-solving with customers, handling difficult conversations, and thinking strategically about their customers' business in a truly Customer Centric way.
Vantage provides a simple, repeatable, and highly effective global messaging framework and the essential executive presence skills that enable your sales team to consistently communicate value and successfully engage at any step in the sales process.
Vantage provides consulting and training solutions that address the critical challenges Sales and Account Management teams confront: optimizing your sales organization, negotiating and closing deals, strengthening customer relationships, and enhancing your team’s selling and communications.
Vantage helps clients determine when and how to leverage partnerships —providing hands-on support in due diligence, new alliance launches, and alliance remediation when necessary. We help identify cross-industry partners, manage the unique challenges of working with partners with very different models, and help build alliance management skills through customized training programs.
Vantage helps technology companies define and enhance operating models that actively manage the tension between product, legal, commercial, and sales and drive value for the organization.
Technology organizations work with us to development a blend of leadership capabilities — balancing deep functional and technical know-how with the ability to influence, collaborate with, and manage those within and beyond the organization.
Vantage helps clients achieve organizational alignment at every juncture. By leveraging a combination of intellectual rigor, practical expertise, and acute insight, we help clients achieve alignment where it matters most: between strategies and marketplace opportunities; across the extended value chain; and between goals, priorities, and incentives across functional groups.
Sample Client Engagements with Technology Organizations
Building a Partnership Operating Model at a Leading Data and Financial Technology Company
Worked with a Chief Revenue Officer to design and launch a partnership organization to enable indirect sales growth, and more strategically manage complex partnerships. Alliances now deliver more than $500MM in annual revenue, and enable an additional $400MM.
Designing Technical Leadership Programs at a Global Biotechnology Organization
Worked with technical and talent leadership to define a leadership framework, growth model, and skill-building program to help high-performing technical professionals grow from individual contributors into organizational and enterprise leaders.
Optimizing New Product Launches for a Global Cybersecurity Firm
Worked with Sales Enablement, Sales, Product, and Marketing to lead the launch of a newly acquired product. A robust Value-Selling Playbook was rolled out globally to 1000+ individuals, equipping Sales to have consistent, value-based, customer-centric conversations. We also delivered a Go-To-Market framework to leverage for future new product launches.
Insights
Vantage regularly conducts benchmarking and best practices research on partnerships and alliances. Our work is published in leading journals, including Harvard Business Review, Strategic Alliance Quarterly, California Management Review, Sloan Management Review, and Ivey Business Journal.
Our Sales Academy
The Vantage Sales and Account Management Academy develops skills such as customer discovery, value selling, negotiation, communications excellence, influence, sales leadership, and strategic account management. We tailor our proprietary frameworks and tools to your organization’s needs and existing sales processes. We continually assess progress and measure business impact to maximize learning ROI.