Do You Really Know What a Strategic Partnership Is?
I was recently sharing our strategic partnership approach to a new connection, and I realized that I wanted to ensure I was providing the most accurate information and understanding of that term. I started off doing what most people do when they want an answer… I googled it. Google defines a strategic partner as “a relationship between two commercial enterprises, usually formalized by one or more business contracts.” I thought to myself, that sounded so strict and official, that is not what I vision when thinking of a strategic partnership. I then wondered, does everyone see the term in that way? What do others expect from a strategic partnership? I thought, official, contract and strict – those are not the words I want my candidates or clients to think of when they thought of our partnership.
In my opinion, a strategic partnership with a client or candidate is about having the same goals, having trust and commitment to each other, to work together, and want to build a long-term relationship. It’s not about just getting the job done and moving on, it’s about understanding each other’s needs, skills, strengths and working together. In today’s client facing world, wouldn’t that make the most sense? We don’t care about what is on a piece of paper telling us what the partnership is, we care about the results of that are happening.
When our CPG team meets with clients and candidates, we talk about our partnership as if we were a part of that organization or a family member to a candidate. We like to enter into our partnerships as a team, we want each other to succeed. Isn’t that why we connected in the first place? You have a need and we have a solution.
I like to use a doctor or a realtor as an example, you turn to them when you are in need of strategic help and you trust the advice they give you, because they are experts. Well friends, the beauty about working with a strategic recruiting team is that they are experts too, they are not in the business to just give you a “body” to fill a position in your organization. A strategic recruiting team is in the business to help make your organization stronger, to assist you in find solutions to your problems with the correct candidates in the right positions. Bottom line, we are better at what we do when you trust us and you consider us a strategic partner.
Three things to expect from a strategic partnership with executive recruiters:
- We take the time to learn about your organization so we can make expert decisions and share knowledge with you that helps your company succeed.
- We do our best work when you put your trust in us. We will act as a strategic partner and not just a person you’ve hired.
- We make strategic decisions and recommendations as if we were making them for our own team.
This is what I think of when talking about a strategic partnership, we are an extension of you, as you are of us. We are here to meet your goals. In the end, when we succeed, you succeed and vice versa.
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