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Welcome to Creating Next, the groundbreaking podcast by TransImpact that delves into the dynamic realms of parcel spend management and supply chain planning. Join our hosts as they navigate the cutting edge of industry innovation, sharing insights and strategies from top experts. Subscribe now for an immersive journey into the strategies and technologies shaping the future of your business.
JJ - 00:01:15:
Everybody, thank you for coming today and attendance of this podcast. We're here to talk about a number of how we're looking at strategic partnerships in the market today and the value and importance of why we look for strategic partnerships to accelerate the growth of our company. My name is JJ Jeffries. I'm a Vice President of Channel Strategy here at TransImpact . And I'm here alongside of Laura Zimmerman, who's one of our Partner Relationship Managers at the TransImpact team. Joining us today, we have Conner Reed from OMNIA Partners, who's one of our amazing Strategic Partners in the market today. And we're really thankful to have you on the call today. So Conner, thanks again for your time.
Conner - 00:01:47:
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.
JJ - 00:01:49:
As we jump in, guys, the theme today is talking about Strategic Partnerships, how we value strategic partnerships, why we look to go-to-market for them. There's very staggering statistics around partnerships. One that speaks to mind today off a recent Gartner post was 78% of executives in the B2B world are looking to extend and expand upon their current rosters of partnerships today. As we dive into that today, a lot of our conversation is going to be focused on the value of that, what it brings to both of our organizations. Conner, with us being partners over the last several years, we'd love to talk about the successes that we've had, what's made things successful, and how we both look to join upon that to continue that acceleration of growth. Before we start today, Conner, I think it'd be great for you to provide a little bit of insight into who OMNIA is and your role at OMNIA Partners.
Conner - 00:02:37:
Yeah, absolutely. So OMNIA Partners has been around in many different forms since about 2001. We have been, we started in the public sector. We really looked at the state and local government side of things. Through acquisition, we have moved into the private sector. That includes not only just your Fortune 1000, and below a little bit of that, but also into the real estate and private equity side of things. So we're a company that we really are looking to bring a lot of win-win-win situations to the market, not only for our members, but also for our suppliers and then obviously ourselves. So we continue to grow. We're at about $26 billion in spend under management. We're the largest GPO on the market across all of these sectors. And we're really excited to work with partners like TransImpact. And keep growing that way. So the way that I work with TransImpact, I have a book of a few different suppliers and I'm the main liaison between OMNIA Partners and that supplier. So main liaison with TransImpact , I work with Laura a lot. And we're really excited to continue growing there. We make sure that all the strategies on both sides are aligned to be as efficient as possible in talking to our membership group.
JJ - 00:03:56:
You know, Conner, you hit the nail on the head there with, you know, how you guys are going to market. It's been crazy to see your expansion and the growth over the last several years. And you guys are approaching, what, how many thousand members now?
Conner - 00:04:07:
About 5,000 on the private sector side.
JJ - 00:04:10:
Wow. I mean, and collectively from private and public, where are you guys at today in the market?
Conner - 00:04:16:
We're at about a little over 500,000. So 5,000 in the private sector and 96% of the country's state and local agencies.
JJ - 00:04:27:
That is wild. That's a massive number. I mean, the reach that you guys have has been phenomenal for us. I think it's really helped continue to accelerate our brand in the market. And for those who don't know who bought TransImpact . So TransImpact , we are a technology firm that specializes in parcel spend management and supply chain planning. We go to market with two of our various divisions. We very much focus as part of the OMNIA partnership in lieu of our small parcel spend management offering that we have today. And we were the people that pioneered this space over 15 years ago. So with what Conner and the OMNIA team do on the procurement side of the house, it's been very advantageous for us because those clients and those customers are very much the same people. When they come to somebody like OMNIA, they're looking to help with visible spend management. They're looking to help with efficiencies and optimization. And those conversations very much tie into one another. So, Conner, I think to be helpful for a little bit of others that maybe not be so well-versed on the GPO side of things. Could you explain exactly what a GPO is and exactly how OMNIA goes to market today?
Conner - 00:05:28:
Absolutely. So, GPO is a Group Purchasing Organization. And what we do is we go to suppliers like a TransImpact , we negotiate a contract that we can sell to our full membership group. And so what we're really doing is we're taking our full power of our entire organization, and using that to help each individual member. So when you look at it, you're getting the power of all of these Fortune 100, Fortune 1000 companies all pulled together. So that way our suppliers know that they're coming in. Working with us and not just getting one opportunity, but they're getting tens to hundreds of thousands of opportunities each year with us. So we like to go in, we're very consultative. We're going in and talking to these folks about how they can hit their goals and really drive value into their organizations. You'll probably hear me discuss a few different times the silver tsunami, and it's real. A lot of the procurement folks that have all that knowledge over years and years of doing this, they're retiring and they're moving on. And we're really finding that procurement teams don't have the bandwidth or the knowledge that they need to really go out and find these different areas of expertise themselves. So they're leaning on folks like us and other GPOs to do that. So we're really going in on the people side, but then we're also investing on the data side. Everything that TransImpact is doing on the spend visibility, and the data side of things is really marrying up perfectly with where our organization is going as well.
JJ - 00:07:07:
And Conner, I think you hit the nail on the head right there on a particular point I want to double down into. You know, with OMNIA being the largest GPO out there, a Group Purchasing Organization, I think it's very keen to ask this question, but at the same time, it's very self-explanatory in itself of how important partnerships really is to your business. Without partnerships, you really have no business today. So I'd be curious to get your take on it, you know, the view of OMNIA and your own personal perspective on how OMNIA views partnerships.
Conner - 00:07:37:
Yeah, so we say that we are a supplier-centric organization. We are really focusing on how do we find value with our suppliers like a TransImpact and then bringing that to our members. If you look at other types of GPOs, historically, and especially on the healthcare side, you're looking at ones that are very much we're trying to find as much down to the penny value as we can for our members. Well, obviously we're doing that. We are putting together contracts that you cannot find out in just the general market. But we also want our suppliers to be able to show value as well. And that encourages them not only to partner with us and work more closely with us, but it encourages them to really put their best foot forward with without in the market as well. And. You know, pull different things into our organization. To go forward in the market. So the way we really look at it is... The closer we get not only from a data perspective and sharing information, but really it's people as well. So we want people to trust us. We're going to trust you all as well and go together, lock arms. But that's not only on the supplier side, that's on the member side too, right? They've got to be able to trust that we have the right relationships We're bringing in the right people so that way they can hit their correct goals because, you know, we're all trying to find as much value as we can out there. And that's really where we're trying to find the right people to make that happen on a day to day basis.
JJ - 00:09:05:
Yeah, and that's a great point there, Conner. I mean, you said the word value, and I think that's something that we all talk about a ton and we throw that word value around as a buzzword. And I think at times it becomes a little bit of overkill when people sell, you know, the value, the value, the value, right? Price is obviously always important for longstanding decisions and relationships of how you go to market, right? But we all have cell phones and cars and homes that we see value in where we could have gotten a cheaper product somewhere. But I'm not going for the cheapest product, right? I'm going for that white glove service, that partnership that's truly waking up in the morning trying to make my organization better through that partnership. So that brings me to the next point that I'd love to get some take on from Laura. When we talk about partnerships at TransImpact , one of the first things we look for is our objectives have to be aligned at the partnership level. If they are not aligned for a prospective partner of ours and that end partner for their customers, we're dead in the water right there overnight. And so you shouldn't even continue on if fatigue sets in and people wonder why the partnership is not getting off the ground, right? Because there was a lack of due-diligence. There was a lack of understanding of how we're going to go to market together for our customers. So, you know, Laura, I'd love for you to get your take a bit. You know, you're being a partner relationship manager. You're always dealing with net new partners that are coming in the door for us. You have a number of partners you've worked with for a number of years, really, that you've helped continue to stand up and farm customers and leads from those those type of partnerships. What do you see as one of the biggest challenges when you're standing these things up on some of the partnerships? Perhaps we really haven't gotten the jump that we'd like out of those partnerships or what we thought we would have gotten out of them.
Laura - 00:10:38:
Absolutely. And I think it goes back to really being aligned strategically on our go-to-market strategy. I think that's something that we have really developed with OMNIA Partners. I think through Conner's leadership, we've really been able to build that out. So I think having that alignment up front is so critical to success because it's one thing to try and stand up a partnership. We don't maybe one party isn't as invested. Doesn't have you know, maybe the strategy that we've put forth, ready to go. So I do think that that is probably the number one building block you have to have in order to really grow and make a partnership thrive.
JJ - 00:11:20:
I completely agree. And, you know, Conner, I want to ask you this next question, but before we go into it, I want to give a little bit of a take, right? At TransImpact we have a consistent way of a framework that we run all partnerships through, right? Because the worst thing that we want is to ask 10 different people how to run a partnership and get 10 different answers as to how they run it. Because if we don't have a consistent manner or a framework that we're following, we don't know what works. We don't know what doesn't work. And if we all follow the same framework and the same two or three steps are out of kink or out of whack and we realize that's where the pitfalls are coming, we can strategically fix the way we go-to-market with our partners and our customers. So, you know, from that perspective, Conner, I'd be very curious to understand, do you guys follow a particular blueprint? Obviously, every partner is going to have some bespoke elements to that partnership of how you go to market based on the offering, based on the nuances, et cetera. But I'd be curious to know today, you know, OMNIA's view as well as your view on how you go to market with some of these partnerships and a framework that perhaps you follow today.
Conner - 00:12:18:
Yeah, we definitely have some best practices. You mentioned, I mean, there's all kinds of uniqueness to every partnership. Based on what industry they're in, how they view partnerships, the people that are involved. But from a best practice standpoint, first, we love to start at the executive level. We have to have alignment both sides JJ, we were talking last week and you said, your partnership isn't one way, it's got to be both ways. We view that as well. So we are going to come in, as we mentioned, we're a supplier-centric organization. And we're going to come in, we want to do what's right for our partners, and we hope that they're going to do the same for us. So that's step one. From there, it's really understanding how our partners go to market and where we fit into that. So our sales teams, they're generally speaking to the procurement level, the CPOs, the lead buyers, those types of people. Well, when you get into different industries, those might not be the same people that they're talking to. So it's how do we bridge that gap finding out what we can do to really bring that message home not only to procurement, but to the people that they're talking to. But it's also about where can we bring those two folks together and how can we just develop that understanding of what our partners are trying to do within that company so that way everyone's on the same page. I think that's really the rub of where we find our partnerships when we've got both sides are understanding how the other goes to market. Then we really get off and running in the right ways. So from a sales side, that's how we look at it. And then from a marketing perspective, a training perspective, all those elements that need to support sales are critical, especially from a GPO standpoint. You know, we are a third party. We've got to get the message out there. And that's where we want to be an extension of our partners teams whatever their missions are, whatever their campaigns are, we want to be amplifying that because we do have a big reach to some really good programs and some really good partners. So It's really that back and forth and understanding what the goals are on each side so that way we can each go back and forth on how we can meet in the middle and find the best way forward.
JJ - 00:14:34:
So, Conner, to your point, I think it's something that, you know, why we've had such a successful partnership with OMNIA Partners, because we do both have that same view on how we follow the framework that you just alluded to. The things we need in order to drive those partnerships, all the things behind the scenes that people don't get enough credit for, like, you know, our marketing support, our go-to-market campaigns, you know, our legal teams that help us navigate these waters. I mean, I think there's a lot of things you have to have to stand up a partnership. And everyone from the outside looking in always sees a partnership and the dollar value associated to it, right? And again, going back to my point, yes, that's why we're in business. This isn't a nonprofit. Most of our companies aren't nonprofits. But we understand that we do have to unlock that value for the end customer. So, Laura, I mean, I know you're very much at the center of working with marketing, working with legal marketing on both sides of our organizations to get this out in the market. You know, your perspective, I'd love to hear this from a day-to-day of how you go through some of these mechanics.
Laura - 00:15:27:
Sure. I mean, to Conner's point earlier, it's people-focused, right? So we... I mean, obviously, I've said this before, but it's making sure that we are aligned strategically. I think we've hit that point home. Are we aligned on our KPIs, right? Have we identified KPIs that we are actively both working towards? The collaboration between our marketing teams is invaluable, and I can't speak to that enough because they're developing all of our campaigns. They're making sure that we have content for your teams to push out. You guys are providing content for us as well. So it's a very much, yes, it's a partnership, but the collaboration is so, so important, especially on the marketing side. When we think about also just kind of cadence, right? What kind of cadence do we need to be touching base? Is it monthly pipeline calls? Let's talk about QBRs, year-end reviews. We need to make sure, again, that we're following the same path forward. And I think that's something that we've been very successful in really developing in our partnership with OMNIA Partners. And I think we'll just see that to continue to grow going into 2024.
JJ - 00:16:34:
Yeah, exactly. And I want to double down on the marketing point real quick because I was doing some research a few days ago at one of our VIP events and we were speaking. And one of the things that I put up on the screen that I think resonated with a lot of people, and we are talking about an anomaly here, but Microsoft. I think Microsoft and Salesforce have done this better than anybody in the industry. Last year, 94% of the revenue that came through Microsoft was through Strategic Partnerships. It was not their internal teams. 94%. Now, I know what people are going to say. You're talking about the Nike of the industry, right? You're talking about Microsoft here. But I think it goes to show you, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? They have this thing figured out. And so, Conner, when we're looking at marketing, you know, from your side of the house, we know a lot what we need, right? For example, when we're doing cross-sell campaigns internally, when we're doing things, when we're offering new product launches and net new enhancements to our products and updates just to normal business as usual activity, we always want to make sure our partners like yourself are engaged in that. But from your side of the house on OMNIA's perspective, what are some of the key things you're looking for from marketing support on and ongoing basis? Those fundamental items, obviously, you're going to have bespoke ones that are one-off. But typically speaking, what are the two, three things you're looking for for support from a marketing organization inside your four walls?
Conner - 00:17:49:
Yeah, the biggest portion of that is thought leadership for us. So we are bringing, and we talked a lot about our members. They want to know that we're bringing industry leaders into the house. We're not just bringing anyone and everyone in to talk to them. We want to be just consultants. And bringing them the right value. From the marketing standpoint, we're really trying to find thought leadership. We're not trying to go in and just hound home a certain product or a certain element of what a company does. We want them to show, “hey, we know exactly what's going on in the market. We know what your needs are before you do. Here's how we hit that”. And so a lot of these people are, they've got all kinds of things going on. Their procurement teams or even their logistics teams have been cut from 10 people to three. But they still have as much, if not more to do based on just the craziness of how our economy's been over the last, you know, 12 to 36 months. And so they've got to get things done quick and they've got to find the right partners to do that with. So when we're bringing them in, we want to be able to show them, TransImpact has already showed us that the GRI for next year is going to be X amount. But did you know what that really means for your organization? Did you know that that's an average? That's not going to impact you the same way it's going to impact company XYZ. Let's dive into that and let's see what that's going to mean for you. So that way you can set your budgets accordingly. And when we're able to go and do that with our marketing teams, put that out there, get people thinking about it, maybe in a way they hadn't before, then we're really doing our job. And so we're looking for those keywords, those things that our sales teams can bring up that are top of mind, that, “hey, have you looked at this? Did you know about this? Because a lot of times that's what they're looking at us for”. Say, “what's going on out there? What do I need to know? And how can I solve these problems?” So a lot of times our marketing teams are really going, again, thought leadership. And then how do we solve those problems?
Laura - 00:19:43:
What's bringing industry experts to your membership, right? So you're almost the go-between and funneling and channeling that information down to your membership.
JJ - 00:19:50:
Yeah, and I think that's something very important that we should spend a little more time talking about. Because when it comes to that whole collaboration of partnerships, one thing that I always find a little surprising, if you will, when we're going to market with some times of new partners or partnerships or companies that lack having a formal ecosystem or alliance of a partnership, is just the power that comes behind these partnerships. You know, at the end of the day, I always use this example to people all the time as I'm speaking. One of the things we always bring up as an example is taxes or lawyers. For example, most of us can go to maybe Intuit or to Credit Karma and do our taxes. But when you start having, you know, an estate or you start having, you know, children.
Conner - 00:20:35:
Complex layers.
JJ - 00:20:36:
Complex layers to that, exactly. You hire an accountant. And when you hire an accountant, I'd be certain that 99% of people aren't challenging their accountant in what they found, right? And so I always look at that.
Laura - 00:20:47:
One would hope not..
JJ - 00:20:48:
Yeah, exactly. I would hope not. I sure am not. But I think when we look at that as well, you know, you hire an attorney for closing costs. You hire an attorney for whatever the case of legal concerns you may be having. You're not going back to the lawyer and telling the lawyer that you're wrong. And I think that's no different when we look at our tour organizations because at the end of the day, while TransImpact has been so successful, we get this question all the time because we're a technology company. And we do have views of the industry end-to-end for supply chain. But we focus on parcel. That's what we focus on. Now, we do have our supply chain planning division as well that we go to market with. But we are parcel experts. We do not want to be freight and LTL experts. That's why we want to partner with freight and LTL companies because they're not parcel experts, but we can provide that additional value add and fills a gap in their service offering to their customers, right? Because their end customers also do parcel and vice versa. And so, Conner, I'd be curious to hear your perspective on how you guys handle sometimes maybe a new member that's come to OMNIA that is not really sure how this whole thing operates when you onboard them. Just the power of essentially stepping aside and trusting us for a bit, right? Not everyone's going to trust you overnight. You're going to have to grow into the summer relationships there. But I think the one thing that would be really fascinating to hear from you is when you're onboarding a new member and you have that person that still thinks that they know better than what the expert in the room can say, how do you get over some of those obstacles on building that trust with that client, taking them to say, listen, I know you're really good at this space, I know this is what you've done, but this isn't what you're waking up to do every day in your role. Someone else is actually the expert in this space and it'd be good to get an outside perspective of it. So could you elaborate a bit on how you looked at some of those objections when you're working with some new partners and customers?
Conner - 00:22:29:
Yeah, I think you hit it right there towards the end is you're waking up and you've got to have all kinds of different categories that you are hitting and you're supposed to know everything about, 10 different 15, 20 different industries, and that's just not possible. A lot of times, like you said, people will initially think you're coming in to do my job, but really we're not. We don't necessarily want the credits. We really just want to put you as the procurement person in a position where you can, you can really hit your goals and show your organization, we're bringing a lot of good information in and we're going to be able to save ourselves some money. We're going to put together a lot of good programs because really that's what they're paid to do. And because our membership, we're paid by our suppliers. We are not paid by our members. So that way they know there's no obligation here. I can check some things out. We usually have a few different programs that we try to put out up there up front and say, “hey, we can save you 15, 20, 25 percent because we know we've done it. We've done it in this industry. We can have you call different members”. So you get that partnership across the different members. They can call each other. There's NDAs in place to make sure that from a data perspective, no one is stealing that, taking that, or using it in a way that they shouldn't be. So a partnership element, we keep talking about that from an OMNIA to supplier, but even our member-to-member portion of that, we all want to see all of us succeed. As you mentioned, we're not nonprofits. We're all here to help each other. I'm sure Laura saw it at our connections event this year with our different suppliers. Everyone's networking. They're talking about what do you do to get past it. Have you dealt with this person? What have you seen in your market that may be applicable to ours. And so when our members are able to talk and they're able to not only say, “hey, give them a chance on this, we found a lot of cost savings”. Then we can come in with our different teams from a data perspective to say, “hey, yep, we can do that”. And then the last thing I'll say on that as well, when we come in, when we talk about our programs are best in market and best in class, they see it pretty quickly because they'll sometimes try to go do it without us, and they realize, they can't get that. And so the credibility that that we bring to our suppliers, but then that our suppliers bring to us. It really becomes a two-way street. And in a lot of cases, it just circles back on itself.
Laura - 00:25:04:
It's funny, there's so many similar themes. Just listening to you talk about your membership and wanting to set your procurement people up for success, right? We want to make our clients the heroes in their company's eyes. So there's a lot of synergy in what you're saying and how we go-to-market with our parcel solution. So it's just fascinating to hear that side of it, especially from the member-to-member side. I can speak, obviously, to the supplier side and having been an attendee at their Connections event. To have a company like OMNIA Partners put on an event to that scale, just focused on suppliers. Talk about thought leadership, unbelievable. So we were really able, I think it was great for us as one of your suppliers to be able to really sit down, soak in what OMNIA Partners is building and to really understand, get in front of just some key decision makers and get some face time with some of the salespeople. You just can't really put a price on that. And it was just really, it was an amazing event in a lot of different ways. But again, to your point earlier, very, very much supplier-focused. So it was really great to have that forum to interact and network.
JJ - 00:26:14:
Yeah, I think we should double down on that because I actually have a bone to pick. And I'm still upset about this, that I was not able to attend OMNIA Connections this year, 2023. I was at Dallas in another off-site this week that it happened. And the entire time Laura's texting me, I have FOMO left and right of exactly what I'm missing.
Laura - 00:26:33:
There were camels. There were camel rides.
JJ - 00:26:35:
I know. And that's all I keep hearing. There were camels, right? But Conner, you've got to take a minute here. I know we're digressing here for a second, but you got to take a minute here to tell the audience exactly of what OMNIA Connections is, what it's all about. Because to Laura's point, it's one thing to say you're the biggest out there, you're the best out there, you're first in class, et cetera. Every company says that going to market, right? And I think a lot of companies, until you really show someone behind that, the actions that you take and the pure breadth and depth and volume and reach that someone like OMNIA Partners has, it's tremendous to see that in one of those effects as a partnership. So, Conner, you got to take a second and tell the audience all about OMNIA Connections. You got to touch on some of the ridiculous things that you guys had there. As I've said before, I cannot imagine your CFO every time he sees the budget of what OMNIA Connections is going to cost him. When the event planner comes in and puts that on, and damn, it obviously works because they keep having every single year.
Laura – 00:27:31:
And we keep going.
JJ – 00:27:32:
And we keep going and we will continue to keep going. And it's blocked on my calendar for next year already. But Conner, please elaborate a little bit. I'd love for you to tell the audience what OMNIA Connections is all about, some of the guest speakers you had there, and really what the intent is for that for all your suppliers and attendants.
Conner - 00:27:46:
Absolutely. The biggest thing is networking. We want our suppliers to be able to talk not only to each other, but to our sales teams. We want to show off the different resources that we have. As you mentioned, everyone says they're the biggest, they're the baddest, all of that, but we really want to showcase the depth that we have across our resources. As a GPO, the pricing element of things is table stakes. If you don't have that, then you're just not even in the conversation. So we already know we have that and we can put that to use with our members and with our suppliers, but what else can we do? And so we have breakouts with our sales enablement and training teams. So that way, we're always in the market, whether it's our sales teams, whether it's this team in particular, they're going out and figuring out what procurement needs, what their objections are going to be, and then how do we then take that to our suppliers? So that way they understand if I encounter this situation, How can I get past that? So that way, as Laura said, we can get through some of those questions and our KPIs are going to match up there. Then you've got obviously our sales teams, which we have the biggest in the industry, and it really shows the relationships that they have and they can bring our suppliers into. So there's a lot of networking there, talking with our different suppliers. There's a whole session called Ask Us Anything, where it's just going to each other, talking, “hey, where are the best targets? Where can we talk to? Who do you have relationships with? And where can we help?” Then you throw in some other areas where we're trying to really push the envelope around data, not only data usage, but data visibility. So we had guest speakers from SpendHQ. We had some guest speakers from a couple of members who talked about, “hey, what are they doing? What are they seeing in the market? What do they want moving forward”? So that way everyone has an idea around that. And then we just tell everyone, “hey, where are we going just as a company?” We're not going to stop growing organically. Or with M&A activity, and we want everyone on board with going forward. That's the business side of things. And then you've got great speakers. We had one talking about leadership and he connected it to the 50th anniversary of hip hop and how, how that all intertwines.
Laura – 00:30:00:
We're all rappers.
Conner -00:30:01:
Yeah, that was an interesting one. We have, and then there's some good time stuff too. We've got, because we want everyone to enjoy it. We want everyone to, it's a way to thank our suppliers for being so all in and so lockstep with us. Jay Leno came and talked and did a lot of monologue kind of stuff, which was great. As Laura mentioned, we had one nightly reception where you could do a camel ride. It was a Sonoran Desert theme. And we actually were out in the desert outside of Scottsdale. And they had snake charmers and a couple other things.
Laura - 00:30:34:
It was nuts.
Conner - 00:30:35:
We go all out for that kind of stuff. Live music.
JJ - 00:30:38:
I heard next year you may be one of the snake charmers in the room next year. Is that true?
Conner - 00:30:43:
Oh, me and snakes do not mix. So we're going to stay as far outside of that room as possible.
JJ - 00:30:50:
I love it. So let's transition a bit just to one other topic. As we talked about standing up some of these partnerships. So Laura, you're in the day-to-day with our partners today. You know, when we stand up and find new partnerships, there's obviously a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into all the due-diligence involved, understanding if someone is the right partner, if there's a right fit and synergy there. And then the work just gets even harder when someone becomes a partner because you got to stay engaged. I think everyone thinks it stops there that I have this partnership and now all of a sudden lead flow and revenue generation and all these things happen. But it's like a marriage or any type of relationship. You got to work at it, right? You have to have those conversations. You got to hold each other accountable for these types of things. So, it would be really great if you could share some of the key things and challenges that you see, not so much when you're finding the partnerships, because that's the honeymoon stage. Everyone's very happy and blissful at that point in time. But once you're standing these things up and you have a cadence set with them, and you're going through quarterly business reviews, and you're going through the marketing plan, and you're going through where we're at today, are we on plan, are we off plan, what are things that we can be doing to service you and your customers better? What are some of those things that are really the biggest challenges that you focus and spend most of your time on?
Laura - 00:32:00:
I mean, to your point, not all partnerships are successful. I think we can all be honest and say that. I think, obviously, doing the due-diligence on the front end, making sure there is alignment. And then once we get the partnership up and running, engagement is always going to be you know, number one priority for us, making sure that our partners remain engaged, that we're providing. That to a counter's point, thought leadership that's valuable to their client base or to, in OMNIA Partners' case, their membership. And then it's really, you've got to have a cadence that makes sense. Whether it is we typically do pipeline reviews every other week. Quarterly business reviews, year end reviews. Um, campaigns, I think that's something we've gotten better at in our partnership with OMNIA, is building out campaigns. Making sure we have a roadmap for the year so that we are constantly, touching base, if we feel like we're slipping a little bit, I know that we've had some conversations when we're like, all right, do we need to ready set on a couple of things, making sure that we remain tracking towards plan. Because obviously, just speaking from OMNIA Partners and our relationship there, I know you guys have plans for your suppliers. We want to make sure we're hitting those KPIs for you as well. So it is an understanding, I think having a key point person, obviously with OMNIA, it's Conner, he and I work very closely together. And I think to have a successful partnership, you've got to have somebody that wants to, that is at least owning it on the backend, that there's a go-to, it's not maybe one week or one quarter, it's one person, another person, another quarter, but really having somebody that is a true strategic partner that you are communicating with regularly, not just sending blast emails or things out of your CRM. It's really about more than that. It is providing, again, that thought leadership making sure that we're providing collateral and training. Those are key. There's turnover in any company, any partnership, you'll have turnover. So let's make sure that we get out in front of your new sales members, your sales team, Conner, to your point, and make sure we're updating on them on our offering and what TransImpact has to offer to their members. So those are key things. And we're trying to build that out now as an annual plan, right? So we're not being reactive, we're being proactive. And I think that is so key to make sure that these partnerships, A, not only that we get them stood up, but that they are successful and thriving.
Conner - 00:34:30:
And I'll add too onto some things that Laura has really done well with our program where, one, transparency is so key. We have to be communicating, but also telling each other everything, right? We can't be holding things back. We've got to make sure that everyone understands what's going on at all times. So Laura does an incredible job at that. And then, two, you know, it's, obviously you start from a very high level. But then it's going into those deeper levels, getting more targeted, getting more specific. And so Laura's done a great job of, hey, rather than going with that shotgun approach, how can we really narrow down our focus into this area or that area that we know is going to make an impact and focusing on the right activities always leads to the right outcomes.
JJ - 00:35:13:
And you both touched on it so importantly. I mean, a partnership is evolving. It's not a static relationship. It is a dynamic relationship, and it's continually evolving. Any supplier or any third-party vendor is always having day-to-day updates in their go-to-market offerings, particularly if you're a SaaS or a product company. You have new product enhancements. You have new training. You have new education. And you have to make sure that your partners are well-equipped to go out there and communicate those changes in the market because if not, now they're stale and they're behind the scenes and they're lagged in the market. So I think it's so critical that as we're standing up partnerships or for anyone who's looking to stand up partnerships and how to double down, you've got to make sure that it's not proposed and agreed upon by one side. It’s got to be very concrete of this is our plan. This is what we agreed upon. And we have to stick plan to that. Because if we're not sticking according to plan, then we can't measure it. We can't measure what works. We can't measure what doesn't work. And then once again, you have no clue on how to monitor and measure that ongoing success that you're having. So I saw a stat the other day, as we transition to this next piece around partnerships and the failure of partnerships. We talked about this at our VIP event when I was speaking and talking about, again, the important shifts or anyone looking to scale and bring on an ecosystem of partners and alliances. According to a Gartner research recently, 60 to 65%, depending on the industry, 60 to 65% of partnerships fail because they didn't understand and they had a lack of awareness of the objectives at the partnership level. And I think it goes back to driving home everything we've talked today, right? Of having that clear cut communication and that framework that's built for success or the blueprint, as I like to call it, of how we're going to run a partnership. So Conner, in closing, I'd be curious to understand from you your view on the growth of partnerships and where you see this thing going. You know, as I alluded to earlier, we're seeing company after company after company standing up the arm for their partnership teams. And I think most organizations would agree that the partnership channel for their firm in most cases is the largest revenue generator of their company. And if not, then it's pretty close and it's putting their team on second or third base because they're having the relationships to those end customers through that partnership. So where do you see strategic partnerships growing in the market today, Conner? It would be great to just understand your viewpoint personally, OMNIA as well, and how you guys are looking at the evolution of some of these partnerships and where you think the importance is going to be over the next few years in the market.
Conner - 00:37:41:
Yeah, I think it's only going to get more and more important. I think what we're realizing within each company, I think most of the companies I've been at, you start to see folks trying to really hone in and become, not siloed, but you want them to be able to become specifically industry experts at one thing. At big companies from a procurement standpoint, you can't do that, right? There's just so many different areas to go. So they need to find someone who can be that person for them. And so the only way to do that is to find the right partners for that. Because as you mentioned, you guys are the experts on parcel. You're not trying to do all this other stuff because that's what you do best. And so you can show a lot of value to a lot of different people by doing that. And I think that that's going to only become more and more important. As we look further into getting better and better data out there, All of these different procurement staffs and just companies in general are wanting to drill down further into what it all means and how they can find more and more value as they get more specific on things. And that's something that we are continually looking at. How can we be better at that? And then how can our partners help us with that? So that's only going to continue to get better and better. I mentioned again, transparency. It's huge. We've got to be able to share, hey, what are your goals? What are my goals? What are you seeing in the market? What do you know? What do you have going on? Oh, have you heard this? Have you heard that? So that way we can be able to pivot if need be, or we're going to know that our strategy is going to be successful. And then incentive wise, you have to incent the right behaviors. And I think that that is an ever ongoing partnership portion of this and communication portion of our partnership. You've got to understand what drives the right behaviors, if there are any unintended consequences, and how you course correct from there. So it's only going to continue to become more important as companies people in general become more sophisticated. I know we've all heard, of consumers being more educated due to the Amazon effect and some other areas of just the internet. So how do we continue to be ahead of that forefront? And it's through partnerships.
JJ - 00:39:53:
I think this is exactly, once again, proving why we've been so successful with OMNIA over the past few years. And what's even so amazing to see is we're just scratching the surface. You know, OMNIA has been an amazing partner for us. And I think, you know, the relationship has been very two-sided. And that's what we want in partnerships. And so with that, I think there's been a lot of things that we've discussed today on how we can look to continue to grow these partnerships, how TransImpact views them, how OMNIA views these partnerships, etc. So Conner, in closing, I think it'd be great if you could tell everybody how they could find OMNIA Partners, how they can look to get involved with yourself and OMNIA Partners, and where they could really look to get engaged if they want to have a further on conversation with you on how to be a part of your team.
Conner - 00:40:31:
Absolutely. So www.omniapartners.com is our website. If you're looking to become a member, there's a button there, and we also have a button for becoming a supplier. We've got a full business development team that works through all of those kinds of relationships. So that's the best way to get in touch with us. And then from there, we will develop the right plans that are going to grow our business together. And really get that great communication like we have with TransImpact today.
JJ - 00:40:57:
Well, Conner, thanks again for your time. For those listening, we really appreciate you tuning in today's episode of the Power of Strategic Partnerships. Again, Conner Reed, Senior Director, Partner Development at Omnia Partners. Thanks again for joining. JJ Jeffries, Vice President of Channel Strategy. Laura Zimmerman, thanks so much again for joining us. We hope you tune in again next time.