An Alliance Manager is a professional who plays a crucial role in building and managing strategic alliances and partnerships for an organization. They are responsible for fostering collaborative relationships with external entities to drive business growth and achieve shared objectives. In this blog post, we will explore the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for Alliance Managers.

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Main Responsibilities of an Alliance Manager

The following list describes the typical responsibilities of an Alliance Manager:

Accelerate

Accelerate account growth via joint go-to-market plans with partners.

Advise

Advise parties on how obligations should be implemented based on best practices.

Advocate

Advocate for the partner internally and for the business needs externally with the partner.

Align

Align technology roadmaps.

Anticipate

Anticipate and manage upcoming changes in projects or stakeholders.

Assess

Assess and mitigate risks associated with alliances.

Assist in

Assist in preparing Request for Proposal (RFP) / POC.

Attend

Attend and work trade shows and partner events including booths and public speaking.

Build

• Build and execute the GTM plan globally.

• Build and maintain activity and performance reports and dashboards.

• Build and manage a comprehensive multi-year business plan with named partner(s).

• Build trust, influence and leverage within partner organization.

Check

Check out recruiting tips from Deloitte professionals.

Collaborate

• Collaborate and lead to create a multi-year global alliance business plan.

• Collaborate closely with alliance leadership on consultant enablement and pursuit support.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure successful alliance implementation.

• Collaborate with legal and finance teams to ensure compliance with legal and financial obligations.

• Collaborate with Marketing to promote partners' solutions and showcase use cases we enable.

• Collaborate with the Phocas Sales Consultants on closing new business generated through partnerships.

Complete

Complete virtual reviews (QA & Performance Lab).

Conduct

• Conduct day-to-day program management with relevant internal and SISO stakeholders.

• Conduct regular meetings and reviews with alliance partners to foster collaboration and alignment.

• Conduct regular performance evaluations and provide feedback to alliance partners.

• Conduct regular reviews and assessments of alliance performance.

Construct

Construct and schedule quarterly executive alliance.

Contribute to

• Contribute and drive regional quarterly business reviews (QBR).

• Contribute to the overall alliance strategy and vision of the organization.

• Contribute towards our technical strategy and development of our value messaging for your companies.

Coordinate with

• Coordinate expertise and document requests.

• Coordinate joint marketing and promotional activities with alliance partners.

• Coordinate with colleagues to ensure collateral is up-to-date.

• Coordinate with E&A Liaisons to track and drive sector-based GTM plans.

Create

Create guidelines as needed, e.g., guidelines on document sharing, process to review key documents.

Define

• Define a clear go-to-market strategy with alliance partners.

• Define and track key performance metrics for alliances.

Design

Design strategy and execute growth with Alliances that support CloudFactory's strategic goals.

Determine

Determine opportunities and threats through comprehensive analysis of current and future trends.

Develop

• Develop a business plan and overall strategy with each partner.

• Develop and deliver training programs to enhance alliance capabilities.

• Develop and execute a global partner enablement plan.

• Develop and implement alliance strategies aligned with the organization's goals.

• Develop and maintain review package for business to approve before payment to Alliance partner.

• Develop and manage alliance performance dashboards and reports.

• Develop and track metrics for measuring partner business and success.

• Develop product sales & marketing collateral (Product, Marketing).

• Develop product sales & marketing collateral together with Product Marketing.

Direct

Direct and Influence Revenue.

Drive

• Drive C-level, Product Team, Marketing, Field and Channel relationships.

• Drive compliance to guidelines, e.g., manage data room.

• Drive continuous improvement and innovation within alliances.

• Drive execution in concert with global ecosystem resources.

• Drive execution in concert with regional / AMER ecosystem resources.

• Drive influence and partner sourced deals with defined partners in order to achieve quota.

• Drive monthly, quarterly, and annual progress against strategic goals within the plan.

• Drive partner sourced deals with defined partners in order to achieve quota.

• Drive performance, solution, and enablement aspects of the reviews.

• Drive product, BU and services roadmap discussions with partner.

• Drive revenue generation within the Regional Alliances partner ecosystem in Japan.

• Drive VMware business acumen, training and competency within partner.

Earn

Earn trust and maintain confidences.

Engage

• Engage leaders with the vision to speak and showcase Nvidia Technology at industry events.

• Engage with a diverse portfolio of partners in numerous ecosystems to create new sales opportunities.

• Engage with leaders with the vision to speak and showcase NV Technology at industry events.

Ensure

• Ensure effective knowledge transfer and relationship management during alliance transitions or changes.

• Ensure local systems properly reflect Alliance opex for current periods.

• Ensure monthly accruals reflect latest sales forecast.

• Ensure successful execution of the plan.

• Ensure that Grants Management best practices are followed.

• Ensure that key wins are recorded, tracked and communicated to the field.

• Ensure that training requirements are met.

Establish

• Establish and maintain clear and consistent alliance reporting.

• Establish and maintain relationship across assigned partner portfolio.

• Establish and maintain relationships with alliance partners.

• Establish KPMG as the partner's preferred GTM vendor platform across all product and service lines.

• Establish NVIDIA positioning and vision by speaking and showcasing NV Technology at industry events.

• Establish process and timing to support exchange of required financial data.

Evangelize

• Evangelize partners and the opportunities they present by injecting partner DNA into Okta.

• Evangelize the GSI Route, as well as VMware products and GTM Solutions from our Alliance Partners.

• Evangelize the SISO Route, as well as VMware products and GTM Solutions from our Alliance Partners.

Execute

• Execute in an intense, fast-paced, and highly iterative environment.

• Execute, manage and deliver AMER pipeline and co-sell revenue (ACV) with our Agencies.

Explore

Explore and design options / approaches.

Facilitate

• Facilitate and co-ordinate go-to-market and internal supporting resources (incl.

• Facilitate and support preparation for internal and external program reviews.

• Facilitate effective communication and coordination between internal teams and alliance partners.

• Facilitate knowledge sharing and best practice exchange among alliance partners.

• Facilitate QBRs, joint team alignment, and other engagement activities as needed.

• Facilitate the onboarding, training and enablement of new partners.

Help

• Help build consulting and services practices around these areas.

• Help develop new Deep Learning Institute courses that can onboard developers to our SDKs.

Host

• Host an annual deep learning developers summit.

• Host an annual Parabricks Toolkit developers summit.

• Host developer, engineering, and product user group meetings.

Identify

• Identify and evaluate potential alliance opportunities.

• Identify and leverage synergies between the organization and alliance partners.

• Identify, recruit and onboard - new channel partners.

• Identify target accounts and sign off with AMER sales and PwC leadership.

• Identify target accounts and sign off with AMER sales (CBU & EBU) and partner leadership.

• Identify target accounts and sign off with AMER sales Operating Units and partner leadership.

• Identify target accounts and sign off with global sales and partner leadership.

Implement

Implement communication plans to promote effective dialogue among all team members.

Increase

Increase VMWare's Annual Contract Value (ACV) influenced by our partners.

Keep

Keep project milestones / deliverables on track, monitoring and identifying at-risk deliverables.

Lead

• Lead and grow our go-to-market partnership with our Indian SISOs.

• Lead and grow our go-to-market partnership with our SISOs.

• Lead cross-functional teams in the execution of joint projects or initiatives.

• Lead efforts to increase alignment, mutual understanding, and trust between parties.

• Lead participation in targeted customer and industry developer events and activities.

• Lead product launch events.

• Lead programmatically early access evaluation and integration (Engineering, Product).

• Lead the day-to-day relationships between WorkJam and our Strategic Alliance Partners.

• Lead the execution and track the progress towards our mutual goals.

Leverage

• Leverage strategic systems integrators in region to ensure coverage in Named and Enterprise accounts.

• Leverage technology alliances partners to drive joint pipeline.

Maintain

• Maintain a current understanding of the digital transformation market and its dynamics.

• Maintain focus on the principles, spirit, and strategic aspects of the collaborations.

• Maintain this standard in all forms of written communication including email.

Manage

• Manage and close a pipeline of customer opportunities associated with assigned partners.

• Manage and grow our reputation with partners.

• Manage and report pipeline on regular basis.

• Manage and resolve conflicts or issues that may arise within alliances.

• Manage complex contract negotiations and serve as a liaison to the legal group.

• Manage partner relationships across their entire lifecycle from onboarding to ongoing success.

• Manage the consulting alliance budget specific to your alliance.

Meet

Meet partner sales and business plan targets.

Monitor

• Monitor and evaluate competitor alliances and partnerships.

• Monitor and manage alliance budgets and financials.

• Monitor industry trends and competitive landscape to identify new partnership opportunities.

• Monitor, influence and enforce payments, audit requirements and contractual compliance with partners.

• Monitor KPIs generated from supplier and quality organizations.

Negotiate

Negotiate and finalize partnership agreements and contracts.

Oversee

Oversee the creation and delivery of accurate weekly, quarterly, annual forecasts and account plans.

Participate in

• Participate in conversations around ecosystem development activities that include your alliance.

• Participate in global coordination as required.

Partner

Partner business strengths and direction within marketplace.

Perform

• Perform quarterly in-depth FTE analysis for Alliance calculation.

• Perform regular partner "Health Checks” to ensure continuous, smooth interactions.

Plan

• Plan and organize face-to-face meetings with external collaborators.

• Plan scope and feature set of programs with partners.

Prepare

• Prepare and give business reviews to the senior management team.

• Prepare and present business reviews to the senior management team of both organizations.

• Prepare and reports metrics for monitoring case quality.

• Prepare monthly Alliance out of pocket summaries that get shared with our Alliance partner.

Provide

• Provide clear and organized reporting regarding partner activities and results.

• Provide Partners with training on VMware products and services.

• Provide regular reports on KPIs and / or our Strategy.

• Provide strategic guidance to alliance partners based on market insights and industry trends.

• Provide support and oversight to marketing campaign and event execution.

Recruit

Recruit, enable, and manage a set of regional resell and referral partners in assigned territory.

Refresh

Refresh monthly P&L's in the multiple finance systems and ensure all reconcile.

Represent

Represent the organization at industry events and conferences related to alliances.

Resolve

• Resolve and distill features requests into measurable engineering and product steering.

• Resolve and distill features requests into relevant engineering and product steering.

Review

Review sales play metrics / effectiveness on recurring basis with Partner teams.

Stay informed about

• Stay informed about emerging technologies or trends that may impact alliances.

• Stay updated on industry regulations and compliance requirements related to alliances.

Support

• Support cross-functional teams throughout the project life cycle (planning and execution).

• Support key practice meetings and to ensure that they are scheduled and occur on a regular basis.

• Support Lead Brand controller in sales price volume calculations.

• Support Opex Controllers where needed in tactic level details.

• Support the development and execution of joint marketing campaigns and initiatives.

Track

• Track progress, including coordinating definition and reporting of KPIs.

• Track record of having and achieving channel / alliance quotas.

• Track record of successfully owning, driving and managing partnerships against quarterly targets.

Travel

Travel to various Channel Partner offices / venues for meetings, events and trainings.

Understand

• Understand and improve the offering of long-life and services agreements.

• Understand partner needs and track field feedback to input into product strategy and development.

• Understand the competitive landscape of Google Cloud Platform.

Work with

• Work closely with sales to facilitate joint partner opportunities and drive new business.

• Work closely with the partner's customer base to ensure they are successfully using AWS services.

• Work on client proposals, negotiating Teaming Agreements.

• Work with marketing to develop plans that support the partner network and generate deal flow.

• Work with Okta sales teams to embed Okta SLED partners in the strategic account process.

• Work with partner sales teams to keep Okta "front and center” for appropriate opportunities.

Write

Write technical blogs and developer news articles to evangelize new features to developers.

Most In-demand Hard Skills

The following list describes the most required technical skills of an Alliance Manager:

1. Business development and partnership management.

2. Contract negotiation and legal understanding.

3. Financial analysis and budget management.

4. Project management and planning.

5. Market research and competitive analysis.

6. Strategic planning and business acumen.

7. Data analysis and reporting.

8. Relationship management and networking.

9. Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder engagement.

10. Risk assessment and management.

11. Knowledge of industry regulations and compliance.

12. Proficiency in CRM and collaboration tools.

13. Familiarity with intellectual property and licensing.

14. Understanding of technology trends and emerging markets.

15. Proficiency in contract management software.

16. Analytical thinking and problem-solving.

17. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.

18. Familiarity with financial modeling and forecasting.

19. Presentation and public speaking skills.

20. Familiarity with project management software.

Most In-demand Soft Skills

The following list describes the most required soft skills of an Alliance Manager:

1. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

2. Relationship building and networking.

3. Collaboration and teamwork.

4. Influencing and negotiation.

5. Adaptability and flexibility.

6. Strategic thinking and planning.

7. Leadership and decision-making.

8. Emotional intelligence and empathy.

9. Conflict resolution and problem-solving.

10. Cultural awareness and sensitivity.

Conclusion

Alliance Managers play a vital role in driving successful partnerships and alliances for organizations. With a combination of hard skills such as business development, contract negotiation, and financial analysis, along with essential soft skills like communication, collaboration, and strategic thinking, Alliance Managers are equipped to navigate the complexities of alliance management. Their responsibilities include identifying partnership opportunities, negotiating agreements, fostering relationships, monitoring performance, and driving collaboration among internal and external stakeholders.