In many channels, salespeople and other customer-facing professionals go to market with people outside their own organization. These can include technology partners, affiliates, and consultants. The person with whom you may be co-selling represents an affiliate or third-party partner company that fills a gap in your firm’s product, solution, or service offering. So how does co-selling with a third party affect your efforts to put together a winning selling squad?

The short answer: Unless you have worked together before, it will probably make it tougher. Why? Well, recall all that’s involved in building a group, transforming them into a team, and then preparing for, executing on, and following up from an effective client or prospect meeting. We’ve talked already about how tough it is to gain trust and work effectively with people outside your own little slice of the organization. Working with external partners is even more extreme, when you consider the differences in corporate culture, philosophies, goals, skill level, sales process, willingness, and/or ability to commit time to fully get in sync with your team.

Creating a Team with External Partners

The first question you face with external partners or affiliates is whether they should be part of the selling squad’s core or extended team. Go through the same assessment you would with an internal colleague to determine whether their presence at the meeting is necessary and material. If not, is it possible that they could contribute to your core team’s efforts by supplying information, insights, and materials? Perhaps this would allow someone on your team to explain that partner’s capabilities and how that partner would be integrated into your overall offer.

Leveraging the Tools

Let’s say you’ve decided that someone from that partner or affiliate company needs to be part of the meeting and, as a result, part of your core team. Since that person will be part of your selling squad, how would you adapt the process for knowledge leveling, planning, and practice you do with internal partners?

   Knowledge leveling: It is fair to question just how much knowledge leveling you can or should do with someone outside your organization, someone who might at some point be a competitor, someone who may not be covered under any nondisclosure agreements your organization has executed. If you want them to make the desired impact on the meeting, however, that person needs to come prepared. That person doesn’t need to see all your account planning work, just what is essential for him or her to play the desired role. And be careful to not overshare information your organization has worked hard to gain.

Information on the buying organization and opportunity will help the person. You might consider holding back your responses to the four qualifying questions and past relationships.

   Planning: You will recall you now have planners to help you coordinate people, materials, and team touchpoints. Your external partners should certainly know who else will be on your team. They can and should also play a part in your team’s discussion on what materials, including presentation pages and agreements, should be developed. And they should be included in team touchpoints so their presence and comments can be aligned with the group’s through the preparation, execution, and follow-up stages of the process. Depending on the nature of your relationship with this partner or affiliate, you may want to hold back sharing information on the customer stakeholders, where they fit into their organization, and how they figure into the decision-making body.

   Practice: Your partner should be included in all practices—including Organize, Practice, and Re-group meetings—if your goal is for them to be seen by the customer as a cohesive part of your team and offer. You might consider carving out an insiders-only part of your team touchpoints, so that you can (1) coach the other team members on what should and shouldn’t be shared with your external partner and (2) share information among each other without constraints.

External partners may fill a gap that would otherwise prevent you from competing for the business. That’s the upside. What’s required to capture this upside is the added time and effort it may take you to ensure their contributions help you win the pitch, while making certain that you stay in control of the opportunity.