Winning Together through Shared Success

Since our kindergarten days, we’ve heard about the importance of sharing. Sharing is caring. Of course, during childhood, sharing is often taught in the context of toys or books, but as it turns out, the very same lessons can be applied to business.

The sharing of goals, objectives, pain points, and plans—and importantly the achievement of such things—is what makes a relationship between a supplier and buyer successful. Unfortunately, that exchange happens far less than you would think.

While companies talk a good game about collaboration, partnership and shared success, when it comes down to it, supplier/buyer relationships are often one-sided. They simply lack a way to define and manage a shared set of goals or measure and hold each other accountable to outcome achievement.

The result? Similar to what happens when a child refuses to share with a newfound friend, the relationship becomes rocky. When a buyer doesn’t have proof that a supplier understands their desired outcomes and is delivering value against them, the result is ambiguity and doubt. And wherever there’s doubt, the longevity of the relationship is in question.

Suppliers and Buyers Winning Together

The only way to ensure healthy supplier/buyer relationships is by ensuring both sides share the same definition of success and work together to achieve the desired outcomes. In practice, this takes the form of a shared success plan that keeps both parties accountable and focused on the goals, milestones, metrics and action plans to unlock the full potential of the relationship.

If you’re just getting started, a shared success plan should:

• Outline the desired outcomes that both parties are working towards in a shared space that everyone can access.
• Specify the specific steps that the supplier and buyer will take to ensure outcome achievement.
• Have a means of measuring outcome progression.
• Create mutual accountability by setting deadlines and establishing ownership around key action items.
• Provide all relevant parties visibility into outcome attribution and product impact over time.

How MetaCX Facilitates Shared Success

The concept of a shared success plan sounds great in theory, but there’s always the question of how to create one in real life. That’s where MetaCX fits in. MetaCX provides a shared space where suppliers and buyers come together to define and manage mutual success plans informed by real-time performance data. This enables more profitable, longer lasting B2B relationships built on a culture and practice of mutual success.

Need an example? Below is an illustrated story of Pharma Co., a well known pharmaceutical provider by another name, that partners with providers and payers around three primary outcomes. MetaCX provides a shared space for the pharma company and its partners to define and measure outcomes together, align around mutual action plans, and share data in real time.

To prove value has been delivered, MetaCX provides a real-time data integration layer that allows suppliers to instrument any application, system or digital endpoint and to surface these insights, not just as data, but as the indicators of health and progress of the relationship and proof of performance against target outcomes.

For too long, B2B relationships have failed to meet their potential. If you’re ready to transform your business through the power of sharing, let MetaCX help. Request a demo today!