Symptom: The organization does not proactively connect clients who need to work together and help them form consortia, and then apply the organization's products to support their collaboration.
Such shared applications can offer clients a new level of strategic value.
When clients have a common need and are willing to compromise their unique requirements a bit in order to share the costs of a solution, or when clients need to share a product in order to work together, the organization may offer a single solution to satisfy a number of clients. This situation is construed to be a "consortium" of clients together buying and owning a single solution.
Note that organization may also build custom modules tailored to the unique needs of individual clients on top of the shared core solution. Such projects are outside the scope of the consortium.
To operate successfully, members of a consortium must come to agreement among themselves before giving direction to the organization. They must understand who is in the consortium at any point in time. Successful consortia have explicit rules that determine who may join, how a party may drop out, how decisions are made, and who pays what share of the bills.
The organization should play a proactive role in forming consortia, and in facilitating them on an ongoing basis to help them speak with one voice. Consortium facilitation is an explicit product of (internal) Sales. It ensures that a consensus is reached prior to approaching the rest of the organization.
Assuming an internal client liaison (Sales) function exists, they may lack an understanding of their product line and how to deliver it.
Root cause: Methods and tools, consortium facilitation copyright 2024 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc. All rights reserved.
