There is a significant chance that your business relationships will last longer than the average marriage. So, needless to say, choose your partners wisely. A couple of months ago, I wrote the opinion piece “How do you avoid the race towards the bottom as an MVNO?”. The advice I shared is based on my experience from talking to a myriad of MVNO founders and from selling platform services to the MVNO industry myself. I’ve learned a thing or two, and sharing is caring, so here we go again.
In the previous piece, I focused on differentiating from the competition by asking yourself some simple but crucial questions. This is to craft a clear and unique value proposition that gives you the right foundation to differentiate from your competition and position you for success. So, let’s say that you have a clear and unique value proposition, then what? Now, it is time for you to decide who to work with to bring your baby to life.
The first thing to acknowledge is that no one will care as much about this MVNO business as you do. However, what you can do is to make sure to partner with people who share your vision and ambition and have a good business sense. To launch an MVNO, you need to first and foremost decide on what type of partners you need from a product and operational standpoint. The first thing I would recommend you do once you’ve chosen your network provider is to find the right MVNE partner. The MVNE can help you identify other third parties you might need and serves as the foundation for your offering that all other vendors plug into. MVNO index has made it easy for you to compare MVNEs on their page to make sure you have a selection to choose from. Remember, we want you to find the right partner that fits your needs commercially, technically, and operationally to ensure that this “marriage” is successful.
Many people I talk to go through partner sourcing as a necessary evil with a mindset that is a bit too simplistic. As an MVNO founder, it is critical that you understand the ins and outs of your business and what it takes to run it in terms of product. If you don’t, you will not ask the right questions during the sourcing, and you risk ending up with partners that do not fit your needs. This is also where you must define your value proposition properly from the beginning. As a vendor, it is hard to know if you are fulfilling the needs of your potential client if they can’t formulate what it is they want to launch.
Once you’ve identified this, it is time to source partners within each field. There is no silver bullet here, and all sourcing processes are different. Below, I summarize my top three tips for increasing your chances of finding a good match.
1. Who you do business with is more important than what they offer
Don’t get me wrong, it is of course critical that you partner with companies that offer what you need from a product perspective in terms of innovation and product maturity. However, do not neglect the importance of the people behind the service and the level of cooperation they will offer. People do business with people, and a client of mine once said something that stuck with me:
“You need to choose who you want on the other side when things get tough.”
With the right people, you can overcome any challenge, and you will have more fun. You can be confident that there are things you have not thought about, and in that case, you want partners who work with you to solve problems that arise.
2. Don’t just scrape the surface; dig deeper to see true capabilities
You must take the time to truly understand what each vendor offers so that you get a proper understanding of the capabilities. If you only judge the book by its cover, you risk missing out on critical functionality under the hood. Here, it is, of course, the vendors’ responsibility to ensure that you fully understand their offering. However, it is your responsibility to allow time for a holistic product review and to ask many questions. Remember that demos usually only show the UX side of things. To get a proper view of a software product, you need to dig into the documentation.
3. Compare apples and apples both commercially and technically
A common pitfall is comparing vendors one to one, although there might be fundamental differences in the product offering and operational setup, among others. This means you quickly risk comparing apples and pears and ultimately purchase based on the wrong criteria. However, if you’ve done your homework in tip number two, the risk of this happening is reduced. Scope creep and hidden costs are common in software sales, so comparing apples to apples is crucial. Make sure that you have a clear understanding of all associated costs in your procurement.
I hope the above will help guide you in the right direction so that you end up in a long and happy marriage. At the end of the day, it all comes down to gut feeling who you want to do business with. But it is always good to nudge the gut in the right direction.
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