10 Best Practices For Successful Freelance Partnerships

There’s no doubt about the value of partnerships in growing a freelance marketplace. Recent research points out that successful companies often rely on their relationships with other marketplaces as a key source of new leads. Within the larger SaaS community partnerships and event participation are described as among the highest impact growth channels.

In the freelance economy, partnerships involve a variety of different relationships: with vendors, influencers, tech providers, investors, and with other ecosystem relationships such as fintechs, industry associations of various kinds, and of course platforms building sales or service alliances with other platforms. For example, a tech marketplace might suggest a partnership with a marketing services or independent management consulting focused platform, each complementing the other’s expertise and able to provide this to a client on an “on demand” basis. This last focal area – building successful and resilient partnerships between platforms – is the topic of this article.

What do successful partnerships between freelance marketplaces or platforms have in common? The Freelancer First Study Team, a collaboration of freelance CEOs and executives from the Middle East, Central and Western Europe, UK, US and Latam, weighed in on this question and a Forbes survey article resulted. Based on that work and other research, ten best practices are offered:

1. Value the relationship as a strategic asset, not a transactional sales channel. When a platform refers a client to another platform or marketplace, whether the project is large or small, it is a gift and an invitation. The value of success in serving someone else’s client is doubled when one builds a reputation as a good partner; it attracts opportunity and other partners. Conversely, managing the relationship poorly, or inconsistently, similarly doubles the platforms’ poor reputation. Smart freelance executives treat referrals and partner interest as the rare and wonderful things they are.

2. Practice transparency and openness as essential building-blocks of successful partnerships. Trust is crucial and transparency is the circulatory system of trust. Example. A well-known platform referred one of their key clients to another, less well-known, platform and earned a commission for their effort. But trust was nicked when the receiving platform refused to share their pricing, and further eroded when they only reluctantly took the time to share updates and held back important information. Transparency in communication is ultimately an act of respect. Trust is built on respect. And respect is best demonstrated through authenticity, openness, and a willingness to share both good and bad news. Social psychological research shows that most people prefer to avoid sharing unpleasant news. Good partners speak up anyway.

3. Ensure incentives are doing their job. Partnerships often fall apart over poorly thought through, misaligned, or too one-sided incentives. Psychology research suggests two relevant tests: Is the incentive attractive enough to motivate the right actions, and equitable enough to avoid conflict based on feelings of inequity? Prof Warren Bennis characterized the goal as “stakeholder symmetry,” which for Bennis meant finding the right balance of competing benefits among the partners. But keep in mind Aristotle’s famous saying: “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.”

4. Clearly define the relationship owner on both sides, their role, and the right candidate. All relationship run into problem from time to time. Smart leaders establish clear roles and responsibilities to nurture the partnership, expand it where and when possible, and protect it from inattention, ignorance, and abuse. The right candidate is less of a “hunter” than “farmer,” as Professor David Maister would say. Like the client relationship manager in service industries, they must find personal meaning from the work of helping partnerships to succeed and have the skills and authority to act as facilitator, communicator, problem solver, and negotiator.

5. Spend the time required to understand shared goals and concerns. Win/lose relationships don’t last long or well and, when they last, they don’t achieve as much as they might in a win/win arrangement. The starting point is a full understanding of each organization’s motivations and fears. US President Abraham Lincoln once opined, “If I have eight hours to cut down a tree, I will spend the first six sharpening my saw.” In a recent McKinsey report, alignment on objectives and effective communication and trust were most often present when joint ventures succeeded, and most often absent when joint ventures failed.

6. Pilot and work out the kinks. In carpentry the rule is “measure twice, cut once.” It ought to be a useful tool in partnerships. Where possible start small and avoid initial big bets where failure doesn’t mistakenly ravage future success. Prototype it. Create a story board describing how the partnership will operate. After all, stage and movie actors rehearse. Even presenters at the Academy Awards. It took years before Steve Jobs decided that the Apple Store, the most profitable retail store in the world, was ready for prime time, three years of piloting different physical setups in a former airline hangar. In 2023 it generated almost 90 billion in annual revenue to Apple.

7. Rigorously use a clear protocol in each collaboration. A good relationship benefits from a well-defined protocol – the agreed actions, when and by whom – that auger success. Piloting should lead to a clear behavioral process for meeting the requirements of referred clients and demonstrating the value of the partnership. For example, clients of talent marketplaces rely on expert curation, identifying the right experts with the right background and skills to maximize client success. Remember what Avatar creator James Cameron and others remind us: “A vision without a plan for execution is just an hallucination.”

8. Frequent, honest, feedback on both sides. Nothing is problem-free. But we know that problems are best and most expeditiously managed in an environment of regular, honest, feedback and discussion. Misunderstandings are costly and avoidable. Setting regular time for discussion – even if there is little to discuss and the meeting ends quickly – is cheap and easy insurance for dealing with problems the right way and at the right time. But sometimes feedback isn’t enough. Escalation is needed. And that’s OK too.

9. Once rolling with multiple engagements, review quarterly with clear KPIs. As the number of engagements increases, a revision of the protocol ought to be considered. So add to the project protocol a quarterly review to look at the larger relationship and how its operating. At scale, new challenges come up with more opportunities to trouble the partnership. Quarterly reviews at least, as well as an immediate response to specific problems, will be beneficial.

10. Move quickly and collaboratively when partnership problems arise. The ABCD of partnership failure is probably something like this: Avoidance, Broken promises, unresolved Conflict, and Defensiveness. Partners, especially those who have entrusted a valuable customer to your care, want to feel secure that their reputation and client relationships are respected, and that partners understand the risk that partnership entails. That means fast action to solve the problem and protect the partner’s relationship with their client. Remember what Warren Buffett keeps reminding himself: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

An appendix elaborates a simple survey leaders might find helpful in planning or working through a partnership. Readers will find see value in assessing themselves and their track record in partnerships and inviting current and potential partners to do likewise. A candid conversation might provoke a failing partnership to act or reassure members of a successful one to stay the course.

Freelance Partnership Effectiveness Survey

For each of the 10 scales, please describe your freelance platform’s typical partnership behavior. Give each scale a rating from 1-9 where 1=almost never, and 9=almost always.

_____We value and treat our partnerships as strategic assets, and not “just another” transactional sales channel.

_____We practice transparency and openness as essential building-blocks of successful partnerships.

_____We make sure incentives are doing their job and properly incent the right actions and feelings about our partnership.

_____We clearly define the partnership relationship owner on both sides, their role, and think through the right candidate.

_____We spend the time required up front to understand our shared goals and concerns.

____We pilot test our partnerships in order to better plan and work out the kinks.

_____We establish a clear protocol to be used in each collaboration to respect and protect our partner’s relationship with their client.

_____We practice, initiate, and encourage frequent, honest, feedback on both sides to avoid misunderstanding and ensure the partnership is working effectively.

_____Once rolling with multiple engagements, we review quarterly to keep abreast of our partnership’s performance and clients’ satisfaction.

_____We move quickly and collaboratively when partnership problems arise in order to resolve the problem and demonstrate commitment to the partnership.

Viva la revolution!