SPLP® Prep Exam

The definition of a “general partnership” is a relationship between multiple entities where value is provided to all participants.

The primary difference between general partnerships and strategic partnerships is: general partnerships always include a revenue share.

The 3 types of business growth are Organic, Acquisition, and Partner.

Of the three types of growth, organic is the most collaborative.

The success rate of B2B partnerships is 45%.

The Business Growth Flowchart is the best PARTNERNOMICS tool for identifying your ‘growth engine’.

The Partnership Success Pyramid is the PARTNERNOMICS tool used as the ‘yardstick’ to continually evaluate fit.

The Strategic Partner Leadership Model illustrates the magnetic pull of products/services toward the commodity zone.

The Business Growth Flowchart includes the use of SWOT analysis.

The Partnership Success Pyramid includes the use of 6-Cs framework.

The Quadrants of Solutions tool includes Eli Goldratt’s ‘Theory of Constraints’ framework.

The Power Analysis helps us understand the opportunities and threats we could impose on other organizations.

The primary difference between transactional vs. strategic mindset is the transactional mindset takes twice as long.

Procurement specialists are also commonly referred to as vendors.

Most salespeople have a monthly quota that drives their short-run activities.

The Strategic Partnering Leader role is focused on initiatives that are commonly outside of a company’s normal scope and mode of operations?

The partnering mindset utilizes the collaborative partnering approach.

Collaborative Partnering includes the multiplier effect, differentiation, and exponential growth.

The “transactional mindset” is most similar to the differentiation approach.

Master Services Agreements are focused on addressing as many terms, conditions, and penalties as possible that will govern a relationship between a company and a vendor.

The intended purpose of a Master Service Agreement (MSA) is to outline the price of goods purchased by a vendor.

Master Services Agreements (MSA) are so important to partnerships because they spell out a wide range of terms, conditions, and penalties that govern relationships between a company and a vendor.

A key element of a Strategic Partnering Agreement is to be flexible as the parties know that the relationship will evolve over time.

Complete contracts can be defined as contracts between organizations do not contemplate all possible outcomes.

According to Bernie Brenner, the author of The Sumo Advantage, the first of the three priorities of Business Development is profits.

Technology partnerships are NOT one of the five types of partnerships?

Alliance partnerships are one of the five types of partnerships?

An alliance partnership is also known as a/an affiliate partnership?

A referral partnership is also known as a strategic partnership.

Traditional business “networking” relationships that typically have low obligations are referred to as Alliance partnerships.

Partnerships involving “finders fees” are examples of referral partnerships.

Partnerships in which the partner originates and implements at least part of the solution are called integration partnerships.

Technology partnership is otherwise known as integrated partnerships.

McDonalds and Coke are an example of a channel partnership.

Resource partnerships are also known as Alliance partnerships.

When “Growth Engine” strategies result in exponential growth, the organization achieves a competitive advantage.

A Bargaining Matrix analyzes examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

No Cross Pollination is a “con / negative” with respect to the organic growth approach.

“Exponential” growth is dependent on Real Estate.

A SWOT analysis could be compared to a CAT scan for a company.

“It is always better to have NO DEAL than a bad deal.”

Clayton Christensen helped advance the Theory of Constraints to highlight a “solutions oriented approach” for developing new solutions.

Borders partnered with Amazon to become the world’s largest provider of podcasts.

The functional & strategic quadrants of the “quadrants of solutions” have the highest level of growth opportunity (profit margins).

Moore’s Law can best be described as all things equal, the idea with the most momentum will achieve the greater good.

Professionals that are able to master the first four imperatives of the Partnership Success Pyramid, will maximize their opportunities to achieve significant results.

Professionals engage in partnerships as an alternative to growing organically.

The Partnership Success Pyramid claims that “transparency” means in-person communications between partners.

The trust level of the success pyramid means “commitment and loyalty?”

Of the 6 SPLM Elements, Vision is most focused on aligning company cultures.

The teams element includes claims, statements, and beliefs that should be the DNA of every person, team, and decision that make up your organization.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras co-authored the book ‘Winning it All’ that is focused on company vision.

A company’s mission should appeal to the emotions and inspire action and compel people to want to support your purpose.

A company’s “vision” is also referred to as its short term strategy.

A company’s “mission” should have a time horizon of 2-3 years.

According to a 2018 Gallup poll 85% of employees “hate” their jobs.

A company’s vision should be used to attract new employees, executives, and customers.

Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why claims people are motivated and inspired by emotions which is controlled by the “limbic brain.”

An organization’s core values is its “short-term purpose” and it is designed to drive day-to-day behavior.

An organization’s mission should be both a(n) aspirational and attainable goal.

Vision statements are the central principles that we live by; they are our beliefs that are demonstrated through our decisions and actions.

Peter Drucker the management thought leader said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast?”

PARTNERNOMICS teaches Salim Ismail’s four question approach to help create an organization’s Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP). This is known as the founder’s approach.

Ideally, organizations will set their “core values” when the company is founded.

It is ideal to set an organization’s core values when it is founded to create a culture around the values and make all coming decisions through the lens of the value.

The success or failure of your partnerships are MOST heavily dependent upon contractual terms.

The two PDL teaming approaches shared in PARTNERNOMICS are hunter/farmer and Sumo.

People who have high emotional intelligence are able to sense when “something is wrong” because they are tuned into the behavior of others.

TKI and DISC are examples of tools that are best used to help you within the processes element.

PARTNERNOMICS recommend that executives budget at least 50% of a PDL’s annual salary for “supplemental resources.”

“Fractional PDLs” must have at least 1 day of their week dedicated to the partnering function or it will likely be unsuccessful.

According to the DISC framework, people who are “outgoing” or “extroverted” get ideas from others, where as “introverted” people need time alone to decompress.

According to the DISC framework, people’s work is either task or people oriented.

According to the DISC framework, committed is NOT one of the four primary behaviors.

According to the DISC framework, ‘high D‘ is likely to be the optimal behavior during an emergency.

A person’s core values tend to shift yearly over time.

When “natural alignment” is achieved between people, conflict tends to reduce.

Truly “strategic partnerships” always include an innovative initiative; therefore, profits are virtually inevitable.

One of the goals of the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) is to make people become more aware of their financial interests when engaged in conflict.

Highly skilled professionals can use the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) to help them adapt their behaviors so they can more quickly resolve conflict.

According to the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) framework, the best way to influence others is to adjust your behavior mode to a(n) competing style in order to ultimately resolve a conflict.

According to the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) framework, behavior modes that score above 75% or below 25% are considered to be accommodating.

A collaborating conflict mode from the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) is considered a “problem solver“

The compromising Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) “conflict mode” is the most concerned with “others.”

The competing Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) “conflict mode” is the most assertive.”

The “S” in “S.M.A.R.T. goals” stands for specific.

The “M” in “S.M.A.R.T. goals” stands for momentum.

The “T” in “S.M.A.R.T. goals” stands for tested.

A strategic partnering team’s goals should be aligned to the organization’s goals.

Another name for the “bottoms-up” approach to setting and managing goals is OKR.

Measure What Matters is John Doerr’s book that offers a good guide on implementing the OKR framework.

OKRs are designed to be 30 day sprints to a desired objective.

When goal setting follows the traditional “top down” approach, many employees see the imposed goals as their executives’ goals.

A key goal setting success practice tells us to not set more than 7 goals for a particular subject (person, partner, etc.).

When setting goals, you should set no more than 3 at a time because the human brain can organize 3 goals, but focus is quickly diluted past 3.

Chris McChesney, author of The 4 Disciplines of Execution states all goals should have a 1) starting line, 2) finish line, and 3) stretch line.

Chris McChesney, author of The 4 Disciplines of Execution states that all goals should have a starting line, a finish line, and a deadline. This is because having a set deadline ensures that the goal will be time-bound.

With respect to operationalizing a B2B partnership, the acronym KPI stands for known partner information.

Lagging indicators are performance metrics that represent outcomes.

Strategic indicators are used as a means to predict or forecast a particular result.

Step #1 in selecting performance metrics to help govern a partnership is to determine your annual budget.

When selecting metrics to help manage B2B partnerships you should continually evaluate and if need change the metrics.

The results element of the SPLM framework focuses on organization and efficiency.

Partnering processes consist of core processes, secondary processes, and procedures.

After your processes are identified and documented, the next logical step for leadership to ensure success is to enforce their use.

An ideal software tool for managing B2B partnerships is a customer relationship management platform.

In the 2010’s, PRMs were mostly used by large companies because they were quite expensive and it was easier to prove their value in large companies.

Studies have shown that PRM systems are likely to result in an increase in channel revenue and partner engagement.

Magentrix, Zift, and Allbound are all examples of PRMs

Affiliate or Co-Marketing are other names for alliance partnerships.

Partner information, marketing, and external messaging are core components of a PRM?

Indirect and Systems Integrators (SI) are other names for referral partnerships?

In Trust Factor, Dr. Paul Zak describes a great team culture as having financial incentives for high performance.

According to Dr. Paul Zak, having a great company culture must include religion & diversity.

Gallup stated only 13% of employees were engaged in their work. The reaon(s) cited were there isn’t enough trust and purpose in these organizations.

Some success principles for having productive meetings include meeting weekly, same day/time, and having a standard agenda.

The Business Growth Flowchart claims after we say “yes” to growing our organization, we next need to decide if we are commiting to “incremental” or exponential level of growth.

All “exponential growth strategies” include a(n) patent that may lead to a competitive advantage.

Joint venture is NOT an avenue for growth covered in the PARTNERNOMICS curriculum.

Phase 1 of the 5 Phased Partnering Process is finding a partner.

The Strategic Partnering Plan (SPP) ensures internal alignment of resources and intent.

A Strategic Partnering Plan (SPP) is specific to a(n) partnering initiative.

The middle portion of a Strategic Partnering Plan (SPP) is focused on the constraints model.

The Strategic Partnering Plan (SPP) has 9 components.

Open-ended question types are designed to have your counterpart elaborate.

You should utilize Open-ended questions with a Partner because you want a quick and definitive answer.

The ideal time period to send out a meeting agenda prior to a meeting is 2 days.

As the parties learn more about each other’s interests the questions will become more specific.

The Bargaining Matrix tool is designed to help you evaluate “must haves” and “nice to haves” when preparing to negotiate terms?

The Strategic Partner Plan is recommended to be used to efficiently facilitate each “Phase 2” meeting.

The Partner Preparation Sheet is such an important and useful tool because it’s the most efficient tool to facilitate each meeting.

Your Term Sheet will eventually be used to inform your Strategic Partnering Plan.

Scribe is NOT one of the “hats” that you wear as a negotiator.

A conditional offer is making an offer that places your condition as a prerequisite to your offer of value.

When conducting a virtual/distance meeting with others, you should insist on voice-only phone call as your form of engagement.

A perpetual NDA is a type of a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA); also known as a 2-way NDA.

In a circumstance where both parties wish to share sensitive information it would make sense to utilize the Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement.

An assignment can be defined as the transfer of property, interest, or rights held by one party to another party.

A warranty can be defined as a failure to perform a promise which is anticipated, expected, or required in an agreement – without legal excuse. In short, a failure to live up to a duty of care.

Confidentiality can be defined as a clause that outlines highly sensitive material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to or by third parties.

Dispute resolution can be defined as a process that allows the parties to a contract to have any disagreements or conflicts arising under the contract be addressed by invoking a predefined procedure.

Dissolution is the process by which a contract or partnership is ended by the parties themselves and the responsibilities and the level of ownership of assets each party maintains after the termination.

Liquidated damages can be defined as the right to perform an action or acquire a benefit and to deny all others the right to perform the same action or to acquire the same benefit.

Governing law can be defined as the system of law, which forms the deciding principles for the factual situation giving rise to a dispute. In contracts, the term refers to a clause also known as a “choice of law” provision in which the parties agree that a particular jurisdiction (i.e. a state or country) laws will be used to interpret their agreement.

A Non-compete is a collateral agreement in which one party assures the other party that he/she will perform the promise or fulfill the obligation of a third party, if that third party fails to do so.

Indemnification can be defined as one party promising to compensate the loss incurred by the other party, due to the act(s) of the other party. This provision can be either unilateral or mutual.

Injunctive relief is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. A party that fails to comply with such as order faces criminal or civil penalties, including possible monetary sanctions and even imprisonment.

Termination for convenience is a restriction on the amount of compensation that can be recovered from a third party due to an action or inaction. This can be a clause in a contract or statutory.

Liquidated damages is the sum of financial compensation that a party agrees to pay if they breach the contract by failing to perform some promise. The sum is considered equitable compensation to cover a good faith estimate of a loss due to a breach.

A non-compete also known as a “restrictive covenant,” this clause restricts at least one of the parties from starting a similar profession or trade that is significantly similar to the products/solutions offered by the parties of this agreement.

Injunctive relief creates a confidential relationship between parties to protect information such as trade secrets or other proprietary research, development, or commercial information.

Non Solicitation can be defined as a freestanding agreement or a clause within a broader contract, a party’s promise to not recruit another party’s clients or customers, or to hire away their employees.

In contracts, a statement of fact – express or implied – pertinent to the contract, made to induce the other party to enter into the contract is considered representation.

Revenue sharing can be defined is in lieu of a traditional buy/sell relationship to offer products/services for sale through a supplier relationship, some organizations agree to engage in a financial relationship to divide their collective earnings.

Severability is the right to meet the terms of a proposed contract before it is executed; i.e. the right to have an initial option to purchase or engage in an offer after it becomes available to others outside of this provision.

A service level agreement is a contract between a service provider and a client that defines the expected outcomes. Particular aspects of the relationship could include – e.g. quality, availability, and other responsibilities that are agreed upon.

A termination for cause is an equitable defense to all or part of a claim. It can also be the right of a debtor to balance mutual debts with a creditor. To determine this “reconciliation,” simply subtract the smaller debt from the larger.

Severability is a clause in a contract that allows the remainder of a contract to apply even if other provisions are found to be illegal or otherwise unenforceable by a court.

Survivability is a clause that specifies which contract provisions will remain in effect after the termination or expiration of the agreement. Common obligations covered by these clauses include Confidentiality and Non-compete.

In a contract, exclusivity refers to the circumstances under which a party has a right to end the contractual relationship prior to its anticipated term.

Injunctive relief is a provision that entitles a party to a contract to terminate it at any time without any liability for damages the other party might suffer as a result of the termination.

Waiver of Jury Trial is a contract clause specifies that the parties agree to have any dispute resulting in civil litigation be resolved by a “bench trial” in which the judge will be the finder of fact.

Warranties are a guarantee or promise which provides assurance by one party to the other party that specific facts or conditions are true or will happen. These may be express or implied, depending on several factors.

A partner would want a warranty because it allows you to terminate the agreement.