How to save deals at the 11th hour
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Welcome to Partnership Wednesday #110 featuring ideas you can use to create partnerships faster, with less guesswork, and confidently close 6-figure deals.
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Have a burning partnership question? Email me here
A LESSON TO BUILD ON
After World War II, Toyota didn’t treat suppliers as replaceable vendors. Instead, it built the keiretsu system. At its core, this conglomeration of long-term, trust-based partnerships was born from Toyota invested in suppliers’ growth, provided financing, and shared training. In return, suppliers committed to innovation, quality, and flexibility.
This wasn’t charity. It created the Toyota Production System, the foundation of just-in-time manufacturing and lean operations. The result? Toyota reshaped global auto manufacturing, outpacing giants like Ford and GM not by size, but by resilience and adaptability.
Leadership lesson: Treat suppliers as allies, not adversaries. When you invest in their success, you unlock compounding efficiency, innovation, and loyalty. Partnerships built on mutual growth can turn a supply chain into a competitive weapon.
AN ANSWER TO HELP YOU MOVE FASTER
I feel like one of our big partnership deals is about to stall. It would spell bad news for our business. How do I navigate this? I was asked this question from the crowd this week. Here’s my answer:
Deals stall for 4 reasons:
Incentives weren’t mapped
The first win wasn’t designed
Intent got lost
Too few people were holding the load
Here’s what I’ve learned after hundreds of moments where the deal was ‘good’ until it wasn’t:
The deal isn’t dead.
It’s misunderstood.
Here are the two lenses I use to bring it back to life:
STEP 1: The Negotiator’s Lens (via William Ury)
Go to the balcony
→ Zoom out
→ Most people are reacting to pressure
Name the block
→ In 90% of stalled deals, it’s not the structure
→ It’s the absence of a clearly defined first material win
A tangible result, delivered in 6 months or less, that makes both sides say, “This is working.”
Build a golden bridge
→ Recenter around shared purpose
→ Ask what mattered before the friction took over
Create community
→ If one person is carrying the deal, it will collapse
→ You need believers, expand the circle
STEP 2: The Partnership Lens (The IDEAL+ Framework)
These are the 6 questions to work through to reset clarity and confidence inside complex deals.
I = Intent
→ Are we still aligned on why this partnership exists?
D = Dual Benefit
→ What two clear wins must each side achieve?
E = Era
→ Are we building for 3 years of compounding value?
A = Allies
→ Who else in the partner org is ready to carry this forward?
L = Land the First Win
→ What real result will unlock progress in the next 6 months?
+ (Next Best Alternative)
→ If this doesn’t work, what’s our fallback—and are we aligned on that?
When you separate the signal from the noise, deals come back to life.
The 11th hour, when the deal is falling apart, is often where real partnership begin.
Here’s an infographic that might help you navigate this topic further.
THIS WEEK’S MOMENT
What if your revenue playbook was slowing your growth?
Christiana Brenton co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Flight Studio (home of the Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO) thinks differently, starting with curiosity, empathy, and humility. From scaling Flight Studio to rejecting a $100M offer, this conversation flips traditional thinking on partnerships and performance.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
How curiosity and care outperform brute-force tactics in sales
The “first principles” mindset behind Flight Studio’s exponential growth
Why long-term trust beats short-term wins and how to build it
Get every episode of the Partnership Playbook on your next commute or workout. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Youtube!
KNOW PEOPLE WHO FEEL STUCK?
Want to share this issue of Partnership via text, social media or email? Just copy and paste this link:
https://philhsc.com/partnership/3-september-2025
Until next Wednesday,
Phil Hayes-St Clair - Executive Coach
When you're ready, there are three ways I can help you:
1. The Partnership Lab The Partnership Lab is an AI-fuelled system for sales and marketing leaders who need to close 6-figure partnerships—fast.
2. The Partnership Decision Sprint: 45-minute sessions built for leaders facing high-stakes partnership decisions. Invite up to three people from your team and walk away with clear, actionable next steps.
3. Leadership Events: From Cochlear and Lifeblood to military leaders, I have shared inspiring stories and practical frameworks and insights that shift how leaders leverage partnerships for growth. Book me to speak at your next conference, offsite, or leadership event.
Looking for something different? Send me an email.
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