Marketing Lesson From Selecting a Business Partner

Yesterday I attended a half-day seminar for the ICT (Information Communications Technology) sector at the Information Industries Bureau in Brisbane. The presenter was Margaret Brown, a Partner at the national firm Minter Ellison Lawyers. Margaret spoke about how to select and engage a partner for business development (such as in an alliance or partnering arrangement).
Part of this topic was to address what exactly you would want from a "partner". It could be any of the following: Sales leads
License sales, or account sales
Ability to do installations, implementation, training, or support
Collect revenue for support/maintenance
Focus on a geographic area, or an industry vertical
To grow with your business into new markets
To provide references, case studies, white papers, testimonials
To promote follow-on sales, upgrades, additional services
Although the list above is skewed towards technology-oriented businesses, the same thing applies when you consider marketing for your business (any business - not just technology).
Before you can make sensible marketing decisions, be clear about what you are really trying to achieve with your marketing. The business outcomes you might target from your marketing might be one or more of:
More new clients
Extra sales from existing clients
A greater number of referrers
Increased revenue from previous client base (repeat business; new services)