Strength in Partners
How is your business doing? Do you have resources that you can reference to help make decisions? Are you tapping the value in partnerships?
As a Information Technology service provider I operated under the belief that I could not partner with other businesses and have it be mutually beneficial. Boy I was wrong!! Anyone can find businesses that are in similar markets with different services and/or products. The value you can gain from such a partnership can be invaluable and a win — win for both of you.
I think everyone can agree it is both an exciting and frustrating time to be in business. Whether you are a small or large business, the tools are available to any business of any size. The bad, the tools are available to businesses of any size. This can make it difficult for your voice to stand out among other businesses. By partnering you can work together to market and build the evangelists for your businesses.
Find businesses that are in a different market but are looking for the same type of customer. In our business we don’t deal in copiers and printers or managed print services. We found a partner who does not have an Information Technology service component to their business but works specifically within that space.
We took time to understand their business, they took time to understand ours. Once we were comfortable that our company cultures were compatible. We eased into the relationship by starting with one customer and paying close attention to how it went. In the end it was a success. Both businesses benefited greatly from the partnership.
We set ground rules of open and honest communication. If you feel you can’t play it straight with your partner it is better to just not do it. These relationships only grow and prosper if both sides can share experiences and ideas. After the success we had with the first business partner, we decided to reach out and find another partner to work with.
Our next partnership did not go so well. From that experience we learned to build criteria for testing relationships before wasting our most valuable commodity, our time. This is why it is important to test the relationship prior to going all in. If you test the relationship on one client prior to pushing it to your whole customer base it will save you in case it goes badly.
In the end you can continue to build and refine the partnership to include co marketing initiatives, share resources, and grow together.
Originally published at blog.heidentechnology.com. For more ideas and business thoughts, connect with Carl on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In.
