Strategic Business Partnerships Grow Small Businesses

Developing strategic business partnerships should be part of every small business owner’s growth plan for the company. A strategic business partnership has several benefits for the companies involved including: access to existing customers, quick penetration into new markets, enhanced branding, and others that may not be so apparent such as cost reduction benefits from utilizing a partners employee base or getting price breaks from suppliers due to an increase in orders to fulfill new demand. The best business executives and small business owners understand that it is very difficult to execute growth plans alone and aligning with other companies that have mutual interests and a shared target demographic is the right solution. Building a successful business partnership has its difficulties and limitations as well, but the time spent in researching, negotiating, and finally implementing a new strategic business partnership can result in a tremendous return of investment that would rival any internal efforts in the same amount of time.

Find New Customers in Target Markets

The cost of acquiring a new customer is never cheap. However; by aligning with the right partners that can deliver clients a small business can then focus on providing a high level of customer service and getting the most out of what strategic business relationships provide. After a company’s executives have decided that forming business partnerships is the right path for the business, it’s important to research and identify a strategic business partner that can either lead you to many future business partners or has a large existing customer base in the area you intend to service. Just because a company has a large number of customers and they’re in a similar industry does not always mean they will be the right choice. The potential new customers need to be in a geographic location that you can easily service unless the partner is willing to take on additional roles and responsibilities, which could range from sales calls to product delivery to customer service.

Strengthen Brand and Marketing Capabilities

The right strategic business partner should elevate the business’s brand and reputation in the industry that it services. When researching and identifying a partner make sure to take note of how the other company is viewed by its customers, competitors, and the market in general as any positive or negatives will rub off on your brand due to the execution of a business partnership.  This can be the quickest way for a small business to achieve name recognition within its industry, by developing a relationship with a large business that already commands respect and is known for delivery high quality products and services with excellent customer care. It is critical during negotiations to fight for co-branding, which may be difficult depending on the nature of the business relationship. If a major concern is being overshadowed by a partner in marketing due to their size and resources than it’s important to make those concerns known prior to moving forward. However, for many small business owners the right strategic partner may be simply white labeling the product or service and not co-branding at all in order to provide a seamless experience for their customers. If the revenue numbers are going to be high enough does it really matter, whether or not the end customer knows the brand?

Growing a business is never easy, but with great partners it can be much more rewarding experience. A small business owner that embraces the ideas of forming strategic business partnerships that are mutually beneficial is much more likely to succeed than the one that wants to go it alone or do it their own way every time.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

How to Get More Clients: Hire a Business Development Expert

If your business has been struggling to get more clients in the last few months or year then consider hiring a business development expert that can find the right joint venture marketing partners that can deliver hot leads to your sales team. Many businesses can find themselves in a rut where it’s really difficult to acquire new customers. A joint venture marketing partnership can be the right strategy to get moving forward again. A business development pro will understand the process of putting together a solid business deal that can grow your company. If you feel that building a network of business partners can help grow your business in ways that are unachievable by yourself then find the right consultant or individual that you can bring in-house and do the deals that will get your company more clients.

Hire the Right Person

Hiring a business development person is different than finding a sales person for your team. While a business development expert can always play the role as sales person the opposite is not always true. A person that specifically focuses on business development will understand how to communicate potential business deals to perspective businesses in the right manner. They will understand that it is critical that a strong relationship is forged between the individuals doing the business deal and the company employees that will be involved in implementing the partnership.

Hiring a consultant or consulting firm to act as a business development team for you company is a great route for many small businesses. Many business that do not have the internal man power and capabilities to identify, engage, and do the business deals necessary for growth can benefit from a consultant or consulting firm that has access to the business decision makers or the experience necessary to reach out to companies and develop the relationships required to put together a great business deal.

While a consultants hourly rate may be higher than you’re comfortable with a deal can be put together much faster by a professional than someone trying for the first time to structure a business partnership. Consultants often will require an hourly rate or fixed salary as well as some kind of bonus structure for placing deals together which may be a single payout for each business deal that is signed or a revenue share that is paid out over a period of time based on the amount of business that is ultimately generated from the relationships. Most consultants will not work for pure commission deals unless they believe that a deal can be put together extremely fast and will generate immediate revenue. Most will want a cash payment coupled with a bonus structure. Companies that want to execute business deals with larger fortune 500 type companies should always highly consider hiring an expert that has preexisting relationships with the company that you want to do a deal with. It’s common to hire a consultant for one specific business partnership.

Managing a Business Development Team

Managing a business development team member is similar to a sales team member in many respects. It is important that as a business owner you control and own the data that is developed by the team member by making them use the corporate customer relationship management system and uploading any data and reports on potential business partners to the corporate document server. Failing to do this a common problem with companies and their sales teams and even more so with business development professionals as the relationships they have and bringing to the table are often held tightly and not given up easily.

If you are hiring an outside consultant there may be specific clauses in the agreement about who owns what data. This is something to be aware of as it can be very frustrating to be a month or two in developing a new business partner and have a person leave and take the contact information and data with them leaving you in a tough place to continue. It’s critical to recognize that a business development team member is going to need to spend time out of the office meeting with companies, going to business events and other functions that may be fruitful in finding and meeting the right business partners, however if you are paying for someone to be at an event then make sure the business cards that are collected get scanned and retained by the company.

If you have decided that in order to get more clients your business needs to develop strategic business partners than consider outsourcing the work to a consultant or hiring a business development expert in order to speed up the process. Avoid taking team members off their existing duties or forcing yourself to forge the relationships by yourself and add more duties to your already exhausting schedule.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Joint Venture Marketing is the Right Prescription for Pharmaceutical Companies

Each year pharmaceutical companies spend billions on marketing, advertising and partnerships. They enter into these agreements in hopes they will improve their bottom line. Whether the venture is sponsorship, research outsourcing or directly to the consumer, the end result is the same, effective marketing techniques create revenue.

Funding Research Project

The world’s largest drug maker, Pfizer announced in November of 2010 a sponsorship deal with University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to develop new biologic treatments. Pfizer agreed to set up joint laboratories on campus, combining the basic research expertise at UCSF with Pfizer’s knowledge of drug development. UCSF researchers will benefit because they will be allowed to publish their findings in academic journals. The university will also share with Pfizer the ownership rights to the new drugs, which will mean millions for the school. Pfizer, like many pharmaceutical companies, has been affected by the economic downturn of the past couple years which have caused venture capitalists to turn more cautious. The venture capitalists are now often requiring more and more evidence from scientific entrepreneurs, including university faculty, before they will consider financing promising new therapies through clinical trials.

Direct to Consumers

Have you seen Avandia logos on pens and notepads at your physician’s office? Or been given a free sample of Os-Cal Ultra 600+ D to try? Those items are freebies given to the physician’s office by the GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical company to get physicians to prescribe their brand of medications to you. Both the physician and the GlaxoSmithKline Company benefit from you taking that specific medication. Another example of marketing that is direct to consumers is Merck & Co., they are taking big measures to boost sales of newer and brand-name drugs while addressing patient adherence concerns by stepping up “loyalty card” programs, receive in mail or e-mail coupons and rebates. The proliferation of discounts on certain prescription medications is gaining traction, observers say, because they enable patients to reduce out-of-pocket costs.

Sponsorship

The Johnson & Johnson Company, which produce health care products, sponsor youth softball programs. Johnson & Johnson has the opportunity to promote products to their target audience, the parents, as well as help out the communities by funding youth sports programs. They hand out first aid kits during games as needed or sunscreen on hot sunny days, the consumer will see the products and become aware of what the company has to offer.

Some pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly take sponsorship into the professional sports arena. Eli Lilly and the PGA Tour announced a partnership in November of 2003. To support the partnership the companies developed a series of golf-themed vignettes featuring some of golf’s top players. The vignettes focused primarily on the emotional connection to the game with themes such as relaxation, preparation and confidence. The agreement also included an on-site component; whereby Eli Lilly joined MasterCard(R) as a sponsor of the electronic scoreboards at PGA TOUR and Champions Tour events. A partnership with the PGA TOUR allowed Eli Lilly to connect with millions of golf fans, many of whom enjoy golf because it is both relaxing and invigorating.

Naturally most small businesses do not have the same level of marketing dollars; however the principles related to joint venture marketing are the same at any budget level.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Getting Bigger Joint Venture Partners to Say Yes

You may think that the hard part is over when you have completed the research and found potential JV partners that can offer the greatest benefit to your business. However, that’s just the beginning. Once you have a list of bigger and better joint venture partners, it’s time to woo them into your corner and get them to say yes to your business proposition.

We have tips to help you hook the big companies and get them to go along with your potential JV partnership.

Know Your Potential Partner

Getting a JV prospect to say yes begins by taking the time to get to know the business so you can approach them on common ground. Look further than merely the benefits you stand to receive from the potential partnership. Consider also the advantages your prospective partner might reap from working with you. Get a good feel for the demographics of their customer base and how well it matches up to your own. Know their product and their reputation so you can wow them with your knowledge of their business from the very first contact you have with them.

Get Personal

Canned email or even snail mail propositions to JV partners do not typically work, primarily because they are too easy to ignore. Forget the written correspondence and instead, pick up the phone and call a prospective partner. You can use the personal phone call as a follow up to a personalized email if you prefer, but direct contact between you and your JV prospect is a must if you want another business to sit up and take notice of your company. The more time you take to craft a professional, thorough agreement with a prospective partner, the more likely your prospect will sit up and take notice of you.

Show the Benefits

Sure, the primary reason for a JV partnership is to grow your own business, but you’ll be more likely to gain a partner if you show what you can do for them. You might be thinking that you don’t have anything to offer a larger, more established business, but think again. You can always offer up a share of your profits and perhaps a relatively large share, if you are a very new business with few assets under your belt at this point. Don’t despair over the idea of giving a significant amount of you money to a JV partner; you will more than make up the difference with a larger customer base and increased sales.

Landing the big businesses for your JV partnership isn’t difficult, but it does require a bit of marketing savvy to ensure it is successful. Spend the time researching and putting in the necessary footwork at the beginning to find the best partners and craft a professional, beneficial agreement that your prospect will be sure to notice. With these tips in mind, you will be more likely to sniff out and attract the best businesses to effectively build your customer base, sales and bottom line.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.