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.

Find New Clients with Strategic Marketing Plan

At the start of the year a priority for every business team that has a significant amount of joint venture marketing business should be to review all existing partners and develop strategic marketing plans to find and acquire new clients with there existing partners or identify new partners to replace dead weight. It’s important for business owners to keep track of specific metrics year over year in order to evaluate the business thoroughly to factor any new strengths or weaknesses into annual planning.

Set time aside to meet with all valuable channels in-person and explore new potential opportunities that exist now or will be available soon. Evaluate details about successful business transactions and review the finer details with your business partners in order to identify strategies that can attract similar new clients. Annual strategic planning can be a fun and exciting time as a business owner that is exploring new opportunities for growth as there is little more satisfying than identifying a new opportunity, building the marketing plans, and capturing the market.

Year End Review

As the year wraps up, it’s always a good idea to compile all of the relevant information about the activities of the business so that you’re prepared to analyze the company’s success and plan strategies for finding new clients. The following are a few questions that should always be at the top of the list for all business owners during their review. How is the financial situation of the business? Have employees achieved goals that were set? Were there any major partner successes or failures of the past year? What was the worst and best marketing campaign of the past year? Are there any visible opportunities with existing partners that can close business quickly if pursued?

Larger companies will have more formal quarterly and annual review meetings corresponding to financial reporting activities, however for most small business year end reviews and annual planning activities often are best around December / January time frame.

Partner Strategies

Based on the successes and failures of marketing activities with partners in the previous year, it is important to always focus on areas of strength to increase the number of new clients that can be reached going forward. Working closer with your business channels to identify the right marketing angles that work best to close business fast is necessary for solidifying strategies that work.

Many small businesses get in the habit of sitting back and not getting too involved with a partner. If it’s obvious that one partner is getting more deals closed in a specific region than another partner, identify what is being done and inform the less performing partner and make it mandatory that they adjust the marketing strategy. Otherwise find a new partner that will implement the plan.

Incorporate social media into your strategic marketing planning for the business as an additional way to approach new clients. Many small business owners have avoided using social media sites. If your company is in an industry that’s not a perfect fit for social media like a consumer facing brand or a business like a restaurant, then there’s a good chance that there is a less competition to be found by people interested in your industry.

Take the time to learn about Twitter and making Youtube videos. Start leveraging social media marketing as a cost effective part of your joint venture marketing activities. Working with a partner that is open to doing co-branded social media campaigns is a great way to reach a partners established online community.

New Market Trends

While preparing a strategic marketing plan for your business it is important to include any specific trends in the industry or market in general that impact the success or failure of your business. Continue to evaluate the market and competition to be able to really provide a product or service that meets the customer’s expectations at a competitive price.

Acquiring new clients is never an easy task, so make sure and review successes and failures with all of your joint venture marketing activities and be willing to change when needed. Work with your business partners and continue to evaluate the opportunities that are available to your business. Implementing a fully prepared strategic marketing plan is a great experience and well rewarded so do the research and analysis to find the best marketing approaches to continue growing the business.

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.

Why You Don’t Have to Look for New Customers

In a sluggish economy, finding new customers can be easier said than done. Many people simply don’t have the ability or the inclination to take a chance on a product or service offered by a company they have never heard of before.

Why fight it? Instead of wasting your resources in search of new customers, try using the assets you already have to build your business. We’ll show you how joint ventures can boost your bottom line without worry over how to explode your customer list.

Forget the List?

We are not really telling you to forgo your customer list completely. After all, every successful business begins with a list of initial customers, right? However, some companies begin spending all their time and money on attracting new prospects to their company without thinking about what to do with the customers they already have.

In the case of joint ventures, that current list may be the secret to unlocking your profits much more effectively than simply building up a new list of names.  While we won’t tell you to give up entirely on your customer list building, we do have suggestions on exactly how to maximize the profits from the customers you already have.

Building Customer Loyalty

Instead of spending most of your time trying to attract brand new customers, consider what it would take to transform current customers into a loyal clientele that supplies most of your profits. This can be done through cross selling, the introduction of new products and periodic promotions for customer favorites. And yes, and that joint venture you are about to form won’t hurt either!

Joint Ventures and Customers

Instead of searching out potential customers from the vast expanse of the Internet, try going after the shoppers who are already working with your joint venture partner. If you planned your partnership correctly, you and your partner are targeting a similar market base with different products and services. If customers are happy with their purchases from your JV partner, they will be more likely to give your company a try as well.

There are many ways to entice your JV partner’s customers to buy from you as well. One is to offer free samples to those customers and a part of an introductory promotion. You can also simply offer a discount for first-time buyers on your JV partner’s customer list.

Another creative option is to conduct a customer “survey,” where you ask customers to try out a product and offer feedback on what they think. All of these methods convert your JV partner’s customers into your happy clientele as well.

When the economy is slow, building an effective customer list can be easier said than done. However, if you get creative with your marketing efforts, you can continue to increase your sales and your bottom line, even in sour financial conditions. A joint venture is the perfect first step to finding new customers and building a bigger business no matter what the future financial forecast predicts.

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.