Significant GPS Blog

23rd: Form strategic partnerships with businesses

business excellence growth marketing performance sales teams Nov 20, 2023

Strategic partnership is a relationship between two companies that are into different businesses but often have a similar target audience. For example; McDonald’s has formed a strategic partnership with Coca Cola because a person buying a burger would want a Coke. Uber has formed a partnership with Spotify to get an edge over its competitors.

Being a small business, strategic partnerships can help you expand your customer base. Ask your partner to advertise your business for free and you also do the same. This will help increase your brand awareness and may eventually lead to more sales. By partnering with a reputable company, you would sound more credible.

Here are some ideas on how you can find a good business to partner with:

Find a business that complements yours but doesn’t directly compete with you (and doesn’t want to do so in the future). There must not be any overlapping services or products. Choose a business that you can partner with without any fear of losing your clients, money, or reputation.
Once you have identified a few potential partners, do a thorough research and identify the one that would be the best fit for your business. Find out about their long-term and short-term goals, their financial situations, their reputation, etc. You want to partner with a business that is doing better than you and can send you lots of potential leads.
Make a partnership pitch. Since you are approaching a stronger or at least equivalent business, your pitch must explain ‘what is in it for them’. You must answer why and how this partnership can benefit them. Explain who you are and what your long-term goals are. Prove that you are a reliable and credible business to partner with.
Keep your communication honest and open. Find ways to create a win-win situation for both of you.

Make sure both of you are committed to the partnership. Both of you should be ready to invest the necessary time and energy to help each other. If you do not get the same vibes from your prospective partner, look for someone else.