Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Is there any synergy between your brands? are they completing each other? are you national? international? are you touching people emotionally?
Randall is right, the information you gave is minimal, the question is good.

I would add to those very relevant question the following:

Why do you think they approached you?
Is their brand on the wane or stable?
Partnering relates to marketing only or sales activities as well?

Adam

If you're a beverage company and Coca-Cola is knocking at your door then it's a great thing. A greater understanding of "positioning" may help.

try this site:
https://www.ries.com

Also MP's Book Club has several good posts on positioning:
https://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/02/round_2_and_in_the_ringwith_al_1.html


Hope this helps,

Steve

Hi DaveTW,

hope you're having a great day but more importantly a wonderful life. The above experts have all shared some great responses as it will make a huge difference whether you are entering into leveraging your relationships within the borders of your compannies industries or if you are levearging your relationship with a giant of another industry outside of your organization.

You have posted quite an interesting question that is peculiar but at the same time very controversial in that the answers to this question can flow back or forth in the direction of the pro or con depending on the success or failure of the person providing the answers.

DaveTw: I am wondering - what are the Pro's and Con's of doing this???

The success or the failure of any entity is based on many factors and those factors will affect the overall success or failure rate of not only your organization but any individual within the hemispheres of this world.


THE *CPE RULES FOR LEVERAGING RELATIONSHIPS: C-hoose P-ro's E-xuberantly

1.) TIME, TIME, TIME...
What period of time you decide to enter into a relationship i.e., year or month. But this affect can not only be limited to time period...equaling date but much more relevant to the decision of any entity you must consider also a much more important time factor than the ---EXTERNAL TIME CLOCK--- which should have you watching the economic factors of the foreign and domestic marketplaces so that you can judge the ---OUTER TIME CYCLES--- better. But also relevant to any entity is their ability to go beyond just watching the outer numerics of time to observing the ---INTERNAL TIME CLOCK--- of an organization which should have you watching the economic factors of the organization itself by examination of the ---INTERNAL TIME CYCLES--- better known as the LIFE CYCLE of each business involved. These are some of the most important observations you'll make as you move into a wiser judgement of the Pros and Cons of an organization.

2.) ENTITY, ENTITY, ENTITY...
What company you decide to enter a relationship with will make a huge difference in helping you or any other consultant you hire to decide if this company within your industry is a wise choice or not or whether this company outside your industry is or is not a wise choice for your organization. See this like choosing friends. Your choice of the right friends is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most important factors in the LIFE CYCLE of any entity...it can be as simple as the future of your personal success can be tremendously affected by what family you decide to marry into or what family you decide not to marry into. In either case you must be able to see the future clearly.

3.) LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION...
Where you enter into partnership i.e., city, state or country is like determining where your country should fight it's next war. Should you fight within the borders of IRAQ or AFGHANISTAN? Or should you choose to locate your battle somewhere else? The state of any corporate entity whether small or large will be affected by WHERE they do business. Does the company you are considering to partner with give you greater leverage in your community, in your state, in your country, in the world or within the gates of the internet? ...just to name a few of the locations you should be considering gaining benefits in.

GREAT *CPE's WATCH FOR STD'S...
most organizations don't watch out for the STD's...Short Term Decisions. But choosing the STD's by far creates some of the greatest havic and some of the greatest controversy of all businesses. Don't get into analysis paralysis either but equally important don't just make decisions in haste. A good balance of rational thinking and intuitive response is extremely important. It's very important to know when to take the "Calculated Risk/Intuitive Leap". So how do you avoid STD's...it's real easy...just make *LTD's...Long Term Decisions. It's proven that when organizations think Long Term and create strategic plans that are Long Term they tend to avoid the huge amount of bad decisions that cause organizational failure.

MY RECOMMENDATION TO YOU DAVETw...
So DaveTw here is a pdf file I'd like to recommend you check out. https://www.smbtn.com/books/gb38.pdf .REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future. I'm only an email away from you if you need further guidance, direction or you'd just like to talk more about it. You see I love it when my customers are happy. Are you happy yet? Is this information helping you? Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Lovingly Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Dave

This is a great question and reminds me of one of the bigger deals I've done.

You've almost answered your own question with all the supplementary info you've provided.

The purpose of partnering is to gain strategic advantage you cannot otherwise access, or at an advantageous price you could not normally achieve. Generally the two or more partners each see a missing piece of their puzzle in the other partner's value proposition.

Together, the product of the partnership is greater than the sum of the parts. Everyone wins. Often, a lot...

Otherwise, don't do it.

The downsides are:

- Loss of marketing control
- Getting dragged into negotiations that don't interest you
- Getting dragged into pitches where the partners get most of the action and you don't get a lot of benefit
- Getting the work outsourced to you but not the revenue

The way to avoid all the downsides is to contemplate as many scenarios as possible upfront and figure all the ground rules. Get everyone to agree in a way that suits you, or else walk away.

Hope that helps.

ChrisB

PS: Recommended Reading: "Navigating the Partnership Maze" - by Sarah Gerdes.

DaveTw -- My colleagues gave you great suggestions. In addition, you should research Warren Buffet, who is know for his great business acumen. He carefully selects different types of the companies to be part of his corporation. Leveraging ideas about Warren's selection process might help you determine who you should or shouldn't partner with.

Good luck.

Corpcommer / MC

hi Dave

great advice by experts so far on pros and cons. my 2 cents are.....

you need to be very clear on your dealings with your potential partner with regard to your marketing activities. from what you have mentioned its most likely that your partner and you will jointly pitch for clients part of whose needs you will be able to meet.

on the marketing communication, IMHO, being present in your partners catalog or brochure or collaterals with your brand name will actually work for you apart from anything else. your larger partner is mostly likely to be more aggressive than you and surely does have a brochure. for you, to be winning out of this deal is to be present in that brochure with prominence, remember ur objective is to leverage on the partner brand to enhance your brand value.

obviously there will be a question of costs that you need to cover to be prominently placed in all collaterals of your partners and you have to be careful in negotiating the costs.

your larger partner will also demand that his brand is also potrayed prominently in your collaterals and your and his products are marketed together only. he might also demand that the new solution (combined) can only be sold to prospects who will take the partners products. this will create strain on your efforts and resources. keep that in mind.

so you need to forecast the ROI of that marketing investment to enter into the contract/agreement/partnership. what return (revenue) will you get with the partnership as well as investment(expense). i also recommend you to go for a revenue sharing contract. under this, for all the business the larger partner will employ you, you will get a share of the revenue.

in my practical experinece, the success rate of smaller partner trying to sell combined product/service (incl the larger partners product) is very low. for example, in my company we have some IT partners who help us in deploying some customized solutions over GSM network. as per our agreement, our smaller partners are to also sell our services and the customized solution is only up for sale for that prospect who is willing to take my service. this reduces the rate of successful sales closure for our smaller parnters.

on the other hand, we being the larger brand, find it comparatively easy to sell our service/product when we use our smaller partners and this acts as a ring-fencing mechanism to close a pontential client call.

hope this helps you, if you need any help, you can contact me via my profile.

cheers!!