If you are considering a joint venture or strategic alliance, begin your process with a few questions: Who is your ideal customer? What is your target market and demographic? Who is your competition? Who else provides similar services or products in your industry? These questions can help you discover potential strategies that can be achieved through an alliance with another business owner.
What are some sample strategies that could work with your joint venture alliance?
- Use seminars, workshops, and other public forums to promote you and your partner to the marketplace.
- Offer creative combinations of your products or services as a package deal.
- Create a newsletter, or contribute to each other's newsletters by writing articles.
- Endorse your strategic alliance partner's business to your clients and customers through your mailing list. Have your partner do the same.
- Include a special offer coupon to your joint venture partner's email and snail mail packets.
- Incorporate each other's products or services with recommendations. For instance, a real estate agent might recommend a mortgage broker to her clients looking to buy a home.
- Provide links on your website to you joint partner's website. Have them do the same.
- Write and publish a helpful "how to" ebook or publication and send it free to joint clients and customers.
- Create an affiliate program where you and your partner receive a fee for each new customer that was referred to the other.
- Look on a national level for strategic alliances, as well as locally. You could reach a great many more customers with a national strategic alliance.
Your strategic alliance does not have to be limited to just you and another partner. Consider a group of alliances where all can benefit. An example could be a real estate agent, a mortgage broker, and a title insurance officer who combine efforts to meet the needs of individuals and families buying homes.
Be sure to always know your potential partner and their products or services. It doesn't make sense to automatically recommend another business's product to a customer if you have not reviewed or used the product yourself. If the product turns out to be faulty or low quality, your reputation could suffer. Make a full effort to get to know your strategic partner and the products and services they offer.
When it comes to forming a strategic alliance, keep in mind that you are forming a partnership. Your negotiations in forming the details of the partnership should include win/win strategies that benefit both parties. But also remember that your joint partnership should benefit customers from both parties as well.
There is no better time than the present to take a look at your current business needs and discover ways you can profit and benefit through one or more strategic alliances. Don't wait for another business owner to approach you. Get out and start forming alliances today.
