What’s your biggest professional challenge right now? What if I told you that somewhere, someplace, there’s someone at another company who, just like you, is in a very similar situation? What if I told you that person would love to join forces on a project to address a challenge, together? Believe it or not, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with any professional challenge that a good strategic partnership couldn’t solve.
That’s right. Someplace there’s someone just like you, who is short on time, short on resources, and short on manpower, just like you, who needs to solve a similar challenge. The truth is, if you’d partner up, you’d both get to your end goal and share in the spoils. Together, you’d get there faster, cheaper, and with less risk. Sound complicated? It isn’t – if you know HOW to partner.
First, you’ll need to identify your challenge, very specifically. Specificity is critical. Why? Because the most important aspect of a strategic partnership is finding the right partner. You’ll need to find someone at another company who is like-minded and has similar goals. You’ll want to find someone at a complementary company, who would benefit from partnering with you, just as much as you would gain from partnering with them. They don’t need to be in the same industry, though that would be fine. Frankly, working with friendly competitors isn’t a bad idea at all. In short, the potential list of strategic partners is endless.
The hardest step is the first step; picking the right partner. You’ll need a list of potential targets because, as you’ll soon find out, not everyone wants to partner. Start by making a list. Who needs more customers like the ones you already have? Who has customers that your product or service would appeal to? Who would benefit from promoting to your customer list? Hang on. Before you panic, I’m NOT talking about giving away databases and I’m not talking about short-term, one-off deals. I’m talking about long-term, strategic partnerships. Credit card companies, media companies, hospitality companies, universities, retailers – the possibilities are endless.
What’s next? You’ll need a good strategy. Here’s where my team and I can help, and do so quickly. Within a short time, we could put together a list of dozens of companies that might be open to partnering. Of course, it would have to be for the right project. Pitched correctly, many companies would consider working together to achieve a common goal.
My team and I can help set up the strategy, create the potential list of partners, and even help close the deals. Interested? Let’s chat. And oh, if we’re not connected on LinkedIn, let’s fix that right now.
John T. Peters 