An alliance is really just a business-to-business
collaboration. Some people use the term business networking
when referring to alliances. Alliances are formed for many
reasons. When you are a small business owner, it's
important to understand that there is a strength that can
be utilized by strategic alliances, which may be overlooked
in light of developing new business and developing
additional revenue streams.
Small business alliances produce great rewards
Alliances between small businesses can offer additional
benefits besides an increase in business. For instance,
there are alliances of small business owners who
proactively approach office supply corporations, internet
service providers, health care providers and others on
behalf of their membership base in order to secure better
rates, additional services, and other benefits as the
result of the alliance they've formed. There's strength in
numbers when you're a small business owner, and if there
are some products or services that you're looking for to
enhance your business, chances are other small business
owners are looking for similar products or services too.
Why not form a strategic alliance and approach the product
or service provider as a group to show that there is a
need? There is a market and that you are aligned in hopes
of doing business with large companies who are willing to
work with you.
Capitalize upon merged resources
Additionally, small businesses can combine more limited
resources in order to appear in more high traffic
advertising areas than what each business could afford to
do on its own. For instance, one small business networking
group decided to participate in a local high traffic
tradeshow, on behalf of the businesses that chose to be
involved. Using the banner of their combined membership,
the group divided and conquered the tradeshow fees and
staffing for the event, with each participating company
taking a time slot and promoting his or her business, as
well as the alliance that they had formed. Not only did
the participating members increase visibility and gain new
business, the networking group added new members that were
unaware of their activities, and thereby increased the
strength of the alliance by providing a larger member base
to include in negotiations.
Synergetic referrals
Another business group of marketing professionals found
strength in forming a strategic alliance amongst themselves
in order to offer a more comprehensive service package to
large clients than any of the independent businesses was
able to offer on their own. While they had to deal with
some service crossover, it was determined that the size of
the potential contracts outweighed what any one business
would give up in revenue if crossover in services did
occur. To handle the situation, it was written in the
alliance contract that the company who brought the business
to the table would have the last say in who would work on
each contract and what the final compensation would be in
the event of a crossover situation. The business owners
were like-minded in that they all agreed to act in the best
interest of the alliance's clients first in order to
provide a service level above and beyond the large
marketing communications firms with which they were
competing. By operating as a virtual team of experts, this
alliance was able to increase business for all of the
participants; they understood the strength in approaching
large clients with a more comprehensive offering than any
of them could offer independently. It paid off in the end.
Leverage the strengths of a strategic alliance on behalf of
your business and tap into clients and resources you may
not have thought previously available.
----------------------------------------------------
Christian Fea is a Collaboration Marketing Strategist. He
empowers business owners to discover how to implement
Integration, Alliance, and Joint Ventures marketing tactics
to solve their specific business challenges. He
demonstrates how you can create your own Collaboration
Marketing Strategy to increase your new sales, conversation
rates, and repeat business. He can be reached at:
http://www.christianfea.com
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