Understanding the Core of Strategic Partnerships

The definition of a strategic partnership is "a formal alliance between two commercial enterprises, usually formalized by one or more business contracts, but falls short of forming a legal partnership or, agency, or corporate affiliate relationship."

Whew! Does it really have to be that hard? Absolutely not. You form strategic partnerships all the time without even realizing it. A strategic partnership simply takes the resources that a person or company has to offer and combines them with the equally valuable, but differing resources of another person or company in order to save time, money or energy - or all of the above.

The easy analogy of strategic partnerships

Have you ever borrowed something from someone? A power tool, a ladder, something you didn't have, that you didn't necessarily want to spend your time and resources to acquire because you weren't sure that you would need to use the item often? Well, that's a simplified form of a strategic alliance. Your neighbor provided you with a resource that you didn't have and didn't necessarily want to acquire. Chances are you'll reciprocate in some fashion at some point in time.

Typically, when two companies form a strategic partnership, each business has a particular asset that the other company doesn't want to spend the time and energy to develop for themselves. For instance, manufacturing companies form strategic alliances with inventors. The manufacturer provides the product materials, production, and distribution. The inventor provides the creative or technical expertise. Normally, it's a win-win situation for both parties because it saves them time and money, while allowing each party to focus on what they do best.

Finding a strategic partnership balance

Strategic partnerships are often seen in between companies who are in the same industry, but who are not in direct competition. A small car dealer may develop a strategic alliance or partnership with bank who can offer financing to the dealer's customers. The dealer wins because he doesn't need to be licensed for loans, but he can service his customers and sell cars. The bank wins because they are being sent customers that they didn't have to solicit.

Think about service and product providers in your industry who are not in direct competition with your business. Who offers a product or service that could be beneficial to your business that you do not have the time or resources to develop? What would be an area of your business that could be beneficial to them?

In one example, a marketing company that specializes in strategy developed a strategic alliance with a graphic design firm because they included collateral development as part of their strategy. However, the marketing company did not want to develop a design department. They felt it wouldn't be cost-effective given their strategic niche. The design firm often had people looking for a more comprehensive marketing plan than what they chose to offer. Obviously, this was a strategic partnership that worked well for both companies.

Take a look at your business and begin to think about areas that are not your focus, but for which you continually hear requests. Now, take a look and find a company that services that area. You may need to "try out" a company or two before you find the right fit, but when you do, it will have been worth the time and effort.

Here is a great link to a specialist in joint ventures.

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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

Copyright © 2008 Christian Fea

It Pays to Poke Around

Good morning my cheeky monkeys. (I love Craig Ferguson)

A friend of mine sent me a link in an email to "click here and join this website and we will plant a tree". Well I clicked, just to be a good friend but then it started asking me my personal info and I'm thinking, "hang on a second, what am I signing up for and how much junk mail will this mean. I don't need any more male member enhancing advertising sent to my obviously female named address..." So the clicking quest stopped there.

The main problem is that my friend had sent the link to my main e-mail address which happens to be the one I use for business. I have had to kill my main address before due to spam and it was a nightmare because it was on all my business cards. And Amex sent me $800 in chargebacks for fraudulent internet orders because I never answered their inquiries because I forgot to update my contact info with them after killing that e-mail even though I implemented redirecting autoresponders and mail forwarding for over a year! OUCH!

Mid-Story Moral: Have a different address than your main business contact, for personal e-mail!! DUH!

I digress... So I didn't sign up for this site from that e-mail, BUT I did go to that website directly. The website is called Mamasource.com. I liked the name and thought there might be something to it.

Boy am I glad I went in search of. This is a terrific site. One of the best things I like about it is it connects local people. All the moms asking for advise are right here in the city I registered as mine so it has a very local flavor. I was surprised how many responses post so rapidly from many qualified, intelligent people. People post a concern or question and get an onslaught of advise and comments very rapidly. What a fantastic resource.

I'm trying to think of something I want advise on so I can post in that capacity. In the meantime I'm enjoying my daily, brief newsletter and browsing people's questions. Some, I lend advise to and others I just look forward to reading what other folks have to say. It's a very inspiring and encouraging community. I also listed my business, since I'm a mompreneur and business owner and they naturally support that kind of thing.

Do yourself a favor and check out Mamasource! It's also on my side bar.

Carry on my cheeky monkeys.