A business alliance is especially relevant for every business owner. This formal relationship of multiple organizations focuses on mutual business objectives. Essentially, a business alliance poses an important array of benefits to strengthen your business. Continue reading
Category Archives: Sales
Managing Channels of Distribution with Strategic Partnerships
Starting or expanding a business takes more than just a good business plan and product. It also requires avenues for getting your products to the right customers at the right time. Finding channels of distribution that allow you to accomplish your business goals involves building deep strategic alliances with the right partners.
Strategic alliances create a quicker path to growth. Continue reading
Not All Channels of Distribution are Created Equal, Some Are More Creative
No man is an island applies to the relationship between manufacturers and partners in their channels of distribution. Whether manufacturers choose wholesalers, distributors, value added resellers (VARS), agents, dealers, or retailers, they also need to consider that not all channels of distribution are created equal for their particular business objectives. Not only does a company need to choose the right distribution channels, but they need to know how to use them to get the most out of their product. A creative approach always comes in handy. Continue reading
Increase Channels of Distribution with Better People, Processes and Products
Channels of distribution are some of the most important parts of your business. If you have positive momentum in distribution, your product/service is constantly in demand and you are making money. If you cannot get distribution, finding customers is difficult and costly and your business is overwhelming.
Fans of The Profit are familiar with the 3P’s of business: People, Process and Product. Continue reading
How Business Alliances Help Startups Succeed
“8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months. A whopping 80% crash and burn.” According to Entrepreneur there is only one thing you need to succeed as a startup, so don’t panic. “Your startup can still succeed. But it will depend on one thing and one thing only. Customers.”
However, developing your product, bringing it to market, finding customers, and keeping Continue reading
Deming Management and Business Alliances: Quality and Efficiency
As those familiar with W. Edwards Deming know, Business Alliances are the most important part of supply chain management. For those not familiar with Deming, he was an American economist who rebuilt post-war Japan and came back to the United States in the 1980s to address why Japanese manufacturing had beaten American manufacturing. Total quality control is his most well-known ideas, but one of his 14 points addresses the need to develop strategic partnerships with suppliers.
In Out of The Crisis, he points out that Japanese companies learned early that “the best Continue reading
3 Steps to Vetting Alliance Partners
Alliance Partners bring unique strengths to your business. Each partnership can bring support, innovation, resources, and intelligence to your business. With so much on the line, how do you decide who is your best alliance partner?
In any relationship, there is a vetting process which takes place before you commit to the relationship. Business alliances are no different than any other relationship in the vetting process. A young couple begins dating with discovery, exploration, testing, and more. Shouldn’t you be doing the same when you create an alliance? Continue reading
Channels of Distribution Slowing You Down?
Channels of Distribution are key alliances a business can enter into. As pointed out by Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary on almost every episode, not getting distribution kills a company. Channels of Distribution move your product to potential customers.
For manufacturing companies, your distribution channels will be wholesalers and retailers Continue reading
Alliance Building in a Sharing Economy
Alliance development and management used to be simple. Find the group of potential allies you wanted, find where they meet, and get involved there. In the sharing economy, allies have become easier to find and encounter, but harder to know. With mega-gurus like Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Daymond John taking to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites, alliances bridge geographic and sociological boundaries. Linking and touching others has never been easier, but is that an alliance? Continue reading
Succeeding with Business Alliances
Why enter into a business alliance? The main motivations include cost reduction, the improvement of service or capture more customers. Here are 5 kinds of business alliances that business-oriented minds need to know about: Continue reading
Pitfalls and Benefits of Strategic Alliances
There’s an old saying that “two heads are better than one,” and it has never been truer than today. There are several benefits to connecting with another company in forming a strategic alliance, the corporate equivalent of putting two heads together.
Leverage knowledge and expertise from another company, without having to hire additional employees
Working together with another company in a formal strategic alliance provides your company access to additional experts, without having to hire them. Continue reading
Strategic Alliances Embodies Five Characteristics
Alliances originate in every shape and size, and then evolve to meet the requirements of the partners. Strategic alliances are high-maintenance commitments towards particular purposes. Do not consider them to be spontaneous, nor short-term. Strategic alliances in the technology world start at 5-10 years. For the pharmaceutical world, the time from conception to market is very long and expensive. Therefore their strategic alliances exist closer 15-20 years. In my local community, the mayors of more than 25 communities created an alliance in the 1980’s to grow the whole community. The fruit of their efforts are now blossoming. Continue reading
Choosing a Matchmaker to Help Find Business Partners
Most people think of a matchmaker as someone who arranges romantic relationships. However, you can apply the term matchmaker to most anyone who introduces you to potential partners, such as business partners.
Meeting and developing a relationship with the right partners can be a difficult task. Continue reading
Why Most Small Businesses Need Power Partners
There are many commercials on TV and on the radio these days that say to call in and tell them about your invention idea. It sounds so easy, yet so campy and shifty at the same time. You’ve decided to market your own product. You’ve invested your own money, (and possibly a little of someone else’s if you’ve been lucky). However, you know deep down that you might not have what it takes to insure the success of this business. It’s the same feeling that made you even listen to that campy, shifty commercial in the first place. You know you need help, but you don’t know where to look or how to get it.
Help for Small Businesses with Good Ideas Continue reading
Use Alliance Management to “Get it Right”, because Alliances Have Limitless Potential
If your business is stagnant and needs a fresh and new division, product or service; or if you’re a new business and you need credibility or access to an established customer base, an alliance is a great way to get where you need to be.
Why Use Alliance Management?
Alliance Performance Coaching: Which Coach Do You Choose?
With the number of business alliances soaring, alliance performance coaching becomes even more essential.
An article from Forbes talks about why coaching is vital for any partnership. In this piece of literature, the author makes it clear that no matter the past relationships that you have had with your partner, it pays to hire a coach. As he puts it, “Whether or not you knew each other beforehand, launching a business will change your relationship.” Therefore, to thrive in any joint venture, you have to incorporate performance coaching services. However, how do you make certain that the coach you go for will be rewarding for your business?
Power Partners, You Know You Need them, but Do You Really Have Time to Build Alliances Properly?
It’s official. The public’s buying behavior has changed. Every major marketing firm on Madison Avenue now has an Internet Marketing division; and many experts believe online marketing is even more powerful than TV, Radio and Print marketing is for many products and services. Everyone from grandpa to toddlers is becoming more tech savvy; and consumers are making buying decisions based on social and environmental responsibility.
What do You Do?
Well, totally changing your business model is out of the question for a multitude of reasons. However, a new joint venture can quickly gain you access to new customers, more capital, more technological resources; and give you more credibility in the modern marketplace. Continue reading
PC Tablet Manufacturer Enters United Arab Emirates via Strategic Alliance
In a recent announcement Simmtronics, the world’s third leading PC tablet manufacturer, and Jumbo Electronics, the leading distributor and retailer of IT and consumer electronics in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have formed a strategic alliance to distribute PC tablets throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Simmtronics’ motivation for penning the deal is an effort to remain true to its commitment to expand in to as many new markets as possible.
According to Chris Ruggeri, M&A services leader at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, the recent decline in M&A activity Continue reading
The Benefits of an International Joint Venture and the Risk of Naturalization
There are several reasons as to why a business may want to enter a joint venture overseas. Things like lower manufacturing costs, favorable monetary conversion rates, and lower taxes can all make international joint ventures beneficial. However, even though there are many advantages to entering an international joint venture, there are a considerable risks.
International joint ventures allow businesses to reduce their risk while extending their market reach to an entirely new area. Having access to a whole new customer base is enticing for businesses Continue reading
Growing Your Business with Joint Ventures
Whether you are starting out as an entrepreneur or have a successful business already, you know the importance of you clientele and growing your customer base. Sometimes it can be difficult to design and market new products and ideas on your own, especially if you are just starting out. One solution to this dilemma is Joint Ventures (JV). A joint venture is a business agreement between two parties with the intent to achieve a common goal.
Here are some great advantages Continue reading