Most people are very familiar with the idea of “win-win” in the development of joint ventures. This way of thinking has helped push old world business owners into thinking about the benefits of helping their business partners as well as themselves.
To strengthen business relationships, you need to focus on what would benefit both parties. The result creates more of a unified force. Asking yourself how you can help your business partner will truly make a huge difference in the long-term stability of your venture. A good way to start a relationship is to ask both parties for their Conditions of Success (COS). Then everyone knows what is expected at the end for joint success.
However, this model is lacking in the fact that it doesn’t include all parties. Yes, you and your partner are taken care of, but how much more powerful would it be to take this mindset into the area of your customers as well. To build a long-term relationships with partners and customers, ask everyone their COS.
In the case of joint ventures we find that the two on the end of selling are happy, but they leave out the buyer and often don’t put much thought into actually helping them to feel truly taken care of. Obviously, not a good move. If we look at the success of businesses like Zappos.com or Amazon.com, we find at the root of their success a business model that focuses on the happiness of the customer.
In order to create a lasting and productive partnership with anyone, (the customer, the manufacturer, the backers, etc.) we have to think about everyone involved. We have to make sure that everyone wins. Believe me, it’s completely worth putting the time and energy into working this out.
Instead of calling it “win-win”, we prefer “win-win-win”, or triple win. We win, you win and they win. This mindset is extremely helpful in developing a strong and successful strategy.
When launching into a partnership make sure to ask these questions:
- Is this going to add to my overall goals?
- Is this going to help my business partner(s)?
- Will this increase quality for our customer(s)?
If you can answer all of those with a yes, then you have something to move forward with. Naturally, you’ll want to come back to this and see if you can streamline this even further as time goes on. It’s always a good idea to asking yourself, how can I make this even better, more productive, more enjoyable or simply more exciting in some way?
For more information on how we can help you develop your venture through business partnerships, please contact us.