Whether you are in accounting, finances, sales, consulting or another service industry, to grow your small business takes creativity. Using strategic business alliances allows you to develop a mutually beneficial relationship to expand your service offerings and increase your brand awareness.
Seek Vendors with a Shared Target Market
It may seem counterproductive to build a relationship with a business that shares your target market. You are not sleeping with the enemy. Instead, you build a business alliance around complimentary talents, products, and services that can help you grow your small business. In turn, your customers benefit.
Begin by:
- Identifying businesses that offer different, yet complimentary, services
- Create a list of how you can assist potential business partners
- Develop a game plan for how to approach and present your idea
One of the best ways of building strategic alliances that work is by understanding and presenting the benefits.
Sell How a Strategic Business Alliance is a Benefit
Building a successful business alliance requires you to show that it is a win-win situation for both parties. That requires you to be able to communicate benefits, such as:
Supplementary services. Being able to offer supplementary services that you or your new business alliance partner would not otherwise have is a great benefit. For instance, if you are an accountant, you may want to build a business alliance with a lawyer or financial consultant.
New customer base. One of the best benefits of business alliances is reaching out to buyers who aren’t currently using your services and showing them how they complement the services and products they are already using. In this instance, an accountant may decide to develop an alliance with a technical consultant who can identify, maintain, and/or upgrade accounting hardware and software systems.
Brand awareness. Building brand awareness is vital to growing a small business. Once you have access to a new and different customer base, you have the opportunity to sell them on why your services are a cut above the rest. With the right business alliance, your new partner will help make the sales pitch.
When you’re ready to build new business alliances, we’re here to help. We have 30 years of experience in sales, marketing, strategic alliances, and management. For more information, browse our website, review our blog, and then contact us.