Strategic Alliances
Four Guidelines for Teaming Up to Offer Your Customers More
By Robert Spiegel
Can a home business deliver a fully working team that can take on a
business opportunity usually reserved for large business
enterprises? Don’t limit yourself just because you answer your
business phone in the same room that the kids play in. You can take
on big, team-managed projects if you find the right partners.
Strategic alliances with other companies and professionals can give
the you ability to deliver the punch of a large company.
There are many ways you can extend the products and services you
offer to your customers. An example is an accountant who works
cooperatively with a bookkeeping and payroll company to provide a
complete financial package to home-based businesses. The goal is to
provide additional related services or products to serve the
customer and increase your profits.
Strategic alliances can also increase referrals and extend market
reach. An example is a remodeling company that teams up with a real
estate company to present seminars that introduce options for home
im provement. Another example is mutual referrals, where companies
negotiate agreements to recommend each other to their customers.
These alliances can provide inexpensive ways to reach new customers.
The reasons for developing strategic alliances are to extend your
market reach and to provide a wider range of choices for your
customers as well as to increase convenience. When you develop
strategic al liances, make sure the products relate to each other. A
nutritional consultant who also sells gold coins comes across as an
opportunist. A nutritional consultant who also provides a catalog of
exercise equipment and instruction is on target.
Here are four guidelines to keep your strategic alliances
productive.
Make Yourself a One-Stop Shop
In choosing strategic partnerships, think in terms of making your
company a one-stop for customers who need anything in your field. As
an example, if you sell computer networks, team up with a computer
furnishings business and a computer hard ware company. You might
also deliver software packages your customer needs.
Another option is to work on the basis of receiving a finder’s fee
for direct referrals, or you can offer a catalog of products
supplied by a different company. Then you buy wholesale from the
catalog company and sell retail to your customer. This gives your
customer a good discount while making you a profit on the
transaction. It’s the best of both worlds. Your customer gets a
discount and you get a profit.
When you are a one-stop for your customer, you have the extra burden
of customer service and follow-up. Make sure you bring on reliable
partners who will stick through the good times and the bad.
Team Up with Quality Players
Alliances need to meet your quality level or surpass it. Lower
quality partners “lower the bar” for your company. Strive to bring
in partners with slightly higher quality standards. It will lift the
customer perception of your company and reduce potential
dissatisfaction. You also need partners you can trust. Finally, look
for companies that have longer track records. You can leverage their
credibility when you make sales calls.
Make It Easy
Strategic alliances work be cause it is easier for customers to buy
from one source. But you need to make sure the alliance provides a
simple buying process. If difficult or hard to understand, the
buying process will hurt your sales rather than help them.
Flexibility is helpful when offering your line of products or
services. For example, if you are a marketing consultant and you
recommend a media package to your client, you can then offer to
handle the design, production and printing of the package. If you
explain that you have created a team of designers, production
artists and a printer that can deliver high quality at a lower price
than your customer would find on his own, the customer will choose
your option. The first hurdle was defining the need for a media
package. The rest was simple customer service that increased
profits.
Offer Customer Support on Your Entire Package
Customer service must be seamless and easy. If you are simply
offering a referral and receiving a finder’s fee, make sure you are
referring to a company that will provide good customer service. But
if you are making the sale yourself, you need to deliver customer
service directly to your customers. Don’t just sell a product and
later give your customer an 800 number to call when there’s a
problem. If a problem arises, you need to take care of it for the
customer. If you don’t, it lowers the perception of the entire
strategic enterprise.
Strategic alliances can bring additional profits without incurring
additional investment, but you need to make sure you follow the
above four guidelines. Once you get comfortable with offering a
wider range of products and services to your customers, you can
continue to expand through strategic alliances. The ultimate size of
your home business is determined by the size of your imagination,
not the size of your home office. HBM
Robert Spiegel owns Spiegel Enterprises, a marketing company that
helps emerging businesses grow. Spiegel provides marketing plans and
publicity plans that help guide companies to success. Spiegel
Enterprises also publishes a newsletter for freelance writers
entitled Freelancers Marketplace. You can call Robert at
505/275-2556 or write him at 10308 Oso Grande NE, Albuquerque, NM
87111.
Originally Published at http://www.homebusinessmag.com/
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