Business Partnerships
Looking for ways to where your brand and other brands can come together with assets & resources they both have and cross-pollinate each to get much more impactful growth.
Standard Partnership = Nike has a shoe, Ipod has music = combine together to make new product.
Join Venture = Two companies partner up to create brand new products together. Usually takes a lot of time, resources and investment from both parties. I.E. Bottled Starbucks Drinks.
Licensing = Hold the key rights to a business model or assets that many companies want to use temporarily or long term but creates no competitive dynamic between other brands that can also use the same assets for their own approach. Music for example generates emotions that might go with a marketing campaign for one brand or a movie for another but is in no competition with each other.
Distribution Deals = One party provides product or service and another provides the resources to distribute such as Amazon FBA where businesses send their items and products to Amazon to do the shipping for you for a cut.
Supply Partnerships = Companies with lots of assets or resources can supply particular elements for you to accomplish your product or service. For example an independent film studio might partner with an equipment rental firm to give them access to equipment needed on set to complete the film for a % of backend profits of the film.
These can be great options to grow momentum especially longer term but unfortunately most businesses don’t think too far in the future nor have strategists on their team to help with long term objectives.
So many brands are optimistic they will succeed but don’t look at the “what if’s” of potential failure essentially leading to a mindset of “we’ll worry about it when we get there” but by then, the issue might be catastrophic and demolish the entire business.
Key Elements to Focus On
Attributes that match with your own brands objectives
Avoid Name Brand if it doesn’t align
How You Solve THEIR Problem
The Approach
Make a list of potential partners
Make a + - for all potential partners
Have tested value proposition outreach method (Email, Phone, In Person)
Know who the “right contact” is to get the deal done faster
Get a warm intro to the target (whom knows about the key value proposition in relation to their own business model)
Pitch (Including simplified pitch deck) + Financial Sheet
Have a term sheet ready (one page) + proposition (one page)
After Deal is Done (Sticking Points)
Maintain Business Posture with Notes
Time it took to milestones
Key contacts
Sticking points
What interested prospect to become a partner
Contact info (also good for random gifting to them around bday/holidays etc)