Implement a New Business Partnership

Learning how to implement a new business partnerships is an important skill for entrepreneurs to grasp as developing business relationships with other companies can often be the fastest path to establishing channels of customers. Businesses that have an enterprise focus often are faced with business development partnerships much quicker in their company life cycle than consumer based businesses, however both can benefit from establishing strong ties with companies within a similar industry.

If a deal does not provide great benefits to both parties it will only be short lived, so always reevaluate every relationship prior to moving forward with signing the agreement.

It is important to understand what is the goal to achieve by creating a new business relationship with another company and why they should be attracted to this offer. First, it is critical to thoroughly think out all of the advantages a business can bring to a partnership, including your own business. It will always be more difficult to secure great business partners and so it is critical to know both what strengths your company brings to the table and what weaknesses the other company has. Bringing more strengths to the table to solve a weakness in an already very large established business can be an excellent path to a fruitful and rewarding business deal.

Generally for most solutions there is fierce competition already in the marketplace and existing business relationships between companies, so it is vital to understand all of your advantages to separate yourself from other companies in the space. Unless the partnership is a pure revenue share type relationship with a company focused on selling products and services then there will usually need to be additional benefits from the partnership in order for the other company to see enough value in your company to spend resources, staff, and executive management time to put the deal together and then execute.

A few of the most important issues to look at during the evaluation phase of implementing a new business partnership.

Areas to discuss with executives while planning an execution strategy for the business deal:

• Revenue potential - How many deals can be closed? What is the low hanging fruit “easy deals” that can close fast? What is the lifespan of a customer that is closed and additional revenue? What is the likely hood of up selling additional products or service contracts?

• Co-marketing funds - How much money is available for co-branded marketing campaigns and activities? What existing social media avenues can be tapped?

• Communication Tools - What communication tools does the company have set up? What technologies are you compatible with or comfortable using if required? Are both teams easily trainable with new equipment / services for communication?

• Existing Customer Base - How loyal are existing customers and the reliability of them making a purchase based on a recommendation? Any past business deals that deployed to the customer base successfully / unsuccessfully? Is the company open to doing business exclusively or are competing businesses included? What markets are the customers located in?

• Customer Service - How is the customer service department? Is the team and management easy to communicate with? Expertise on the industry and market? How many support and service calls can the team support in an hour? Is this easily scalable?

One of the biggest reasons for a partnership to fail in business is the lag time between signing a new partnership and successfully executing on the deal. This is especially true when creating a partnership to either act as a sales channel or other similar activity. Try and establish a couple of low hanging fruit options that will close fast and reach out to those customers during the evaluation process of a new partner. Don't move forward with an agreement with a company that ultimately, it will be very difficult to send an early lead over for and get a deal closed quickly.