Are teaming with other businesses a good idea for targeting your client?

Teaming for business means increasing your exposure and branding and building more future clients

When you are starting a new business, or your current business is struggling with the paying client funnel, finding other businesses willing to team with you is good practice, right? Very likely! What is the value in offering your services or providing freebies to the client or the teaming business? Is the return on investment (ROI) a gamble or a sure thing?  It all depends on the agreement between the partnering companies.  Giving a little freebie up front may ensure massive profits later as you practice teaming for business.

Enhance Services

In a teaming agreement, you may have a partner in the same industry with which you can combine assets to offer ‘enhanced’ or ‘value added’ services or products to a client you are both targeting. This doesn’t mean either company has control over the other legally.  In teaming, a business may offer hands-on services, the build of a product, or visiting a site to perform services. The other business team member may conduct administrative details, obtain the contract, and perform invoicing.  One business may also be a sub-contractor under a primary teaming contractor.  Do ensure you don’t compromise services or prices to be on any team – especially if a long-term contract.  Write a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to put in writing the expectations from each other while the partnership is in effect or until a specific terminal date.

Good faith work

Should you provide ‘free work’ in good faith to a potential teaming partner? It may be a good idea. An example would be where a primary contractor (who may be out of town or state) calls a local service provider to visit a worksite to perform an estimate. While the in-town company may visit the site to perform the estimate, there is no guarantee the in-town contractor will actually get the sub-contracted work.  The out-of-town contractor is ‘using’ the in-town business to obtain data and perform pre-work details.  Optimally, the out-of-town contractor should offer to pay for the time to the in-town sub-contractor to perform the data collection. There should be an agreed reimbursement for performing the estimate, and the in-town contractor should not be shy about asking for it.  (The in-town business has value for hours they work, also.)  If the target client approves of the estimate, and the primary contractor contracts the sub-contractor to perform the work, the sub-contractor may be able to ‘forgive’ the job estimate cost – especially if the contract is long-term and both companies will be making a decent profit on the job.

Symbiotic Partnership

A symbiotic relationship is teaming for business with a non-direct competitor. These businesses goes after the same target market client, but provide different services and enhances opportunities for both businesses to partner to gain new clients.  An example may be a hypnotherapist, a chiropractor, and a massage therapist teaming together to provide a free educational seminar. Each of the symbiotic team members provide equal share of costs of the event venue, snacks, drinks, and door prizes for attendees.  To qualify for the drawing, the attendees must complete questionnaires asking attendees to provide point of contact (POC) data.  Once the door prizes have been given away via a drawing, all three businesses share the forms for follow-up.

Teaming for Business

Another example of a symbiotic relationship would be: financial consultants / credit repair businesses, realtors and mortgage brokers, and home inspection services who combine their expertise for an educational seminar to first-time homebuyers.  Each sponsor provides a 15 minute presentation on: 1) saving for buying a new home, 2) repairing credit history, learning buying a home and pre-qualifying processes, and 3) learning what to look for pertaining to repair issues before they make an offer or getting an understanding of the cost of repairs after they purchase.  Each of these businesses are targeting the same client target market, have symbiotic relationships in that clients will eventually use them all in a linear process, and attendees will provide POC data for follow-up immediately after while clients are still excited about the education and prospects of improving their future.

Results

Teaming with other businesses can be profitable – if done right.  Open your mind to business development possibilities by observing other businesses also targeting your future customers. What can you can do together to combine your marketing assets to get more for your advertising dollars?  Reach out for assistance to curriculum developers and event planners experienced at developing exciting seminars to attract your target market clients.

Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., owner of D. Boyer Consulting – provides resume writing, social media management and training, business development, human resources consulting, and print-on-demand author coaching and consulting. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or https://dboyerconsulting.com.