No business is an island, which is why finding outreach, supporting yourself among a network of your peers, and being preesnt in the industry is a good idea. We often see this at the small levels, where a cafe might ask a local restaurant on the same street if they can borrow some ingredients, to be paid back at a later date.Â
We also see it at the top echelons of each industry, where companies might join partnerships and initiatives that are intended to help both benefit, perhaps through cross-promotions for example.Â
However, if you’re running a for-profit commercial enterprise, there’s a strong chance that charity isn’t your concern. As such, being able to evaluate how to connect with B2B partnerships, and understanding where the value lies in each, is essential.Let’s explore how you can achieve this:
Focus On Mutual Value & Practical Gains
There’s no rule saying you have to be best friends with every business you work alongside, and truthfully, trying to please everyone usually makes it harder to figure out who’s worth your time in the first place. It’s much easier to consider what each party actually wants from the arrangement and whether that’s realistic. That’s what helps you decide between something that looks nice on paper and something that actually gives your business more breathing room, more traction, more returns, or just more convenience, such as services that assist with construction planning and delivery.
In your case, it might involve your small distribution firm linking up with a local courier to smooth out your delivery schedules, or a shared advertising agreement with another business targeting the same demographic, not in direct competition but not too far off either, something that lets you both gain ground without stretching your budget thin. The shape of the deal doesn’t matter half as much as whether both sides are genuinely getting something they can use, right now, without having to dig too deep into resources that are already allocated elsewhere. You want them to help cover areas you’re not, and vice versa.
Stay Open To Informal Collaborations
It’s easy to think you have to go through a highly formalized process to begin considering a partnership, and sometimes that can be true, but not all will. Those more organic may start when someone sends a message or bumps into a contact at a trade event and realises, hang on, we’re both trying to solve the same problem here, maybe there’s a smarter way forward if we team up a little. It might not need to be anything complicated or long-term either, just a soft discussion that lets both parties run something together for a while and see what comes of it, like a mutual promotion to drum up support for a local niche.
Some tangible examples of that could include a local brewery teaming up with a nearby pizzeria to create a limited pairing menu, or a copywriter and web designer working in tandem on a small business launch package without actually joining forces as a company. In these cases, there’s very little risk but a fair bit of potential upside, and even if it doesn’t explode into something bigger, that’s still one more name you’ve got in your contact list and one more line of contact you can draw from when needed.
Know When To Formalise & Secure Agreements
Of course, sooner or later, money has to come into it, and if you expand the process at all after the test run, you have to make certain that agreements have been put in place. This should also start once your reputation becomes attached to theirs; it’s appropriate to ensure a mutual contract stipulates all the terms involved.
It should also lay out exactly what the earnings expectations are and any insurances or caveats you may have in place. For example, if the company you’re partnering with suffers a strong reputational knock, you may withdraw the right to associate your brand name with them and relieve yourself of any possible penalties early termination of the contract might have had.Â
As you may need to alter your own supply chain to help accommodate this partnership, having agreements in place for loss prevention or owed payments can also be appropriate, and help you avoid having those conversations while the hardship is being experienced.
With this advice, we hope you can more correctly consider the potential of B2B partnerships and perhaps benefit from them as time goes on.