Sounds naff but there is an incredible power to creating non-competitive alliances or marketing co-operatives or whatever you want to call them.
Benefits for the partners:
- Combined resources to focus on a market place
eg share a database - Combining strengths
eg sharing each other’s databases - Combined power
eg having a sister expert in a different field means that you can offer a fuller service to your client - Combined events
eg working together you can run an event for 100 not 20 delegates - Exposure to potential clients you might not have found
- Enhanced Reputation
eg choose your partners carefully and your reputation will grow by association - Enhanced resource
eg careful use of pro bono/barter arrangements means that your partners can also be your suppliers and vice verse
Benefits for the Clients
An opportunity to deal with a group of like-minded suppliers who are familiar with each others work practices
I was about to say 'so what?' but yes you've got me thinking. Subtle, eh!
ReplyDeletePete
Ahh. So the point is, if I am right, that we can work with and not against our competitors and out clients will then benefit.
ReplyDeleteAn example please?
In Torquay local businesses are battling to work together to fight the might of the supermarket/pub/restaurant giants. It feels like a losing battle but we must unite. We are stronger together than apart.
ReplyDeleteSimon
but sometimes competition is competition.
ReplyDeleteRecently we banded together with an arch rival. It turned the market inside out and we discovered that we had more in common than we realised.
ReplyDeletePete
excellent Rob - this was already the theme of a talk I am giving next month, and you have just reinforced my position - thank you
ReplyDeleteI have (over)seen this approach work extremely well. It fits particularly well within a financial/professional services environment.
ReplyDeleteThink about it. A firm can commit to spending upon sales to compete in their marketplace...which, right now, is probably static or contracting...so price-cutting is the main tactic. OR, turn that spend into an INVESTMENT in an improved customer (service) proposition through co-operation.
Not only can this approach aid new business but can really boost retention through customer satisfaction and referral.
David http://davidgwilson.spaces.live.com
Pete, an example.
ReplyDeleteWorking at Warwick Business School many years ago we were set up by the DTI to compete with Durham Unversity Business School to create a competitive market for a training programme.
Because demand was not huge all the time both DUBS and Warwick struggled on occasion to fill the training rooms. The answer was to join forces and run one programme in one place but with both sets of delegates. The real beenfit came in the two institutions openly sharing materials and staff (as well as delegates) making the overall programme much better and much better value.
Two heads are better than one etc
In the past I have run numerous events with other similar (but non-competing partners) at Business Link.
ReplyDeleteI have also run events with direct competitors eg management consultants.
My experience is that the marketplace is big and that customers want different types of service. In other words people we consider to be competitors may actually just be in the same market but are perceived as different (= not the same) by the customer.
We learn more about how the competition do things and get to see the similarities and the differences more clearly by working alongside each other.
Jim
@Kevin B. When I find out someone needs a service that I don't provide I find someone that does. Then we work out if we can work together for mutual gain.
ReplyDeleteIt works well because I already have something to offer when I contact them. And the prospect gets what they need and thanks me for it. They return to me when they or someone they know does need my service.
The phrase is "givers gain"
ReplyDeleteALLIANCE MANIACS. Don’t assume that “the best resides within.” WORK WITH A
ReplyDeleteSHIFTING ARRAY OF STATE-OF-THE-ART PARTNERS FROM ONE END OF THE “SUPPLY
CHAIN”/PLANET TO THE OTHER. Including vendors and consultants, and especially …
PIONEERING CUSTOMERS … who will “pull us into the future.”
@Kevin B. When I find out someone needs a service that I don't provide I find someone that does. Then we work out if we can work together for mutual gain.
ReplyDeleteIt works well because I already have something to offer when I contact them. And the prospect gets what they need and thanks me for it. They return to me when they or someone they know does need my service.
Ahh. So the point is, if I am right, that we can work with and not against our competitors and out clients will then benefit.
ReplyDeleteAn example please?
excellent Rob - this was already the theme of a talk I am giving next month, and you have just reinforced my position - thank you
ReplyDeletebut sometimes competition is competition.
ReplyDelete