Take this challenge:

Is there anyone we should partner with?

By Dr. Sharon Gotteiner

Various types of collaborative setups can make growth easier to achieve. Use the following questions to spark your next great move.

Here’s the bottom line: your ideal partner would be a company that offers products, services, or technology that complement yours or that can make your offering even better and more available. The following questions may help you identify your next, great partner.

What makes clients choose other products or services over ours?

This question is all about acknowledging our competitive weaknesses. Such weaknesses can relate to the quality of our products, their functionality, technologies that are used by or interact with our products, the professional level of the services we provide, or any other type of weakness. If any company can help us cope with such weaknesses, let us consider how we can create a win-win situation. By doing so we can strengthen our competitive advantage and strategic position. So, there must be some company that is our next great match. But who is it? Answering any of the following questions will help identify that.

What can help us gain a better grip on the market?

Getting a better grip on our market may entail taking over assets that can strengthen our relationship with our clients. This may be a product or service that our clients see as valuable and unique or as a unique channel of distribution to or communication with our clients. “Taking over” does not have to mean acquisition. It can also mean an exclusivity that both sides can benefit from. To link it with management science theory, such a move can help a company secure a rare resource, limit its competition from using it, make itself more difficult to imitate, and support a relatively higher level of profitability.

What can make our clients increase the dollar value of their orders?

There must be a product or service that our clients purchase next to the one they buy from us. What is it? Currently, our customers buy that product or service from various suppliers. We do not have any influence over their buying decision, and if we had such an influence, we could monetize that. Therefore, one of those companies that provide that additional product or service may be a good candidate for a partnership: we may be able to cross-sell their product or service to our clients and increase the dollar amount of such orders. It’s a win-win for all. On top of the financial aspect, there is a strategic bonus: Our ability to address additional client needs will strengthen our competitive advantage. So, what is that additional product or service that our clients need right before or after they buy ours?

What can make our offering more available to clients?

Are there any regions in which our products or services are not yet available? Any time frames during which we are not available? Are there any other features of our setup that limit the availability of our offering? Such limitations may be obvious to us, but let us seek ways to leap over such limitations. Is there any company that could help us leap over such limitations?

The four questions introduced above demonstrate the path you can take while looking for a way for us to push growth further. Of course, additional questions can be introduced to spark a great move. Please note, however, that they all reflect a clear client orientation. They aim at better serving your clients or strengthening your relationship with them. Client orientation is a central motive in business innovation, and you can see it setting the tone here, too.

So… is there anyone that you think we should partner with? Good luck!

© Dr. Sharon Gotteiner, Corpocheck.org . All Rights Reserved. This publication is intended for individual use only. Please consider joining the Enterprise Plan for integrating our materials with the organizational innovation process in place.

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