Make Money Out of Nothing!

What new ways will you generate revenue in 2007? What are your most effective no/low cost marketing strategies to date?

.It surprises me how often business owners fail to capitalize on one of their primary and most cost effective strengths- relationships! You see, with the right perspective on relationships/relationship building, even a small or obscure business can grow by leaps and bounds. This happens when every relationship is seen as a strategic alliance instead of just someone you know. Strategic alliances are important in that they can become very powerful sales and marketing channels in a very short amount of time. However, the proper utilization of these channels requires that a business owner be able to work effectively with a two-tiered strategy; one immediate and the other long term (I’ll touch on these in a later tip)..

For now though, it’s an easy step to go ahead and spend ten minutes right now to develop an initial list of good strategic alliances. In brainstorming a list of potential alliances use these five simple criteria:

1) High overlap of same type of clientele
2) Non-competing industries
3) Mutually reinforcing products/services
4) Similar values, ethics or strategy
5) Easy to work with.And when forming these strategic relationships, be very mindful of what you are trying to accomplish; that is, are you forging a sales or marketing channel?.

A sales channel is an entity that is either going to sell your product/service outright or most likely, build it into what they are selling while providing you a fair slice of the revenue. This is a great way for businesses to mutually benefit each other in an immediate and long term strategy as these types of relationships provide differentiation and better value-add to your customers (which inevitably leads to higher customer loyalty).

.A marketing channel is an entity that provides positive brand/benefit-awareness to their customers, thus allowing you a stronger position in a given market compared to your competitors. This is also very helpful when the product/service yo offer is so innovative that just not that many folks know about it. A marketing channel will best serve a long-term strategy as it most likely won’t generate immediate sales..

Regardless of which channel you are developing, a strong set of strategic alliances allow you to grow yours business in a no/low cost and effective manner. Just make sure you have a strong filter/set of criteria as to what kind of companies with which you will create an alliance. Feel free to contact us for a breakfast/lunch sit-down and we can discuss possible alliances that might have been overlooked or to run one complimentary effective brainstorming session for your company. Hey, if it was easy, every small business would be doing it habitually and successfully. I hope you find yourself in that category soon… Talk to you next week!