Collaborate Rather Than Compete

3 Tips To Collaborate Rather Than Compete So You Can Increase Your Market Share In A Downturn Economy

In today’s ever increasingly competitive market place, one of the things you may have noticed is that companies who were previously competitors are coming together – not just merging, but collaborating.

Most of us realise the importance of market research to understand what our potential customers are not only need but want to invest in; and we also know we need to be aware of what our competition are planning and how they are responding to the changing economy.

I can recall situations where well established global brands have been caught out by their competition – often due the fact that the competitor was tuned into the market, listened to what customers wanted and they had the ability to act quickly. This resulted in the new brands on the block winning the market share from the bigger brand and impacting their profit margins.

Recently I was speaking to a business colleague who is the managing director of a large training company and he mentioned that his company is launching a new programme. Rather than ‘going it alone’, he is developing the programme in collaboration with a ‘competitor’ – someone who offers similar services, products and programmes to his organisation.

The reason they have come together is that they realise that they are stronger together rather than each ‘fighting’ for market share. This collaboration means that they can extend their reach and share marketing resources.

When you consider your business, can you think of a company that you think would be a great strategic partner? An organisation who you could collaborate with, extend your reach, grow market share, increase visibility and be seen as ‘the company of choice’ by your customers. It might be an organisation who is already marketing to your target audience but they have a complementary service or product to your own.

Here are three actions you can take to start to explore collaborations:

1. Take some time out to consider who a great strategic partner for your business would be – what would they bring to the relationship and what do you have to offer in exchange?

2. If you can not think of an organisation immediately, why not undertake some desk top research perhaps through your networks online and offline to identify potential joint venture partners?

3. Before taking any action in approaching the potential collaboration partner, learn as much as you can about them. What is going well in their business? What areas do you think they may be challenged about? Take a look at their website, business blog and any online footprint they have developed. Subscribe to their newsletter. This will provide you insights into where you might be able to collaborate.

Starting with this research, your understanding of your target market and a knowledge and confidence in what your company has to offer will help you lay a great foundation for exploring a potential joint venture that will be of benefit to both your company and you competitors organisation and will highlight where you can together create value for your customers.

© Krishna De

About the author: Krishna De (http://www.bizgrowthnews.com) is a marketing and communications strategist and mentor and the author of forthcoming book ‘42 Rules of Marketing in a Recession’. You will also find Krishna networking online at LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/krishnade), Facebook (http://www.profile.to/krishnade) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/krishnade).

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