Places to Find Your Next Strategic Alliance

Posted by Guest on Oct 22, 2008 in Entrepreneurs • No comments

Have you ever read Acres of Diamonds? The most obvious place to start looking is your own back yard. This story is very well explained in Acres of Diamonds.

So the first place I would look for joint venture partners is in my own back yard. Consider your own exististing clients. This is one of the best places to start because your customers have already done business with you, they know like and trust you (if they don’t, why not). This trust can be converted into more opportunities and more business.

Magazine Publishers
A lot depends on who the magazine publisher is, some of the very largest might be hard to reach but certainly the smaller or niche magazines are a good place to explore. It’s the same with people who distribute newsletters on line or printed material off line. They can be a great source for big databases of potential customers for you.

Library
Your library is a virtual goldmine of good quality research material. They will often have lists of associations and will show you how many members they have. In the USA and Canada you can review http://www.mediafinder.com/. They have around 75,000 newsletter for you to explore. There is a cost involved with this service so do your sums first before subscribing.

If you are based in the USA you can use Standard Rates and Data Services http://www.srds.com. In the UK you can go to a list broker like Marketing File http://marketingfile.com/ I wouldn’t personally go out and buy a big list from a list broker because the chances are good that a business will already have an active relationship with your target market and this is likely to be warmer than a cold list.

Your library is going to have some great resources for research. It may be worth your while buying these directories for your own use. They are normally quite expensive so you could always see if they are available on eBay. Even the older ones still have gems.

Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages might be a bit long in the tooth now because there are on-line resources. But, the people who already advertise in yellow pages are a useful point of contact for joint ventures.

Seminars
Seminars can be a great place to meet potential joint venture partners. Be choosy about which ones you attend but generally they can be a rich pool of motivated people. Paid for seminars will have some of the better joint venture opportunities because you won’t get so many tyre kickers.

Search Engines
Go to Google and type in the keywords that you are looking for. You will be surprised what pops up.

Discussion Boards
Are a great place to find passionate people. Bulletin boards or forums are a great place to communicate with other like minded people and will help to set the scene before formally contacting them for a joint venture opportunity.

Newspaper Ads
Lets face it if people are advertising in newspapers they are probably looking for business. Why not call them and see if they might be interested in starting a dialogue with you.

Your Website
There is always an opportunity to better use your web real estate. Why not mention that you are open to joint ventures and explain what you are looking for.

Ezine Directories

Competitors
Contrary to popular opinion, your competitors are a good place to look for alliances. Some of the best joint venture alliances may come from your biggest competitors.

And the mailing will also be very targeted. Why not capitalize on this and make a handsome profit?

Referrals
Existing clients are a great source of referrals for joint ventures. Just pick up the phone and ask them who they might know.

Other Places to Find Partners;

Business events
Newsgroups
Business Directories
On-Line classifieds
Magazines / trade magazines
Trade Fairs

There are literally dozens of places to look, have fun.

Happy Joint Venturing

More on Strategic Alliances:

Strategic Alliances: Three Ways to Make Them Work (Memo to the Ceo)
by Steve Steinhilber
Amazon Price: $12.24
Customer Reviews:
» I highly recommend Steinhilber's book as an excellent strategic alliances high-level primer for any executive interested in leveraging strategic partnerships to grow their business. It is also a must...

Organizing Genius
by Warren Bennis, Patricia Ward Biederman
Amazon Price: $12.38
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» Great examples of, and insight into the so called "great groups". This book is even more valuable once one start noticing patterns and successful strategies in collaborative creativity. after reading...