Whether you are a startup or an established business, you always have the option to partner with known brands to increase your sales potential. You may carry your own brand products but as a lesser known entity, these may not sell as quickly as you’d like. In business, it’s all about establishing brand and the reputation that goes with it, so why not partner with known brands that consumers have come to trust? If you are looking to grow your business, one of the quickest and most effective ways to do so is to partner with known brands. The following six benefits should explain why.
1. Riding the Waves
One of the reasons why so many startups begin as partners or resellers is because of what is often termed as ‘riding the waves.’ Just as a surfer catches the big one and rides it out, so too do new businesses find that one brand they can partner with, that ‘big one’ that will make them clearly visible in a sea of competitors. For example, partnering with a telecommunications company like Cisco enables you to ride the waves of their reputation for excellence in products and services. As a startup you can develop your own area of expertise within the telecommunications niche, such as video conferencing, but Cisco partners gain credibility simply by joining forces with such a globally renowned name in the industry – a name that is synonymous with setting industry standards.
2. Greater Access to Product Information
When becoming a partner with a known brand, you have greater access to product information. What many new businesses might not understand is that partnering is steps above being a retail reseller. A partner is trained in the products they carry, has access to product information and tech support and typically the backing of the brand they are partnering with. Not financial, of course, but rather tips and techniques that set their products apart from the competition and quick ‘fixes’ if a bit of product information is the only thing needed to satisfy the customer. Established brands have Product Information Management (PIM) systems in place you can take advantage of in most cases and that saves time and money while helping to establish your company as an expert in the field.
3. Greater Networking Potential
When partnering with a known brand you also have greater potential to network with other people and professionals within your industry. Sometimes there are forums and message boards you can join, even on the company’s website. Other times you can run searches on social sites like LinkedIn to find people like yourself in the industry dealing with the same, or like, products. Networking is one of the best ways to grow your business because it puts you in touch with other professionals and potential customers who you can engage with on a more personal level. You can ask and answer questions, bringing your company into the spotlight, especially with the search engines! You’d be surprised at just how many of those questions you are active in are SEO topics that bring in huge amounts of traffic.
4. Enhanced Marketing Potential
Speaking of SEO, partnering with a known brand also offers greater marketing potential. Many of the brands you can partner with have their own ads for partners to utilize. These are much cheaper than producing your own marketing and advertising strategies and many times the ads you can use are absolutely free to partners. The brand you partner with knows what works within their industry and this offers you extremely enhanced marketing potential because you can draw on what has and has not worked for that particular brand.
6. Long Term Stability
When choosing a known brand to partner with, you will of course want to choose one with a long history of success. This, in itself, offers your startup an opportunity for long term stability within your market. Those products have been on the market for a long time, the brand you partner with is well respected, and there is every reason to believe they will be around a very long time yet to come. When choosing that brand to partner with, you are ensuring the availability of products you can offer now in the immediate future and in the long term as well.
Starting a new business or growing a small, lesser known company, can take years to achieve any sort of success. However, when partnering with a major brand that has already reached the pinnacle of success you can quite literally ride the waves of that success. These are just a few of the benefits you should be aware of when deciding whether or not to strike it out alone or partner with known brands. If you are looking for quick growth, partnering is probably your best bet.
