Collaborating with competitors can have a big upside, including helping your business reach new audiences!
Yes…you read that right.
Collaborating with competitors can introduce huge potential to your business, short term and long term.Ā
In fact, there is an official term for the practice: coopetition (co-opetition).
So whether you’re in web development, a content agency, graphic design, or even work in impact entrepreneurship, consider that there might not be a need to shy away from working with your former “archrivals.”Ā
And in this article, I’ll tell you why!
If this is a new idea for you, by the end you mayl have a new outlook on business collaborations, one which could open up new marketing and business development opportunities.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents:Ā
- What Is Competitive Brand Collaboration?Ā
- How Does Collaborating With Competitors Boost My Brand?
- How To Collaborate With Competitors In 6-Steps
- My Final Thoughts On Competitive Collaboration
What Is Competitive Brand Collaboration?
Competitive brand collaboration is when you partner with a separate competing business to reach a goal that benefits both parties.Ā
In other words, this partnership should advance the interests of both contributors in one way or another.
Here, think of this example:
Let’s say two fitness professionals help busy moms get in the best shape of their lives. These two fitness gurus come together and create the ultimate program around this topic, fusing their expertise, marketing ideas, and even audience.
This is the exact definition of competitive collaborationāor to use our fancy term, “coopetition.”Ā
Coopetition is very common in the real world, and we can look no farther than the mega-corporationĀ AmazonĀ for an example.Ā
Amazon offers third-party sellers a market and sell their products using Amazon’s platform.Ā
While lots of people have strong opinions about this system, these sellers do get access to a vast customer base along with “borrowed” credibility from the larger company, simply by being on the platform.
And Amazon’s benefit?Ā
They get a cut of all transactions, which makes them lots of revenue each year.
But for our purposes here – collaborating with competitors – you can see that these smaller eCommerce businesses are technically “competitors,” but it’s at a smaller scale. On the platform, with a strong marketing effort, they can claim their piece of market share – making itĀ still a mutually beneficial relationship.Ā
So those are two unique examples of competitor collaboration, but how would it boost your brand?Ā
Let’s talk about it.
How Does Collaborating With Competitors Boost My Brand?
Lets You Add Value To Your Product
There’s a chance that your competitors take a slightly different approach to business strategy or even their product itself.Ā
If you’re a web development company, collaborating with your competitor can give you new product ideas to add to your service packages.Ā
Hereās another cool part:
If you find that a competitor clearly excels in a specific skill in your industry, you can hire them as a “white-label” partner to fulfill that skill for you.
By leveraging their skill, you put your company in a position to scale.Ā
This is all part of the “value add” that collaborating with competitors can bring.Ā
After all, it’s the same case with big companies:
Samsung supplies Apple‘s iPhones with their phone screens.
And Canon supplies photocopiers to Kodak.
Offers Business Inspiration
Believe it or not, competitors can inspire you!
Whether it’s how they market themselves, or what their customers are saying about them.
You can gain even deeper motivation to spread your brand’s message or product to the world by working closely with them.
Business inspiration can be a big benefit, especially with social enterprises. More impact entrepreneurship in the forefront can pave the way for more bright minds to enter the space.Ā
When we look at for-profit businesses, they can inspire each other to innovate their products more and more each year, leading to customer satisfaction.
Allows For Co-MarketingāHelping You Better Spread Your Message
There’s a chance that the other party in your coopetition relationship has a similar company mission.Ā Ā
Let’s look at two charities:
By collaborating, they can simultaneously share each other’s cause by creating joint events.
Even if you fall in the “solopreneur” category like a consultant, doing podcast interviews, video collaborations, or social media shoutouts with other people in your niche is a fantastic way to spread your message much faster than if you go it alone.
This falls under āco-marketingāāwhich has another mini-benefit inside: helping you save on marketing costs! It’s another form of collaborating with competitors.
So with the benefits being evident at this point…how do you collaborate the “right” way?Ā
What does that look like exactly?
Let’s cover that!
How To Collaborate With Competitors In 6-Steps
Here’s a 7-step checklist to get you going. These steps can be applied for short, one-time projects to long-term ones lasting years!
1. Pinpoint Your “Why”
First, you want to clarify why you genuinely want to collaborate.Ā
It has to be more than, “I heard it’s a great way to market.”Ā
Think of what you want the outcome of your collaboration to be. For example, maybe you want to join your competitor’s YouTube podcast because you want to share profound ideas with their audience (while at the same time putting a spotlight on your brand). And after that podcast, you invite your competitor to do a joint video on your channel. And the rest is history.
Whoās the collaborator who would make sense for you in this kind of a mutual-benefit relationship?
By having a clear “why” you create a strong anchor that will strengthen all your collaborations.Ā
2. Find Competitors & Connect With Them
Next, it’s time to connect with the ideal partners for your collaboration.Ā
You should do a bit of digging and find information about what they’re all about. (It doesn’t have to be a 3-month treasure hunt, but thorough research is important.)
For example, a founder of a social enterprise specializing in sustainable fashion could look for other sustainable fashion founders with similar missions on LinkedIn to connect with.Ā
Once you find a couple of likely competitors, and can imagine and clearly communicate the potential for mutual benefit in each case, reach out.
From that pool of people, you can narrow it down further.Ā
Here are other great places to connect with competitors:
- Facebook groups related to your nicheĀ
- Their website
- EmailĀ
- Other social media pagesĀ
- Networking/video conference events
Once connected, set a time to speak over the phone, Zoom, or possibly in-person.Ā
3. Come To An Agreement & Be On The Same PageĀ
It’s now time for conversation(s).
Get to know your competitor and let them get to know you.Ā
In your conversation, mention why you wanted to connect and bring up how your entities could benefit from one another.Ā
Keep in mind that this agreement stage may need multiple meetingsāespecially if there are multiple decision-makers in their company, or vice versa.Ā
If thereās going to be an exchange of money or services, a written agreement is essential. It doesnāt have to be complicated, but it’s a good idea to have a legal eagleās eye on it to be sure it is enforceable, and serves both parties well.Ā
Examples of such contracts are: partnership contract, NDA – nondisclosure agreement, etc.)
4. Get Clear On the Goals Of the CollaborationĀ
Having similar goals is part of being āon the same pageā as you begin collaborating with competitors.
Skipping this step can easily lead to conflict down the road. Just like a marriage, itās best to start out with clear statements of each partyās expectations – their vision and their goals. Then your collective job is to align the two, and reach some agreements on the ideal out comes.
So, here’s how the goal-setting thing would look:Ā
You and your competitor set the partnership’s KPI (key performance indicator) goals. For instance, if you’re collaborating on a product, you can set sales targets and track sales velocity.
When setting joint goals, the SMART goals model can still apply, because they are easy for all parties to understand. Make sure your goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- AttainableĀ
- Realistic
- Time-bound
Here’s a web development product launch example of a SMART goal:Ā
“Sell $40,000 in revenue from our collaborative web development course in the first 6 months of launch.”
5. Bring As Much Value As Possible to the Collaboration
Now it’s officially time to start the collaboration.Ā
This is when the two of you bring as much value as possible to the partnership table. Value should be brought with the customer or end consumers in mind.
And remember that value also helps make the collaboration a success overall.Ā
Here are a few ways you can add value:
- Introducing your network
- Contributing resources – investing money and offering systems/technology which bring efficiency
- Utilizing your industry knowledgeĀ
- Planning for effective communicationĀ
6. Nurture The Relationship Over TimeĀ
Remember that business relationships, even competitive ones, can increase in value over the long term. Nurture them. Integrity and value on all sides may make them relationships that take your business higher.
Opportunities for collaborating with competitors may not come together the first time you propose them. Relationships are not built overnight. But when they do result in successful projects, maintain and tend to them.
Because even after one collaboration has met its goal, there may always be potential for future ventures. Not to mention referrals, reviews, testimonials, etc. Showing you value the business relationship by keeping in touch can expand your network and help you collaborate with even more brands down the line.
My Final Thoughts On Competitive Collaboration
Competitive collaboration shouldn’t be something that riddles you with anxiety. On the contrary, it should offer you some new openings for creativity and action.Ā
For every intersection where you may have competing interests, there’s a chance that there’s just as much in alignment.
For me, the big picture with competitive collaboration is to balance out competition and cooperation.
What do I mean?
Simply, do the things that will help your business win in the market ā while simultaneously staying on the lookout for opportunities that will allow you to barter value with someone you formerly thought of only as a competitor.Ā
I hope this article helped you see the valuable “coopetition” side of your brand.Ā
And I hope to help you with the “competitive” side.Ā
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