Why is such a dependable growth strategy so often overlooked?

Partnerships are a cost-effective way to acquire high-value customers. They perpetually increase sales and customer satisfaction without requiring changes to any core aspects of a business.

And somehow, almost no one peddling growth strategies talks about them. Why?

“Marketers don’t want to tell you about this powerful vehicle to grow your business,” says Aaron Orendorff, Editor in Chief of Shopify Plus, “because they have a dog in the fight. They want you to hire them. And the truth is, marketers can’t help you build the types of partnerships — genuine relationships — that truly matter.”

In fact, “partner” is all but absent from the first two pages of Google results for business growth strategies.

The three articles that do mention partnerships reference affiliate marketing, channel distribution, and value added reselling. They focus on tactics while ignoring the fundamental principles that are foundational to successful partnerships.

Shane Parrish: Principles outlive tactics… Tactics provide the “what” and the “how”… but if you want results no matter how the landscape changes, you must also understand the “why.”

Partnerships are more effective than most growth strategies because they so closely rely on fundamental business principles. They force businesses to remain true to how humans actually make their purchasing decisions.

Ashanti: It’s about trust, babe.

Spoiler: Successful partnerships happen when multiple parties who deliver complementary value agree to trade the trust they have earned from their customers.

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“I gravitate towards companies that I know have built high trust relationships with their clients because they’ll be able meet me halfway and create a strategic partnership that will bear fruit.” — Mackenzie King, Managing Director of Half Helix

Who should invest in partnerships?

After spending the last couple of years working on partnerships for Shopify Plus, and many years before that helping large organizations — like banks — associate themselves with things nearer to their customers’ hearts — like sports — I have become a partnerships hammer staring out into an economy full of nails.

The only hard prerequisites to effectively building lucrative partnerships are fundamental to running a successful business:

• provide clear value to your customers, and
• consistently follow through on your commitments.

And if you can’t do either of those, well, then you have got much bigger salmon to barbeque, my friend.

But if you can, then investing in partnerships with carefully-selected, complementary businesses is a positive-sum game that will lead to organic, ongoing growth for everyone involved.

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“Our tech and agency partners have brought us many of our most innovative and important customers.” Ben Parr, Co-Founder and President at Octane AI

How do partnerships grow businesses?

Carefully-chosen and well-structured partnerships make you more valuable to your existing customers and help you find new ones. Because they are fundamental to human behaviour.

Frida Barb sells frozen bananas. She’s worked hard to establish a refreshing, healthy food business on an increasingly popular beach. But, despite satisfied customers and a valuable product, FriBa’s FroBas isn’t growing as quickly as she would like.

Luckily, this fictitious predicament is about to change.

People have problems. And they look for solutions.

At some point, the combination of the number of people sharing a similar problem and the severity of that problem becomes large enough that it is financially viable for someone(s) to dedicate to solving it.

Frida Barb notices that people swim up an appetite and get out of the ocean into the hot sun, looking for refreshing nourishment that won’t make them even more conscious of their exposed bodies.

It takes dedication to solve a problem well.

Effectively solving a problem for a price that people deem fair is a lot of work. Which means it’s an investment in the idea that people will continue to need the solution amidst rapidly changing technological, environmental, and sociological conditions.

Jeff Bezos: “When you have something you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it.”

Navigating the inevitable changes and the evolving complexities of your chosen problem takes ruthless prioritization of working on your solution over other activities.

In other frequently used words: you can’t be everything to everyone.

Your customers want to buy from the people providing the best solution. And that won’t be you for every problem that they have.

Offering the healthiest frozen treat on the beach, being the best surf school, and running the safest snorkelling excursions require very different knowledge and effort.

It’s very difficult to convince people you have a great solution.

First, you have to find people who have the problem you’ve solved. Build it and they may just not come.

Then, once they arrive, you have to convince them that your solution is better than keeping their money and living with the problem.

They need to know about your banana stand and believe that frozen banana can be delicious. (It is.)

People listen to people that they trust.

What’s more important to you: the experience of hundreds of strangers or a single person who you actually know?

Picture yourself hungry, salty, and hot from a morning in the ocean in need of a refreshing snack. You saw the billboard with the healthy couple enjoying their FroBas, already checked a few review sites and it’s unanimous: Frida freezes a bodacious banana.

On the way to the stand you run into a vacation friend you met yesterday. Looking awful, they tell you that they were up sick all last night. They think it was because they ate at (dun dun duhhh) Frida’s.

How are you feeling about that frozen banana now?

If you solve a problem, you become trusted.

Luckily, the flip side is also true: solve a problem for someone and they become more likely to trust you to guide them toward solutions for their other problems.

While you’re enjoying that delicious treat from a friendly vendor and staring confusedly at 5 bike rental places, the vendor says “Hey, go see Betty and she’ll give you the best deal and her bikes never break down.” Suddenly, there’s a clear front-runner.

And, remember, people have many problems. They still need solutions to the other problems that relate to, but are not specifically, the problem that you are dedicated to solving.

This is where partnerships are born.

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“Partnerships are all about leverage. With a similar level of effort to closing a large client, you can convince a partner of your value. That partner can be a driver of tons of clients over the span of years. If, like literally everyone else, you’re operating with limited resources — you can’t afford to not be putting effort in to partnerships.” — Blair Beckwith, Director of Business Development at Shogun

Partnerships are an exercise in trading trust.

You’re betting your reputation on your partners, and they on you. But, if you pick your relationships carefully, the odds are really good that you will both come out winners.

Establishing partnerships with businesses that you trust to solve related problems for your customers means you can:

1. Solve even more problems for your customers. They like healthy snacks, maybe you can help them pick a fun physical activity.
2. Gain new customers from your partners. They just finished a fun physical activity, maybe they need a healthy snack.
3. Reach new people who are in need of multiple solutions. They want to do a fun activity but only if they don’t have to worry about packing a healthy snack.

“Partnerships have been a huge driver for rapid growth — and, since we’re an invite-only solution, they also help us pre-qualify brands coming our way to ensure it’s a good fit.” Cooper Harris, Founder and CEO at Klickly

Ready to invest in partnerships?

Convinced and want to know specifics around how you can establish bountiful business partnerships?

Interested in reading more about how to

1. Find your highest potential partners?
2. Define a partnership value exchange?
3. Build a structured partnership program?
4. Audit the costs and benefits of partnership activities?

All those subjects became too much to cover in one piece, but please let me know how I can do better and stay tuned for the next installment.