Affinity business partnering can open up wide worlds of profitable possibilities for you and your community…
If you are a business owner (which is a fair guess because you are reading this) you want to be successful. No one goes into business expecting to fail, right?
One of the best qualities you can have as a business owner is your ability to form partnerships with other businesses and organizations. There are a lot of options available to you for forming partnerships in business. One of the most common is affinity partnerships.
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of affinity partnerships, not to worry. It’s an easy concept to understand. When your business forms a partnership with a group or organization it is called an affinity partnership. The group or organization promotes your products and services to their members.
These groups are all different from each other and vary in size. They could be fan clubs, environmental groups, hobby clubs, reading clubs, sewing clubs, and many others. Sororities and fraternities are also affinity groups.
Any group or organization that forms together around one common interest or cause can be an affinity organization. These groups meet regularly to discuss their common interest and the goals of the group.
Some are very active in their communities. But they don’t have any responsibility to contribute to any other purpose than their own. They are mostly non-profit groups and organizations and have no connections to the government.
What does all of this mean for you and your business? Well, maybe one of those groups is a group whose members would have an interest in your product or service. For example, you might own a sports equipment store and you want to expand your business. There are plenty of sports fan affinity groups open to potential partnerships.
If you want to sell more of your merchandise to a group, you can form a partnership with them. In return for the extra business, you get from the group’s members, you could offer a discount or an incentive program to them.
This encourages members to shop in your store and buy more than they normally would.
They win, and so do you! And who doesn’t love winning?
The way that these business partnerships work is you first have to reach out to them. But be sure the group is a good fit for your business before you do! If the members of the group don’t give it the “thumbs up” of approval, or they aren’t interested in your product, the entire project will fail.
Making sure what you are offering is something the group will be interested in, is the best way to see success.
Once you’ve reached out to the right group, you need to set up a meeting with them. This is when you get to “sell” your company to the group! Make it look pretty for them. Offer discounts or incentive programs that you, yourself would appreciate if you were them.
There are plenty of cases where affinity groups have rejected a partnership because they don’t see enough of a benefit for their members. They will examine your business closely before they agree to a partnership. If the values of your company don’t match or come close to the values of the group, they will turn you down.
Make sure you’ve dotted all your “i”s and crossed all your “t”s before you meet with the group. Chances are, you are a good business owner and you’ve already got your ducks in a row.
Let the confidence you have in your business and your integrity come out. The better you are at presenting your business to the group, the more likely they will want to form a business partnership with you.
Once you’ve formed the business partnership with them, you can start to build it and make it strong. Meet with them on a regular basis. Talk about how things are going. What is it that is working for them and what could be better?
The more in touch you are with them, the more trust they will have in the partnership. The more trust they have in the partnership, the more business you will see! You’ve got this!
For a free consultation call us at (888) 510-9871!
