Business Development and the Art of Growth
What the founders of the company want to do to grow their company is to develop strategic alliances, or business development deals. When you are looking for a party to make an alliance with, you want to make scalability one of your primary goals—how to develop wide distribution and set the standard. You can attempt to partner with a competitor, but a more likely structure would be to partner with a company that is not a competitor but has the same or similar customer base as you do.
There are many thoughts as to ways to influence partners to make an alliance with your company, but usually the best way is to convince the other partner that the alliance will bring them revenue.
Also, as a general way to do business with partners, it’s always best to be thinking of your partner and its interests, rather than your interests. If you think it through regarding what benefits they will receive, and emphasize this during the meeting, you are thinking like a true partner.
