Striking Partnerships With a Larger Organization

As a smaller company, partnering with larger organizations brings many advantages. Due to their scale and wide reach, getting the opportunity to work with larger companies is an extremely beneficial opportunity. For one, using the platform of larger organizations is extremely cost-efficient. The cost of acquiring a new customer through a large organisation publishing your promotion on their website or sharing your post on their Facebook page is often far cheaper than purchasing ads on Facebook or other forms of media buys. Getting the ability to access the scale and reach of large organisations can be extremely beneficial for this reason.

Secondly, working with larger organizations allows you to access audiences that your organization normally would not have access to. When MyRepublic contacted Sony PlayStation with the aim of starting a cross-marketing campaign, we were looking to market to the console gamer demographic. We knew that we had good access to the PC gamer crowd, but the console gamers proved elusive as there was not a strong physical show community in Singapore. A partnership with them would prove extremely valuable to MyRepublic.

There are many misconceptions about working with large organizations. The most common one is that big organizations only want to hear from and deal with other big organizations. However, this isn’t always the case; large organizations often have plenty of interest in partnering with smaller ones. The key basis for a successful partnership is whether both parties can leverage each other’s strengths in order to achieve their common goals. In the case of some gaming peripheral companies, we found through our meetings that they wanted to appeal to the more online millennial audience who might be new homeowners. That was exactly the target demographic of MyRepublic at that time. As they were also trying to access a different target audience that we provided, the cross-marketing was mutually beneficial, even if we were a far smaller organization that Sony was.

Misconception number two: when talking about partnerships, we often think that it has to involve some form of monetary arrangement to be meaningful. That is simply not the case, especially if you are in the smaller organization. Large organizations have far more to offer than just money and a contract of services. In my years at MyRepublic, there were many partnerships with larger organizations that did not involve any exchange of money. The partnership was simply just cross-marketing together to achieve the marketing goals.

The last misconception is that for larger organizations, deals are usually made only at the C-level. Sometimes that is the case when final approval is required, but you generally don’t need to meet the CEO of the large company to ensure the partnership happens. Many other employees within the organization have the authority to initiate these meetings. Alternatively, if you meet their CEO, you do not necessarily have to bring your CEO. The basis for partnerships can be formed even without C-level executives present. This makes it much easier for these partnerships to materialise.

Adopt a Positive Mindset

We’ve established that partnerships with large organizations can be beneficial. However, marketing staff in smaller organizations are often afraid to take that first step. We’re plagued by impostor syndrome. There is the anxiety that we are inadequate, or that our business model has too little to offer by way of partnership. How could I possibly have something to offer this massive company? I’ll be laughed out of the boardroom. Does this sound like you?

The first step to succeeding in partnerships with large organizations is to view these opportunities positively. Sure, there may be meetings where you feel that the representative is not buying anything you’re selling. You feel small, and ultimately nothing will come of it. These meetings can be painful, but there are still plenty of takeaways from meetings, even if they don’t end up going your way. Through these less successful meetings, you’ll learn better how to deliver presentations, how to better pitch partnerships, and you meet a new contact that may become useful later down the road. Last but not least, it's important to keep in mind that you’re the only one who knows what you’re going to share. Even if you made a mistake, the representative you’re pitching to would not know!

Know What Organization (and the Individual) Needs

I come from an advertising background, so when I meet clients I always think: I need to pitch. What that means is that you must tell a compelling story. I generally come from the angle of a particular customer, the pain points that they’re facing that we’re trying to solve. The larger organization is also thinking of solving a similar problem, so perhaps both of us can work to solve the problem together. This shows the larger organization that you are aware of their challenges and have the know-how to help tackle them.

When preparing for meetings with large organizations, try and think about what they might be interested in and weave that into your pitch. As we discussed earlier with MyRepublic, some gaming peripheral companies were interested in appealing to new homeowners. This type of information is extremely useful in delivering and refining your pitch over time to various levels of leadership, if necessary. Take your research seriously.

What may be more important than appealing to the company, however, is appealing to the person that you are talking to. When you initiate these meetings, you are often looking for them on LinkedIn. From their profile, you can already see what team they are working in. From there, you can already have a sense of what they might be interested in in order to make themselves look better to their boss. Is it better marketing? Is it someone looking more at growth? What are their KPIs? Thinking about these will help tighten up and focus your pitch.

Even if the meeting fails and it turns out your idea does not appeal to them, pay attention when they tell you what they are looking for. Perhaps this opportunity may not work out in the present, but if you maintain the relationship with the representative and listen to their needs, you leave the door open for a future project that may align for both organizations at a later time.

Be Concise but Well-Informed

When you share your ideas with any organization, make sure you know exactly what you’re talking about. In your presentations, include as much relevant data as possible – the size of the customer base you’re targeting, the customers’ projected interests, the success of your previous cross-partnerships with other organizations with a similar ilk – if you can answer the obvious questions they will have in the meeting, they will take you more seriously.

Being prepared really helped me in speaking with clients. In the initial meetings, I could already show them how much I was planning to spend, what my GTMs were, what forms of media I was planning to push on, and what my messages would look like. They were stunned by the fact that I was sharing this depth of information, and were thus very interested in getting on board. (Of course, make sure the information is not too sensitive, or only do this after both parties have signed an NDA.)

In these meetings, try and get to the point. Too often I find that junior marketing executives go into boardrooms and are enamoured with being in a glamorous office. They then jabber away for an hour without really conveying what they are looking to achieve through the partnership. If you do that, the representative you’re talking to might think that it was a complete waste of time. Even if you follow up with emails after, they would be less willing to pick up the conversation seeing as they have had a bad impression of your ideas from the start. To avoid this, convey clearly and succinctly what you are looking at. You have time for small talk later.

Get Visual

In my experience, creative artwork draws people in very strongly. When things are just on paper, the conversations can get boring and repetitive, and may even stall out because the organization doesn’t have a good idea of what they stand to gain by partnering with you. However, as soon as I come up with a mock-up of a website, they become far more interested, because you’ve made the idea you’re talking about tangible. Images always touch people in an emotional way. They start to think – I could be the person that delivers this stunning website. Right away, the next thing they want to do is to bring this idea into reality, because you help them visualise how great it would be when it actually happens.

This is especially the case with large organizations, because they often work with agencies who charge for every visual idea or mock-up. If in the initial few meetings you present to them examples of designs or artwork you plan to use for a Facebook ad, they are immediately impressed by the effort and commitment you’re showing to making the partnership work.

Always Over-Communicate

When building or continuing a longstanding partnership, it pays to over-communicate. As a small company, you may not have the branding or reach of your larger counterparts. In the case of MyRepublic, everyone knew us as the underdog fourth telco in Singapore. The representatives we speak to might thus face a gap when comparing what we could provide compared to our larger competitors.

Anticipate these comparisons. You can then help bridge this gap in your discussions by providing the larger organization with detailed facts and figures. You may only have 20,000 customers, but you know them well, you know that many of them live in condominiums, and are largely based in the East Coast of Singapore, for instance. Some of this information may matter to the person in front of you, who may be able to identify an opportunity for their organization from the information you provide.

Keep the pattern of sharing detailed information going when you’re building on an existing partnership. For example, I share sales numbers and the number of visits to our sites since the partnership started with my partners. I don’t oblige them to give me their numbers, but I take the first step to disclose. If we both find that things are not working as well as we thought, then we can sit down and see how we can rejig the plan.

Sharing more information will go a long way in building trust in the working relationship. The organization will see that you don’t mind being an open book if it means the working relationship continues, and that you’re committed to making the partnership work. This trust will help if your organization is actually lacking in certain areas – perhaps in marketing power, or in branding. If the larger organization sees your sincerity and commitment, they’ll be more prepared to work with you more closely despite certain shortcomings of your organization.

Manage Your Expectations and Convey Them Appropriately

If you’re used to working in smaller companies, you’ll know that things move quite fast. Discussions can happen on WhatsApp or quick emails being fired back and forth, and can move to execution swiftly. This is obviously not going to be the case with large organizations, as they have many layers of bureaucracy to clear, and many bosses who need to give their approval. This isn’t something you should be frustrated over – it is simply part of the game you have to play.

If you manage to accept that things might move slowly, and you manage to convey that to your contact point in the larger organization, they may even respect you more. These representatives are very used to apologising for things moving slowly, or being chased to expedite their processes. However, if you tell them upfront that delays are totally fine, and that you are there to support the process with any documentation or mock-ups of designs they would require, they will be far more willing and happy to work with you.

1 Find the Right Partner

Think about your customer and what may be in their interests. Put together a list of companies who may be beneficial to work with, and think about how you can bring value to these companies.

2 Don’t Waste Your Partner’s Time

Always approach meetings from what you think the partnership organization may want to hear. Think about their interests, and do not waste their time talking for the sake of talking

3 Maintain Strong Relationships

Once you find the right person to reach out to, the working relationship can get much easier if you build strong rapport. If they move on to another role at a different company, strong personal rapport may present another partnership opportunity.