As your company grows, corporate partnerships may become an option to expand into new markets or deepen penetration of existing markets. While corporate partnerships are usually thought of in the context of sales and marketing, they also have significant impact on funding.
Corporates already have deep customer relationships. A corporate partnership can dramatically lower marketing and sales expenses of reaching those customers. In some cases a partnership can include product or service customization, which can involve funding the custom development.
High profile corporate partnerships can make equity fundraising a bit less painful. And sometimes large companies have corporate venture funds that will invest alongside other venture capital firms, or even on their own.
The first video details best practices for the first three stages of corporate partnership development:
Six Stages of Creating Corporate Partnerships
The full six stages of business development are:
- Creating a Business Development Strategy
- Process Preparation
- Inbound and Outbound Prospecting
- Courtship
- Making the Deal
- After the Deal
The second video covering best practices for the final three stages of creating corporate partnerships follows.