How Does Collaboration Translate to Sales?
How cute is this lil kid ?!
“This is my baby” is a phrase I’ve often heard business owners say. This mindset in business can be destructive unless the notion that “it takes a village to raise a child” is understood in the early stages of the business. For a business to thrive beyond your abilities, you should collaborate with people of like mind and interests. It’s not optional, but required.
When you collaborate a few things happen:
You solve problems faster and better than you otherwise would have alone. This is a no-brainer, two good heads are better than one and what one good head can do well, two good heads can do better. Obviously!
You gain exposure to a new way of thinking that you can implement in other areas of your business. We all have diverse backgrounds and for this reason, even when we’re looking at the same thing, we’re treating it differently. Seeing is different from looking. Collaborate with people who can actually see your vision and are willing to help you get there.
You gain a community that can grow into customer or referrals. A lot of times, when people collaborate on a project, they’re proud of it and want to tell others about it. This creates publicity for your brand.
Using the birth of a baby as an applicable metaphor, we might be able to draw a better understanding of how collaborations benefit marketing and sales.
When a baby is still in the mothers’ womb, the choice to let others know about her pregnancy in its’ early stages is hers. She chooses who to involve, if to involve and when to involve others in her pregnancy. The earlier she informs her Ob-Gyn, the healthier the baby is likely to be. The Ob-Gyn is able to monitor the health of both mother and child. Bringing a photographer into the mix, she freezes the joys of the experience for years to come (Side note: Thinking of doing a maternity shoot, you don’t have to break the bank - Check out this cool video). By engaging the father of her baby, she alleviates potential stress such as putting up the baby’s cradle and when she calls on her best friend, she gets a “surprise baby shower” planned in anticipation of the baby’s arrival. Altogether, the process is more enjoyable, less burdensome and the results are much better. With a healthier baby, familiar Ob-Gyn, family and friends on standby, a happier story is created. This is similar to generation of a new business idea, its birth and the shopping experience.
When we engage experts in related fields, our products turn out better. These experts are able to assist in avoiding mistakes they might have made or that which they have seen some of their clients make. Costly mistakes can be avoided. Experts are also able to provide advice on how to promote, link you up with other experts that will provide an added benefit to your product.
The engagement of family and friends is essential as they act as a focus group for your product. Although sometimes they may come off as being too critical or too supportive, a mix of various characters are beneficial in helping you shape and reshape your product, packaging and presentation to the general market. Also, these are the people to provide you with your first sale and promote your product or service. You need to engage them.
Introduce your baby to the right people.
Key Notes:
+ Engage in Social Collaboration
If you’re like us, here at A Brand New Thing, who partner with various experts around the world to bring our client’s dreams to life, then you’re probably wondering where to start with social collaboration tools. Here’s a good list of collaboration tools for teams. Personally, I use a mix of Slack, WhatsApp, Google Meet, Zoom, Asana, Instagram DM’s and the trusty ol’ fashioned, email. It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve and with whom you’re working with.
+ Embrace Collaboration as a from of Growth Hacking
The more people you’re able to work with and collaborate on projects with, the more access you get to their audience. Collaboration is growth hacking at its finest, as it allows you to enlarge your audience simply by collaborating, so collaborate - Point is, you should let other people hold your baby too.
