Are you really in competition with anyone else – and does business have to be conducted that way?

Something that a lot of otherwise really smart and really savvy event industry professionals have trouble with is believing that they are in direct competition with other event industry professionals, that there is some kind of zero-sum game being played, and that the “piece of the pie” they have the opportunity to get is somehow going to either be taken away from someone else or taken away by someone else!

In reality (and thanks in large part to the power and reach of the Internet) nothing could be further from the truth.

Sure, there are going to be other “competitors” in your business space that are all vying for the same group of somewhat limited customers – but when you stop seeing these people as pests that need to be eliminated and instead partners that can help you grow your business exponentially (while you help them do the exact same thing) everything changes for the better forever!

Strategic partnerships kill competition and boost your bottom line at the same time

One of the most effective high-level strategies you could ever put into play for your business is to stop thinking about all of your competitors as companies you have to crush and instead companies that you have to partner up with, effectively turning them from enemies to friends and building up everyone’s business at the same time.

These kinds of strategic partnerships are done at a high level in industries all over the world, and can create significant wealth and major leverage for companies that never would have had the chance to succeed alone otherwise.

Not only that, but these partnerships also:

• Help you build business with lightning like speed (even with no advertising budget)
• Improve your standing and connections in the industry overnight
• Allow you to control the flow of leads in a way that wouldn’t have been possible before

Putting this strategy into action

Here’s a great way to implement this strategy, and it’s only a single example of the power you get when you make this kind of mindset shift:

Instead of fighting for more leads, paying for more expensive advertising, or going overboard in price slashing to beat your competition, instead reach out to your competitors and offer to sell them leads that didn’t pan out for you – customers that you weren’t able to convert – or offer to trade them the same kinds of leads for those that they have.

This kind of reciprocal program can get you a tremendous amount of extra business that simply wouldn’t have ever come your way before. Sure, it sounds counterintuitive to send prospects to competitors and essentially give them a crack at building up their business, but if you weren’t going to convert those people in the first place – and if they were going to go to your competitors anyway – it’s smart to leverage that asset and get something rather than nothing out of it.

At the end of the day, this kind of move can help you build your business (and your industry) much faster than you ever would have thought possible.