All of us have competitors, but very few of us have great working relationships with them. There are many reasons why you should work closely with your competition. When done well, you can turn your competition into one of your biggest assets.
Every business will have capacity issues at some point. These capacity issues may be caused by a variety of reasons. Imagine how busy a plumbing company is going to be after an unexpected deep freeze and many pipes have burst. They need to know where to refer the overflow business.
A good wedding photographer will be booked out several months in advance. They will get requests to shoot weddings on the dates they are already booked. They need good photographers to refer this business to. In turn, the photographer may have a last-minute cancellation. The overflow referrals from other photographers can fill this vacancy.
Geographic convenience is another good reason to partner with your competition. A handyman in Marana would prefer to work with clients on the northwest side of Tucson. This keeps their commute time and operating expenses down. It also allows them to service more clients on any given day. The handyman would be smart to partner with other handymen who live in distant areas like Green Valley, Sahuarita and Vail. They could refer their northwest business to him and he could refer his outlying business to them.
Finally, consider the case of the Team Kandoo. This group of Tucson Realtors are from many different brokerages. Each Realtor has a specific area of expertise like historic homes, golf properties, ranches, luxury homes, investment property and senior downsizing. They refer business back and forth based on the specific needs of the client. This allows each Realtor to specialize in their specific area. The clients are the ultimate beneficiaries because they get to work with true experts.
How can you work with your competition in 2018?