How to Develop B2B Partnerships That Grow Your Business

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I understand what it takes to build a successful B2B partnership. My company's deployment into B2B was a planned step of business development accelerated by Russian military aggression in Ukraine, where our largest research and development center is located — and where my company Parimatch was born in 1994.

To enter B2B, we analyzed the market and competitors, highlighted the strengths of our products, identified the difficulties of potential partners, rebuilt the company, decentralized the marketing department and identified a B2B service.

Here are some notes that have guided us in our successful B2B deployment.

What are the main characteristics of B2B partnerships?

• A limited pool of contacts: In B2B, the number of possible partners is often limited, and the more complex your niche, the fewer potential partnerships you will find. For this reason, you will need to learn to work especially well with those who already interact with you or are present in the market.

• Endurance: Companies are looking for long-term stable partners, especially in specific industries. The research is therefore thorough. If you provide a quality product, your partner won't be interested in third-party offerings and you'll likely be developing side-by-side for years.

• A potential partner could be the expert in your industry: in B2B, cooperation is not based on personal preferences or rash decisions. You will need to prove the value of your product or service step by step. For example, my company has partners who know their markets and industry trends well, but still need a high-quality online platform to operate, or vice versa. Your potential partner might have ready-made operations and technology, but without a shiny, well-developed brand.

• The decision-making process takes longer: it may take several months for you to start cooperating, and during this time you need to remind a partner of your product and the value that a partnership will bring .

• The need for delegation of authority and function: You will need internal experts who know the industry, your product, the business models of potential partners, and the challenges you may face in the future.

• Strategy: Any B2B partnership should have a plan to track the results of the collaboration.

Related: Business Development: 4 Ways to Avoid the Formula Trap

How to find B2B partnerships

Partner search channels are highly sector dependent. These include LinkedIn pages, topic forums and business platforms, etc. It could also result from the implementation of digital and content marketing tools. To this list, you can add conferences, symposia and events organized by industry media. In any case, the primary goal of these activities is to find decision makers.

In B2C, customers are often guided by their emotions and make decisions on impulse, because it's okay to spend money when it's not critical. In B2B, however, the price can run into the millions, and further business development depends on partnerships, so decisions are made with caution. The number of decision makers is also growing, so be prepared to present your product's strengths from different angles, depending on the expertise of the person you are talking to.

The virtue of research

Before starting communication activities, create a portrait of the partner that best matches the business objectives. The next step is to study the sample of potential customers and filter it according to the necessary criteria. The goal is to come up with a top 10 or top 50 list, depending on the business niche and the number of potential partners. Working with a small, segmented list will provide more value than a large, unfiltered audience.

This approach is also suitable for ultra-complex niches: we analyze...