Why Collaborative, Cooperative, Complementary Sales Efforts Work

Any time you can build a local team of people who call on like customers, and refer those customers to each other, develop a win – win for all involved.  It’s formalized - structured networking.  Local BNI groups do this better, on a general business basis, than any others I have seen – they say “Givers are Getters”.  The giver, by making the referral, is building trust within the customer by recognizing a need and assisting outside their normal business scope.  The customer, by receiving the referral has saved time by receiving it from someone they already trust thus shortening their search effort (even if they need to evaluate multiple suitors – one down).  Finally, the receiver of the lead, a warm lead, is a sale that is theirs to lose.  It still takes follow up with the lead and making the sale – Sales is all about numbers – I call this an easy number.

LightsOn Graphics, unlike a BNI, brings different locals together under one brand, much like ACE Hardware.  It is a collaborative product that features exclusively local members locally.

Companies with multiple offices should always have a localization component within their website so they can feature the local components of their business (people, services. etc).

Bob

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Collaboration: Localization: Is Buy Local a Collaborative Effort?

Collaboration is an "in vogue" topic these days.  "Buy Local" is equally, if not more so, in vogue.  But we really need to understand that these efforts did not begin yesterday.

A newspaper is a collaborative effort being managed by the newspaper company local to the area the newspaper is delivered with each of the advertisers sharing in the cost to produce the newspaper leaving some extra money as profit for the newspaper.


A strip mall (or any mall for that matter) is a collaborator in that the businesses, through a management company / owner / landlord, share costs. From the parking lot, to the signage, to the walkways (common areas) - a cost sharing collaborative is taking place.  The businesses share more than that, they share customers; the customer may come for one specific purchase, but see all the other "opportunities" (other stores).  It is why businesses like to rent where there is a popular "anchor" store (like a large grocer); because they can ride the coat tails of the anchor and collaborate as a larger force.

Collaborating is much more than good business, it is business.

~B

Localization - Franchising Does Not Mean: "NOT LOCAL"

Too often people think that "franchise" is synonymous with "out-of-town ownership" or "big company ownership".  In some cases this is true, but in most it is not.  The local Dairy Queen, Dunkin' Donuts, Domino's, and KFC are most likely owned by a local resident.  What franchise means to the consumer is consistency and if the consistency is acceptable to us, it also means quality - We know what the "Original Recipe" tastes like whether we are in Arizona, Minnesota or Maine.  Local, in my humble opinion, means local something; either local raw materials and/or local labor and/or local ownership.

ACE Hardware

Think about companies like Ace Hardware. They have made a business of giving the locally owned hardware stores a second life by providing collaborative and cooperative advertising and buying power under one recognizable brand - giving ACE a competitive chance against the big-box stores - without losing that home town ownership, service and feel.  This philosophy is similar to the charter and mission of Time4's Buy.Eat.Live.Local publication and the LightsOnGraphics.com website.

Tinkerbell

What "Buy Local" will need to convey - to be successful is "Net Better"; a combination of a competitive price, quality, service, training, a meeting of expectations, a good economic decision, time to obtain, and last, but not least, the Feel Good Magic Dust that comes from knowing we are part of a better future - "Net Better".