Author Profile

Sarah Gerdes

Biography

Sarah Gerdes is the Founder and CEO of Business Marketing Group, Inc. (BMG), and she is credited with establishing outsourced partner development as a category for consulting services and products. Ms. Gerdes is a recognized expert in her field, and in the market of outsourced partner development.

ARTICLES BY Sarah Gerdes

Unlikely Sources of Start-up Capital

I had lunch with a friend last week, the former CEO of a bio tech company, who decided to start another business--this time, she was going to "partner" with local business associates and/or trusted advisors and associates to raise capital, instead of going the traditional venture capital route. To readers of this blog, you might think she decided to hit up Friends and Family--but no, she clarified, these weren't family and technically, not friends either. They are individuals she respects, has had an existing relationship with at a business level, and want a solid return on investment. I asked

Getting Started? Get a Channel Strategy

Ok, I get it. Enough with the emails telling me to stop talking partners and start talking channel. For the uninitiated with this blog, my bias is towards partner purity. In other words, I use the word Partner when talking about an organization that impacts 2 or more departments within a company, such as marketing and distribution, or operations and finance. Forget that I wrote a book on this subject. I´m clearly in a minority for companies with less than 10 employees. A channel partner IS a partner, it just happens to impact a single area-sales. Not bad of course,

Short Term Partnerships

Does such a thing exist? Absolutely. Short term partnerships are generally created to support a specific goal or event. A Joint Development fits into this category, when a new product is being developed, bringing 2 or more partners together for the initiative. When two small companies work together, the partnership is over once the product is completed. A Joint Development Agreement (JDA) is different from a Joint Venture, which is all over allbusiness.com. Small companies use a JV less often than a JDA because JV's are more time consuming to construct (read legal time), tend to have longer-term goals, and

Partnership to Press: Do it Yourself Partner PR

The best way to create new leads is through press coverage, and a zero cost way to accomplish this is by writing and submitting a case study to a magazine, be it an ezine or traditional publication. Partnerships offer new angles on a boring case study, so I´m going to delve into one consultant in the retail field who took on a partner, made money (3K a month within 60 days) and wrote a case study-all at zero cost to him. Case Study 101 A case study has 4 components: problem faced, options, solution and outcomes. When the case study promotes a

Increase Revenue Through the Local SBDC

About once every six months I end up writing a piece on the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC). Of the calls I take each week, I probably suggest this organization at least half the time. I do so because the mission of the group is to connect and grow small businesses. This is done by soliciting speakers and programs for their monthly (and sometimes weekly) forums. If you are in a services business, have a expertise to share and want to get new referrals, you need to check out your local SBDC today. Why the SBDC? When I first moved from

Yours, Mine, Ours: Partnering to Win Big Accounts

When the CEO's of two small advertising agencies in the northeast found themselves continually competiting with one another for accounts--and losing out to a third party--they decided to consider a partnership to capture missed opportunities yet retain their unique identities. The solution? A Master Agreement. What is it? A Master Agreement (MA) has completely different definitions for different industries. In the context of Partnerships, a MA carves up a market for two or more companies; allowing the firms to protect existing clients, go after new clients together while communicating clear boundaries to partners, prospects and clients. Companies of all size successfully use

Partner Attraction 101: Improve Your Small Biz Web Sites

As a small business, you are hussling to leverage your assets so you can go farther with less. Hopefully a part of this is going after partners--a tried and true way to accomplish this goal. Have you slowed down enough to provide an opporutunity for companies to come after YOU? I'm talking about a partner section on your web site that filters, qualifies and provides you with interesting opportunities for growth--with less work! What's Involved Very little. Or rather, the presentation of what's involved is clearcut. Take MyBizHomepage.com's partner section. In less than ninety days, this relatively new start up out

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Author Profile

Sarah Gerdes

Biography

ARTICLES BY Sarah Gerdes

How to Write a Great Partnership Press Release

Writing a partnership press release that grabs the media's attention takes work. Follow these tips for writing an effective press release and improve your chances of getting noticed.

Learn From the Worst: Channel Mistakes

Resellers respond to the PULL of demand THROUGH the channel. They do not, never have, and never will, promote or push your product into the marketplace. They have too many products, too little resources and no time to equitably market 200 products in stock.