Things That May Lead to a Failed Business Collab

If you have a small or medium-sized business, collaborating with a company that complements your business is always a good idea. This will help increase both your sales.

Almost 80% of businesses use exclusive collaboration tools to improve business processes.

But many times, even a potentially good collaboration can fail for various reasons.

If you want to know some factors that can negatively impact your business collab, keep reading this article!

1. No common goals

One major reason so many business collaborations fail is that the two parties involved don’t share common goals.

For example, suppose you have a home bakery and wish to expand your business by selling a few items in a neighboring restaurant. Then you both have to have clear goals in mind.

Or, suppose you want to promote the business by attracting customers physically to the shop. But the restaurant owner feels a social media marketing campaign will be more effective. Then it’s better to look for an alternative.

For some people, collaboration might mean teamwork and consensus. But for others, it can simply mean doing different things together.

2. DIfferent brand niches

While many seemingly different brands get together and create a successful collaboration campaign, they share a few things.

On the other hand, if you want to partner up with a brand completely different from your niche, then the collaboration won’t do well.

Let’s take the bakery example again. For a successful bakery collaboration, you should ideally work with cafes, restaurants, or catering services.

But if you choose a clothing or jewelry brand as your business partner, then customers won’t identify the two of you together. Again, this is because you will have different target markets and promotion methods.

3. Not distributing business cards

You might think business cards are obsolete today, but that isn’t true! In fact, business cards still remain one of the best brand promotion tools since they’re affordable and effective.

But during a brand collaboration, if you don’t hand them out to each other’s prospective clients, then the partnership might not become that strong.

If you and your business partner brand feel that paper-based business cards won’t do the job well, you can always order business cards with modern tech.

For instance, digital cards come with an NFC chip or a QR code embedded in a stylish metal card frame. When tapped against the recipient’s smartphone, the card will transfer all the important information to the phone.

4. Lack of communication

Communication is extremely important in any company, but even more when it comes to brand collaboration.

If the two companies involved aren’t clear about what they expect from each other, then no amount of collaboration strategies can help.

Therefore, you have to hold weekly or monthly meetings with your partner brand to see whether you are on the same page.

This can include discussions about the target audience, the promotion budget, marketing strategies, and anything else that might be important.

Without strong communication skills, it’s difficult to understand whether you both are working toward the same goal or not.

5. Strong sense of competition

The world of business is definitely a competitive one. But if you don’t know your real competitors, you won’t be able to cater to your customers.

One common problem why so many brand collaborations don’t work out is because the sense of competition between them is too strong. Unfortunately, this makes the entire environment hostile.

The constant win-lose culture creates an unhealthy work environment. But, unfortunately, it also makes both managers lose sight of what’s truly important.

If you want to have a good business partnership, you have to look at the other brand as your partner, not your rival.

6. Poor execution of plans

Even if a brand collaboration has been well-planned, it will fail if the execution isn’t done properly.

Poor execution can be caused due to different reasons, such as poor quality control, unrealistic expectations, and inadequate marketing methods.

Here again, communication plays an important role. If you both discuss various strategies and pitfalls and reach a reasonable conclusion, the plan will be executed better.

For example, if the two brands have quite different styles of reaching out to customers, it will confuse the customers and lead to poor feedback. So, ensure that the branding strategies are consistent throughout.

7. Not respecting each other’s decisions

In any workplace, respect is a must. Even if you don’t agree with someone’s methods or behavior, you have to respect their opinions. And during a brand collaboration, respect becomes all the more important.

If neither of you is willing to listen to the other party or show respect toward each other’s products and ideas, then it will definitely cause a downfall of the collaboration.

Unfortunately, human beings prefer doing things in a specific way, and this can sometimes cause problems during a partnership.

For example, if your group has agreed to a certain decision, but the other company isn’t willing to agree, then you both have to reach a midpoint instead of getting hostile.

8. Unrealistic expectations

Yes, any brand that collaborates with another does so to increase its brand visibility and sales.

But often, both partners may set up unrealistic expectations that ultimately cause the collaboration campaigns to fail.

If you and your partner company are both small businesses and have just started to make sales, then it’s unreasonable to expect that your social media pages will gather thousands of followers within a few weeks.

Or if you think that your sales will shoot up the sky without spending enough money on marketing, that’s also impractical.

Therefore, set realistic expectations that you both can follow and gather results about. Be upfront about your partner’s unrealistic goals. You must also ask them to communicate clearly if your aim seems too high to be achievable.

Over to you

Even though a brand collaboration can be a truly exciting and rewarding venture, it is also delicate. So make all your decisions carefully and treat your partner brand as your equal.