After identifying complementary brands you wish to collaborate with, the pivotal next step is reaching out to get an agreement to work with you. This is an essential part of the process.
In this article, we will guide you through how to effectively communicate and lay the groundwork for a mutually beneficial collaboration. We will be focusing on the two vital components: first, initiating contact via a personalized message, and second, presenting a compelling collaboration proposal that is too good to refuse. Let’s unpack each of these components.
Part 1 – Making Initial Contact
Reach Out with a Personalized Message
The journey towards collaboration starts with a single, well-crafted message. You want to grab their attention, show that you’ve done your homework, and express genuine interest in their products. Here’s how you can do it:
Once you’ve identified your target brands and potential contacts within each, it’s time to make your initial approach. Craft a concise and personalized message that hooks their interest. It’s best to direct your communication towards a key decision-maker like the store owner or marketing manager.
The principle of “More Cheese, Less Whiskers,” as coined by Dean Jackson, emphasizes the importance of focusing on their interests and desires rather than your own. To illustrate, here’s an example:
“Hey Max, my customers would go absolutely bonkers over your products. Who would be the best person in Max’s Sunnies to chat about selling your products to my customers?”
This message is short, engaging, and centered on the potential value for their business. It opens a line of communication without pushing too hard too early, setting the stage for you to present your full proposal.
Part 2 – Presenting Your Collaboration Proposal
Winning Partnerships with the Right Words
Now that you’ve identified the brands you want to collaborate with, the next step is to craft an irresistible offer. This is your chance to present a compelling proposition and demonstrate how a partnership with your store would be mutually beneficial.
A successful proposal does three main things:
- Highlights the mutual benefits: Explain how this collaboration will increase their product visibility and sales without any extra effort or cost on their part.
- Demonstrates an understanding of their brand: Show that you’ve done your research by speaking about their products, values, and customer base. This not only shows that you’re serious about the collaboration but also assures them that their brand aligns with yours.
- Proposes a clear plan of action: Outline how the dropshipping model would work, how you’ll manage sales and logistics, and how you plan to market their products.
Here’s an example of how Lisa may reach out to Max:
“Hey Max
Thank you for confirming you are the right person to talk to. As I mentioned, I sell TShirts to a hungry crowd that love my designs. I now have over 3000 returning customers, mainly in their 20’s and live in the US.
I think they are going to love your Sunglasses and in particular your line of aviators. This style of sunnies match my audience and I see many of my customers sending me pics wearing aviators with their TShirts while out and about.
To promote your products, I will start by sending out an initial email introducing your sunglasses to my returning customers and showing them how the two products work so well together. I expect to see at least 5 to 10 orders come from this straight away. I normally see this level of sales from a simple email.
From here I will cross promote your brand, creating bundles and offers where they can buy your sunnies at the same time. I have a large remarketing audience I will use to tap into via some social media paid ads.
And don’t worry about any extra work that may be created. I have an app that automates most of the heavy lifting so you won’t have to do too much work. Just fulfil my orders as they come in and process my payments to you.
I’m so excited to bring this opportunity to you and think we can do some great work together.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns you would like to be addressed. There is not much you will need to do and it’s very easy to undo if we decide it’s not working out.
If you would like to go ahead and try out a collaboration, we can simply start with one product and see if I can generate some sales from that. Then we can talk about how to scale up from there.
Thanks heaps and looking forward to working with you.
Kindest Regards
Lisa”
Remember, the goal here is to open a conversation and make the other brand feel confident about the potential of a partnership with your store. With a persuasive approach, you’re one step closer to securing your first collaboration and boosting your sales.
