Once you decide on on some potential Marketing Partners you would like to contact -- to help you build your brand, acquire new customers and keep your existing customers loyal longer - you'll need to create a value proposition for them as well as a creative proposition for their end customers to benefit in order to engage in a conversation about the Marketing Partnership opportunity that you are proposing.

Here are the Top 10 things to include in the conversation with that Prospective Partner:

THE PARTNER VALUE PROPOSITION

value proposition
Is about giving them an opportunity and making them happy. What are you offering them?

1. An opportunity to earn incremental revenue?
2. An exceptional product to add value to what they are already good at?
3. A brand that you are lending them in return for something?
4. An opportunity to reach your customers?

THE CREATIVE PROPOSITION

creative proposition
This is to the end-customer who will ultimately be buying your product via the Partnership Marketing program that you are offering to the prospective partner or vice-versa.

Take a look at your marketing history. What has worked well in the past? Have you tested different creative offers already that work well? Different Marketing Channels, Offers at different times of Year? Online or Offline? Have you incorporated both?

5. What is your Offer to the end-customer? (incoming to your customers or outgoing to the Partner's customers?)
6. Is your Offer highly compelling?
7. Does the Offer outshine your competitors' Offers?
8. Is the Offer economically feasible?
9. Is the Offer easy to execute from a logistics point of view?
10. Can the offer be measured?

Engaging a potential Marketing Partner and the success with which you do so dependents on one thing: how relevant and interesting you can make it to them!

About the Author: Ron Kunitzky

Ron has extensive knowledge of sales, partnership marketing, account management, business development, affiliate marketing, brand licensing and channel marketing, including working on programs with companies like Wal-Mart, Dell Computer, Carphone Warehouse, Hewlett Packard and Choice Hotels who have all reaped the benefits from the strategic programs that he has created. Over the last few years Ron has worked with leading North American companies that include 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, Coastal Contacts, Aeroplan, Linens N Things, Ubisoft, The ALDO Group, NASDAQ OMX, Roscan, Export Development Canada, Cardinal Watches, Track It Back, DiscoverWare and MBNA-Bank of America and has helped them generate incremental revenue, acquire new customers, open new marketing and distribution channels and add value to their existing propositions. Ron is in great demand as a public speaker and can be regularly heard speaking passionately on his areas of expertise at various seminars and events from leading associations. Ron has been featured in several publications including The Sponsorship Report, Marketing Magazine, The Advisor and Les Affairs. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Concordia University, a Graduate Certificate in Marketing from McGill University, and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the United Kingdom and is a B2B Council Member of the Canadian Marketing Association. In his spare time, Ron likes to spend time with his wife, travel the world, play drums in his band and attend his weekly recreational ice hockey game.