How can strategically aligned businesses better work together to hunt whales?
Barbara: The best way is to structure some kind of formal business relationship that has some staying power. Whales are suspicious of short-term alliances. They like to see long-term commitments where no single partner is likely to pull out and sabotage the efforts of others. I would consider creating a new entity to house the work of the alliance or a holding company providing an umbrella for multiple separately-owned allies. Ask your attorney, or your SCORE consultant, or your accountant to explain the options to you. Once you have a proper structure for whale hunting, you need to learn to look and act like a team in public. It may involve having a joint web site to promote work that you’ll do together. It certainly involves determining roles and rehearsing for a presentation. You may decide to create a target filter and a whale chart for prospects that you intend to hunt together. In short, you can behave as much as possible like a single business unit.
