Relationship 4: Project Team

The project team is the fourth of the business networking relationships and the first of the group relationships. This relationship is slightly more complex than the casual referral, power partner or power group relationships, but is also much more likely to produce large deals that wouldn’t be possible to close (or deliver) as an individual or small company. Even large companies can effectively leverage this type of relationship to add value for clients and to build immense competitive advantage.

Project teams are usually formed when one person finds a deal that is too large for them to close or deliver on their own. They usually reach out to power partners to provide additional bandwidth, skills or background to make them a credible competitor for the client’s business. Sometimes these are their traditional power partners, but in other cases these partners can be from seemingly unrelated disciplines.

For example, marketers may team up with other marketers with different specialties or, as I did recently, a marketer may team up with other marketers and IT resources. It really boils down to determining the needs of the client.

The beauty of project teams is that they provide the highest value for the client, while keeping the cost of execution as low as possible. Most members of the team are not officially “on the payroll,” so the overhead costs are not typically high. Since the team gathers for the specific project, everyone keeps their autonomy, too. When the project is over, the team disbands.

There are some downsides to project teams. There is risk that one of the partners will do something silly or that they may run afoul of rules of engagement (especially when they are not explicit.) This type of relationship requires trust, and may not be for everyone. Particularly for people who don’t play well with others. Flexibility is required to be effective, and not everyone is flexible.

Even with the potential downside, project teams have much higher upside potential than most other business networking relationships. I have seen many scenarios where individual consultants or business developers have been leveraging project teams to find and close deals valued in the high six figures. These deals would be impossible to pursue as a single entity.

What’s interesting is most networking organizations don’t teach their participants to leverage project teams (or the other two group relationships) very frequently, if at all. It’s too bad because they can be so profitable. They also help businesses flexibly scale from individuals to national or international teams in a very short amount of time if that is what’s required.