When it comes to collaborating with other agencies, there are two types I think many agency would benefit from partnering with.

Those two are: complementary agencies and “big sibling” agencies.

Complementary agencies don’t directly compete with you but instead offer services adjacent to the ones you offer.

The perks of partnering with a complementary agency are:

• You can send leads to each other
  
  

• You both can team up and pitch new business opportunities together
  
  

• You can develop a strong working relationship & have a direct communication channel when working on the same client

Across our Barrel Holdings agencies, we’ve formed great partnerships with branding, PR, and marketing agencies to generate deal flow, win deals together, and deliver great work.

As long as you’re proactive about delivering value to the complementary agency via referrals and by ensuring quality work on any collaborations, the partnership can become an important channel.

The other agency type to consider partnering with is a big sibling agency.

This is an agency that offers overlapping services but is bigger and further along than your business.

Some big sibling agencies may see you as a competitive threat and ignore you, but some agencies welcome a smaller agency they can safely pass off leads that are poor fits for themselves.

The perks of partnering with a big sibling agency are:

• You can get handed projects that are crumbs to them but are sizable chunks to your agency
  
  

• You can connect with people further down the agency journey that can scale your network and act as consultants and coaches

Personally, I've benefited massively from meeting with owners and employees at big sibling agencies. There’s so much to learn and many people we’ve met are happy to advise and support.

As we’ve grown our businesses, we’ve been in the position to be a “big sibling” to others as well, and as much as possible, we try to pay it forward.

By partnering with these agencies, we've been able to work on amazing projects that we otherwise may not have had access to.

I highly recommend forming these kinds of partnerships if you’re running an agency.

Start by identifying your potential partners and then reaching out by cold email. Try to meet via video call or in person and then stay in touch.

Good things will happen.