Working With Competitors As Affiliates

by Matt McWilliams | Sep 10, 2022 | Affiliate Recruiting, Articles

Your competitors are probably your BEST source of affiliate partners…

Win-win affiliate deals with competitors

That’s probably not a statement you’d expect to see coming from me.

After all, if you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I’m always looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage.

Well, some things never change. And gaining a competitive advantage is EXACTLY what I’m going to show you how to do today.

In the world of affiliate marketing, your competitors can be a valuable resource. In fact, if you have a healthy mindset, they can be your BEST promotional partners.

Now, before you think I’ve completely lost it, let me explain…

Think back to when you were a kid. Maybe you played sports. Perhaps you had brothers and sisters. The point is that all of our lives we’ve been exposed to situations where we’ve had to compete.

Winning the game and beating the other team. Scheming to steal the other guy’s girl. Trying to beat out others for a job we wanted.

In those instances, it’s usually an adversarial relationship.

You either got what you were after. Or, you didn’t.

The real world is full of win-lose outcomes.

Here’s a long-time classic we’re all familiar with:

Coca-Cola is always on the lookout for ways to get more people drinking Coke than Pepsi. Anything Coke can do to gain market share means the other guys lost ground. And on and on it goes.

Okay, Matt. I get it. What’s your point?

Simply this. In the world of affiliate marketing, working with your competitors is a GREAT way to grow your business – and arrive at a win-win outcome.

You’re only limited by your imagination.

Let me give you a real-life example.

I used to work for a company called Legacy Learning Systems. One of our best, most sought-after courses was “Learn + Master Guitar.”

Frankly, it offered the best guitar instruction anywhere short of taking private lessons – and for A LOT less money too!

This course covered pretty much everything from how to hold a guitar to being able to confidently entertain an audience.

I’m not saying you’d come out the other end as the second coming of Eric Clapton but, by the time you finished the course, you’d be pretty good.

Our course cost $150 for 20 hours of instruction.

And we were crushing it!

One day, we came across Dan Denley and discovered he offered a course that taught people how to play blues guitar. He was offering it for under a hundred bucks.

At first glance, it might seem like we were competitors. We were both selling guitar instruction courses. If someone bought ours, they may not have an interest or the cash for buying his.

But here’s where it got interesting – and profitable!

In our course, Lesson 14 was an introduction to blues guitar. But we only had an hour devoted to it. Barely scratched the surface.

If you wanted to learn more about blues guitar, we couldn’t help you – UNTIL we learned about Dan and his course.

Our customers had already invested $150 for our course. To fork out another hundred bucks for Dan’s was a no-brainer.

All of a sudden, we were able to send people to Dan – and pick up a commission for doing it!

What did Dan get? He promoted our course to people who did not buy from him and did pretty darn well. (I saw some of the checks we sent him!)

In a relatively short time, our “competitor” became our #1 Affiliate.

YOU can do exactly the same thing.

But before I tell you how, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why people who have been on your list for a while haven’t bought from you but might be a great fit for another product your competitor offers.

Reasons WHY You Would Promote A Competitor

It could be your course is missing something critical to their development. Let’s say you have a course that explains HOW someone could get their book sold. You’ve got all the bases covered. However, your course doesn’t explain how to actually write a book. That’s a perfect opportunity to partner with a competitor who does.
Maybe they don’t love your teaching style on video. Let’s face it. Presenting on video is a lot different than other forms of communication. Your audience could read your posts and emails all day long.
It could be your price point is too high. Say your price is $1,000. But the other guy is $500. Someone may simply see a price that’s 50% lower as more reasonable.
You don’t offer payment plans. This can be a show-stopper for some people who simply aren’t in a position to shell out the full price all at once.
Your course is too advanced. People need to learn to walk before they run. It could be they need a beginner course that allows them to learn some fundamentals that your offering doesn’t include.

Use the list above to identify ways you might be able to dovetail your product or service with that of a competitor.

Bottom Line: You don’t need to change your business just because someone offers something you don’t.

All you have to do is find a “competitor” who can fill in the gaps!

4 Ways To Work With Competitors’ Products

As an upsell. Maybe you offer a low-priced product that doesn’t provide an in-depth understanding of a certain subject. You can use a competitor’s higher-priced, detailed version as an upsell.
As a downsell. Let’s say you offer an A to Z course on book publishing that sells for $1,997. Team up with a competitor who has a $197 product on how your customer can market his book and use it as a downsell offer.
Make an offer to non-buyers. If someone has been on your list for a long time but hasn’t bought your expensive course or product, find a competitor’s product that’s less expensive and offer it.
Sell to a niche within a niche. Offer your customers complementary courses as they go through your main course. In the example I used regarding the guitar course above, there’s no reason you couldn’t offer them a complementary course that takes them deeper into a subject.

So, how do you go about approaching competitors to be affiliates for you?

Well, here’s an email template that you can use to reach out:

Get my #1 affiliate recruiting email (the one I’ve personally used to recruit thousands of affiliates in dozens of niches). Grab your copy here!

There you have it…a simple game plan for turning competitors into profits!

You’ve got:

4 ways you can turn competitors into high-producing affiliates
A done-for-you process for reaching out to them

The key thing to remember is…you’re not going to cannibalize your own sales. Sure, you might lose one or two or maybe ten if you have a big enough list but the commissions will more than make up for it.

Now get out there and let your competitors know how both of you can boost your sales and develop relationships that will pay off in future opportunities.