I want to find customers through partnerships

You can get loads of specific ideas for developing and launching your product from voluntary organisations (NGOs).

NGOs typically work at grassroot level in areas such as environmental protection, animal welfare, children's rights and combating poverty.

If your product can help further their aims, they may be willing to help you to identify users' needs, test your product or launch it.

Follow Grundfos' example
Grundfos has enjoyed success in Kenya selling water pumps to the inhabitants of poor villages. To reach out to these villagers, Grundfos allied itself with local aid organisations as these organisations' employees are familiar with local conditions and local culture. They were also able to help the villagers to apply for loans to buy the pumps.

When entering into a partnership with an NGO, it may be a good idea to pay attention to the following:

• Cultural differences: It is important to respect one another's working processes. You need to bear in mind, for example, that employees of NGOs do not necessarily think along commercial lines.
  
  
• Expectations: It is a good idea to agree on exactly what the partnership is to entail and how much time each partner is to put into it.

• Limits: It is important to agree on just how much of your business will be involved in the project. NGOs may have an expectation that the partnership will include your suppliers, subsidiaries and so on.
  
  
• Internal backing: It is a good idea to ensure that there is support for the project at the highest level of each partner's organisation.
  
  
• Publicity: It may be worth agreeing on how the press will be handled in connection with the project. Can the NGO for example criticise you publicly while you are working together? Can you market the product without the NGO's approval?
  
  
• Government support: See if you can get financial support for the partnership.