Cooperation is one of the most distrusted notions in business. While it is the sort of idea that is aired more and more in the online world with its social business leaning, in the so called “real world’ of business and marketing, cooperating with those you are competing against is a highly suspect activity.

The suspicion that cooperation is the ruse your competitors use to steal away your business secrets and gain an unfair advantage surfaces so often in the world of business that I am, quite frankly, surprised cooperation ever takes place. Yet, when it does, the beneficiaries of it are all parties regardless.

Think about it for a moment. If you are in business you are doing something that is unique. The synthesis of product, service, personality, approach, intent and execution is like no other similar business on the planet. In which case why aren’t you secure in the customers you chase? The most common reason you’re not is to be found in what you’re not doing. You’re not for instance really helping your prospective customers understand who you are and why they should do business with you. Nor are you helping them understand the value proposition that’s inherent in your business.

In this Online Marketing Help podcast we look at why businesses are more comfortable competing with each other to the death than cooperating. Best-selling SEO and Social Media Marketing author, David Amerland, explains:

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