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Is it any kind of practice to recognise companies in which I have a business to business relationship with? For example, putting a small logo for my attorney on my company's website. "We enjoy doing business with..."

I thought it was an interesting thought. Just didn't know if it was a "thing" businesses did. Is there a name for it?

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4 Answers

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Keep in mind that a website will usually do one of two things:

  1. Act as a mechanism for you to sell your products and services
  2. Act as a marketing tool for prospective customers

So the focus of the site is to sell you, not people with whom you do business.

Further, this could lead to problems:

  1. You're effectively advertising their services on your website and just having them on your website is a implicit recommendation.
  2. By exposing the list of your business partners do you expose your sources to competitors?
  3. If you do business with someone who has outspoken views does your public support for their company reflect on you? Do you want to find yourself publically supporting Chicken-Fil-A (you may or may not personally, but having your business do it may lose you customers)?
  4. If one of your business partners is caught committing fraud or other dubious practices, do you want to be seen to have been recommending them?

As one of the other answers said, this is a can of worms. Don't open it. Focus your website on your company.

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up vote 1 down vote

In my experience these things has very little effect. Your clients comes to you to check your products/services and not to check who you have been doing business with. Your selling point should be at that point.

It seem to only have a psychological effect for the company itself (look at us!), and competitors. Not so much for customers.

In addition, you save administrative work not putting anyone's logo on your site (conferencing with the potential "advertiser", web site maintenance and so forth).

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It is only a common occurrence for companies whose products you market or that you have a strategic partnership with. If you had a place on your website to recognize everyone you do business with, it would quickly be overwhelming. Not to mention the fact that those who do not end up on it may feel slighted.

I personally would not open that can of worms.

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I think you can choose some typical partners (Big company with strong competition) on your website, but not all of them. Because some potential clients may also choose your product or service if they see some famous companies are using your solutions. If you are afraid that your competitors will see, then choose some that may have already been known to your competitors. Even if you don't put these information, your competitors may have known from other channel.

Or you can write some press release about your partnership as a kind of marketing. In the release, you don't have to expose the company name of your partner.

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