The Magic of Alliances

Recently, I attended the IMC Confab in Reno with the intention of building my business alliances.

Now that I'm focused primarily on helping my Action Plan Marketing Coaches succeed, I'm spending very little time thinking of attracting more clients. Instead, I'm thinking of ways to offer my online customers valuable services that I can't provide myself.

One of the ways I'm doing this is through my Audio Programs where I interview a top expert on a topic that will provide significant value to my subscribers and customers. The interview with Jerry Vieira, on "Secrets to Attracting More of the Right Clients" is a good example of that.

But that's only one example. At the Confab, I met business people who offered office space for Independent Professionals, an established business coaching company searching for facilitators, and an online PR company who is looking for more clients.

Building relationships with these companies is now in process; but today one came to me by email that was a very pleasant surprise.

I have been looking for someone to do a large project for me and was taking bids. Today I got their bid along with this invitation: "We are willing to do the project for free if you introduce our services to the people on your email list."

As they say, "Be careful what you wish for!" This opportunity had never even occurred to me. (If this goes through, you'll be hearing the details soon!)

I thought it might be appropriate to share some things I've learned about creating Alliances and Joint Ventures over the years. It's never as simple as it looks.

Joint ventures are all about opportunity and access.

The opportunity is to tap into the goodwill and relationships that a client or business associate has built with their customer base. And you can only take advantage of those relationships if they give you access.

People tend to be naive about access. They think they deserve access if they have some value to offer. Not necessarily. The truth is that I get emails almost every day asking for access. They want me to promote their book, their service or their ideas to my list.

The problem with this is the lack of relationship. For the most part, I don't know these people. I don't know their services or products. And in a world competing for access, I'm not likely to pick partners to form alliances with if I don't know them.

You see it online all the time.

An email marketer is promoting one product or service after another to their list. But is there a real relationship there? If I get one more email telling me to send an email to my whole list because they have a new book, I think I'll scream.

I actually created a form email politely declining these offers.

Can some of these work? Perhaps. But the problem is that everyone has it backwards. Instead of trying to get access, you should spend more time providing access.

At Confab, I didn't go around asking people if they would promote me to their customer base. Instead, I spent the time meeting smart, interesting, quality people that I could offer access to.

The conversation goes something like this:

"I have a big list of Independent Professionals who are looking for ways to grow their businesses. One of the things I do is introduce them to products and services that could benefit them.

"From what I see about your service, you have something my subscribers might want. I want to learn more about you, talk to your customers and clients and see if we might be able to work together."

I check them out, do the due diligence and make sure I can introduce their products, services or ideas to those on my list without hesitation. And, yes, I get a percentage of these deals.

Would I also like access to their customer base? Of course! But that's not where I start. If we work together to build a solid relationship, that may come in time. Sooner or later they will introduce my services to others.

But what if you don't have a big email list? That seems to stop everyone. It shouldn't. I've been creating these alliances for years, even when I had a small list.

Look, if you have a solid client base of ten or twenty people, why not introduce the products or services of someone else you trust to these clients? As long as you are not in direct competition, it's not an issue.

You gather all of them for a presentation or you send a mailing or email; or like I do, conduct an interview with an expert and offer it to your clients.

All of this builds trust and relationships. Your credibility increases and more people benefit. This is a fun way to do business. For many, it's the only way they do business.

I think it's difficult for some people because they are too focused on getting instead of giving. Put the focus on what you can offer and you might be amazed at the alliances you'll form.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: If you are looking for access, give access; if you want opportunities, offer opportunities. Build a network of trusted partners who can offer real value to your clients and before too long, access and opportunities will start to chase you.

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What kind of successes have you had in creating alliances? Please share on the More Clients Blog.

Comments

[Dina Beach Lynch]

Alliances are the way to go, Robert, I couldn't agree more.

Not only do alliance partners allow me to better teach my members, mediators, how to market without me re-inventing the wheel, but I've also learned what matters most to me in selecting those partners.

How the potential partner interacts with me in the early stages tells me a lot about how he or she will treat my dear customers. So, I'm pretty picky.

While I don't derive the direct benefit of being able to cross-promote, this strategy does increase my overall credibility and reputation in my niche. And, it's fun. I learn an awful lot from my presenters in terms of their expertise and how they run their businesses.

If there are any professionals in your membership that have expertise that would benefit a beginning marketer (and an affiliate program) I'd love to hear from them at my website.

Many thanks as always, Robert, for the rich content.

Dina Beach Lynch
Mediation Marketing Mensch
http://www.adrpracticebuilder.com
http://www.mediationmensch.com

[John Maver]

Alliances can be magic, particularly for single proprietors or small groups which covers most of us. I have found with the Maver Management Group which does business acceleration consulting that alliances have had the following magic and benefits:
1. They enable me to focus on my core competencies which are identifying issues and opportunities for my clients and then creating the business and strategic plans to take advantage of them to drive the business forward.
2. Alliances extend the services I can offer to my clients.
3. In doing so it provides a barrier to entry that insulates the clients from competition of mine.
4. They enable me to provide more in depth knowledge in a particular industry or problem.
5. Alliances can identify additional clients and opportunities for me with their client base
6. My alliances are smart people and I learn from them. They provide “summaries” of the days important topics that I can then use with my clients to show my “brilliance”.
7. They make me a better consultant from their input on what I do and I reciprocate.
8. They give me someone to talk with and we provide a sounding board for each other.
9. My alliance partners are great people and I just enjoy their company

Yes there are other reasons too but these are the main ones. Thanks for the trigger to me publishing these magic benefits.

John Maver
Maver Management Group
www.mavermanagement.com

[Shama Hyder]

Give to get. Listen to be heard. Great audio Robert!