Strategic Alliances or Power Partners are a potent way to dramatically impact the quantity and quality of your leads. The power of having a relationship with other professionals is the difference between getting by and being a successful business venture or rather, surviving versus thriving.
Within three months after introducing the Power Partners concept to my clients in 1994, the number of business introductions that these clients shared with each other more than doubled.
Increased profits are only a minor portion of the benefits. You will become more creative, resourceful and you will have more fun. You will gain the satisfaction of serving your new clients and helping others learn about the resourceful services of your Power Partners.
Sharing Clients
The Power Partner concept is simple. You collaborate with others who share your type of client, but for a different reason. The benefits include:
1) Significantly reducing the amount of time and money you spend on marketing
2) Each of you will gain personal referrals that are more likely to do business with you.
Suppose you’re a Law of Attraction author and you partner with a Self Help author. Although each of you targets many of the same audiences, you’re not competitors. Often, people who gravitate to one of you will also reach out to the other. Thus, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from sharing resources and referrals, including people who are now your individual clients.
Each of you understands the others’ business well enough to know what type of audiences you prefer, but because you move in different circles, you each come in contact with people the other wouldn’t necessarily meet. When you pass referrals on to each other, you also endow each other with a credibility you couldn’t obtain working alone.
You can add several Power Partners individually or together. Perhaps you partner with a speaker or someone who conducts webinars, both of who have resources for your client base (and vice versa) without being in competition with you.
Pretty soon it becomes easy to think in terms Power Partner connections. As you expand your potential lead resources, you discover more non-competitors in the speaking arena, event venues and teleseminar producers.
When you create a Power Partnership, you create excitement and creativity in a much bigger playing field than is typically utilized in entrepreneurial circles. Everyone involved realizes that it’s at least as fun and rewarding to give as it is to receive. The more we give, the more we get back, provided the giving is done freely without expecting something in return. The universal law is “what goes around comes around.”
Increasing the Stakes
Basic Power Partners will generate a great amount of referrals. Working with these individuals is potent when you request specific client profiles rather than being vague. The more Power Partners you know, the easier it is for others to help you.
After you successfully utilize the Power Partner concept, you will want to develop a more dedicated relationship known as a Preferred Power Partner. This concept came about after encouraging clients to have regularly scheduled brain storming sessions.
Simply select one or two people who meet your basic Power Partner criteria. Ask if they’re willing to connect with you on regular intervals. Until you’re both satisfied with the relationship, talk two or three times to develop a strong rapport. Then decide how often you’d like to exchange resources and information. Make a firm commitment to reconnect with them once a week by email or as pertinent information arises.
When possible, power up your referrals from “Joe, I think you should call Mary who is the host of a radio show I was just interviewed on” to something more personal. Take the extra step of telling Mary about Joe and suggesting a meeting after you introduce Mary and Joe in person. I do this often on Facebook and Skype.
Soon you will realize that your business is more solid and you will no longer have to struggle to find new clients.
Imagine yourself one year from now when you have three to four referred prospects for speaking engagements calling you. They’re already informed about your expertise and are engaged in the desire to get to know more about you.
Everywhere you go, you will meet new prospective Power Partners. You will be doing better than you ever imagined. You will manage to take time off every month to spend with your family. You will be able to take up a new hobby. You will even have time to read all those trade publications that you used to stack up in the corner. Imagine always being in a good mood and even difficult traffic can’t diminish you positive attitude.
When you stop and think about it, you can’t remember the last time you had a bad day. You have accumulated a great amount in your savings account and a sizeable portfolio to cover your retirement and future needs.
And one day you catch yourself thinking back. It all started with that one Power Partner.
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