Marketing Tip of the Week: Strategic Partners

[Frank Gomez]

This is critical. Strategic partners can save you a lot of time because they will send clients to you or team up with you on a project that you might not have even heard about.

Far too many business people spread their loyalties too thin. Are you partnering with someone who hasn't sent you a referral in a year and half? I would bet that they have "partnered" with some of your competitors. Pretty lame right?

This approach is better: Find a potential strategic partner (you probably already know them) and find out:
A) what kind of work they do (quality, responsiveness, standing behind their work).
B) whether they have happy clients or not
C) whether they deal with problems immediately vs. avoiding them.
D) If you recommended them to someone would you be Extremely Confident that they would make you look good?

If so then they are strategic partner material.
Can you do the same in return? Keep your word, treat your clients well, get the job done on time, under promise and over deliver? What comes around goes around. If your word is the same as your promise then you are probably a great candidate to be someone else's strategic partner.

How can you work with a strategic partner?
- Team up on projects
- Refer business to each other (you can agree to give each other a percentage of any closed work from the referrals)
- Find ways to cut costs by working together
- Meet regularly in a mastermind group to discuss issues and help each other work on improving your businesses.
- Share space storage space, transportation etc.

There are many many other ways to team up with another business for mutual benefit. I'd love to hear how you are partnering for success! Submit a comment.

Frank Gomez is a Graphic Designer with Frank's Designs offering graphic design, web design and trade show displays.