There are 4 critical steps in developing a new Power Partner Relationship.
First, what is a Power Partner? This is any business, organization, association or group that ACTIVELY PROMOTES your business. And they already serve the Ideal Clients that you’d love to have in your business! Instead of working hard to land ONE sale, the same amount of work invested in a Power Partner could yield tons of new clients all throughout the year. And, of course, you can have many Power Partners introducing you as a valued connection.
A quick example: Let’s say you sell Luxury Lawn & Patio Furniture. First, we think about Your Ideal Clients. They value quality and design. They love to entertain and share the good life with their friends, and they have substantial income to spend in this way. Now we ask: Who already serves these people? It could be a BMW or Lexus dealer. It could be a custom pool company. It could be an architect or a higher-end design-build firm. All of these businesses already serve your Ideal Clients. That’s all they have for Clients! They are Partner potentials. Wouldn’t it be great to have every new Mercedes Benz owner in your market get an introduction to you when they get in their new car, or have their car serviced? That is the power of this approach.
The answers you get in this process become your first Power Partner Target list.
So how do you do this? And how do you know it works?
These are the exact same strategies that I have used to grow my businesses from zero to over $3,000,000 in sales, and helped many others to grow their businesses and income to earn the most they’ve ever earned.
Just 1 of my Power Partners made 1 introduction that generated over $500,000 in sales. Another Power Partner introduced me into an organization that generated over $750,000 in 5 different projects within 12 months.
Do you know who your Ideal Clients are? The more detailed you can be in this process, the better you’ll do in approaching Potential Partners. As an example, when I moved to Connecticut, I identified an Ideal Client Class (you can have more than one) as Manufacturers. More specifically, with minimum 50,000 square feet of space, and operating 2 or 3 shifts, and having local ownership. Once you’ve done some writing about your Ideal Clients:
Step 1: Alignment
Start by asking: Who has a “Shared Economic Interest” in the same ‘Ideal Clients’ that you want?
Who is already serving them – and has been for some time? So in the example above, high- end car dealers may be serving the clients I want. This is based on a demographic and psychographic description of your Ideal Client. Who else serves that same Client Profile?
Where to look for Power Partner Targets? ADJACENCY
One technique to look for Potential Partners is Adjacency. What other products and services are ‘near’ mine in the client’s eyes? If I do luxury patio furniture, maybe Hot Tub dealers or Lawn & Landscape companies. Perhaps home remodelers? What other products and services are your Ideal Clients likely to be buying?
Where else to look for Power Partner Targets? UPSTREAM & DOWNSTREAM
Another great Mindset is to look both Upstream and Downstream from your offer.
Who touches the client right before you are needed? For patio furniture, maybe the Mason who installed the brick patio? Maybe a pool company? Maybe a deck builder or deck material supplier? Imagine if these businesses gave all of their clients a coupon for you? Imagine that they ‘gifted’ their clients with a “Complimentary OutDoor Living Design Consultation” with you. How cool would that be?
Who is there after you? Lawn & Landscape companies for example.
Example: In my prior Lighting Energy Conservation Business, good upstream Partner candidates were the people that provided the building owner their electrical and maintenance materials to keep the building operating day to day.
What was the ALIGNMENT? They wanted to be the GO-TO Resource whenever this client needed anything electrical. I helped them do this, by having them introduce me and my solution. It came from THEM, not me.
Downstream, was the Electrical Contractor that serviced the power-side of my projects after completion. If they introduced me, they earned not only the installation contract but also the follow-on service work.
In both of these cases, my partners did not do what I did, so we were Adjacent and not competitive. But by letting them make my offer to their customers, THEY got to look good and be seen as a more-value-added supplier.
Are you seeing the power of this?
When you develop a short list of Target Potential Partners, the next piece of the Alignment process is to do some research, and read about their Mission, their Purpose, and their Values (likely found on their website.) What are they committed to? What are their Goals?
If you can take the results of this research and build it into your presentation to this partner, you will WOW them by speaking their own words back and showing them that you did some research. Believe it or not, this is so simple but so powerful because most, if not all, of your competitors will not do this.
If you can use your research and invite the Potential Partner to “RAISE THEIR AMBITIONS” by layering your offer on top of theirs – now we are talking Marketing Magic.
The next steps are APPROACH, AGREEMENT and ACTION and I’ll be sharing an article about each really soon.
If you want to get the full series and see a great overview video about this process, simply follow this link.
And here is a pdf attachment to give you a FRAMEWORK for doing this on your own.
And in the meantime;
Be CLEAR, be ENERGIZED and be GRATEFUL!
Thanks
Kevin Murray, Founder of ENERGIZE YOUR BUSINESS programs
