Businesses around the world are leveraging their marketing through partnerships to grow their business. In our industry, there are many opportunities for partnerships. The key is choosing good partners. It is essential to build relationships and create mutually beneficial partnerships. When entering into a new relationship, I always advise clients to “trust your gut.”
One of the best ways to grow your business is collaborating with other professionals to partner together to offer more to support your clients. The big win is that instead of passing on a client, you can earn money by working together with a partner who is an expert, rather than passing when a project is not in your wheelhouse. It is better to make something rather than nothing. You also don’t want to bite off more than you can chew by accepting a project that is outside of your reach. By partnering, you can work smarter, rather than harder.
Another way to partner is to join partner or affiliate programs for apps and software that you use and recommend to your clients. This is a great way to earn residual income. You are likely using and recommending these products to your clients, so why not get paid for recommending them?
When it comes to selecting partners that add value to your company or organizations to work with, you should consider the following:
Is this a good fit?
Building a successful business relationship is the same as in our personal lives. It takes dedication, time and hard work to develop a successful partnership. Timing is critical. If you want to create a partnership that produces results, you need to be committed to doing so. If you don’t have the time or the energy to dedicate to building a partnership, then maybe it’s an indicator that you are not really interested, or it’s not a good fit. That is totally ok. You should be selective with who you partner with and not feel pressure to please others.
Residual income opportunity
Most of us are already involved in some sort of affiliate program. But, are you leveraging your ability to make residual income to the best of your ability? One of the best ways to promote an affiliate program is to promote on your website and share on social media. Each time you see someone offer a promotion from a company that is not their own through a blog, Facebook, Twitter and more, it is likely they are sharing a product from an affiliate program.
These are programs that use their partner’s network to extend their reach and grow their audience. In return, they gladly pay commission or referral fees. Whether your company takes referral fees, building a stack of apps that you regularly recommend to your clients is great for your business. This gives you a way to stand out and offer more services to your clients. If you can earn a little extra money by sharing the product, great!
Value of partnering
Marketing through partnerships has evolved from the need to accomplish business goals outside of a single business owner’s capacity. Partnerships allow businesses to leverage complementary strengths and customer bases. This can be accomplished through collaborating on a project, where you bring in someone to supplement supporting your client who is an expert in that area. This not only helps you, but also serves the greater good to your client. Also, you can do co-marketing with a partner to increase sales by sharing unique offers to your partner’s customers, and vice versa. This will also help build brand recognition.
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
The things to avoid when partnering
The partnership arrangement must be clearly defined. When you enter any business relationship, you should have an exit strategy in the event a dissolution becomes necessary. No one ever wants to think about this, but it’s extremely important to do in the beginning. This will help you eliminate serious issues, should things not work out as planned. A partnership gone bad can be just as stressful as a divorce. Early planning can put everything at ease. Be sure to get it in writing!
To create a successful partnership, there must be a shared vision for the purpose of working together. When this happens, partners are able to reach objectives more effectively. They become better together! I hope these tips help you leverage a partnership or affiliate relationship to grow your practice.
