I recently delivered a presentation to the sales team of a large marketing firm. My goal was to teach them to stop marketing to their clients, and to start building relationships with their strategic partners. With the right strategy, they could easily double their income and work less hours at the same time. This concept can apply to any business.
Every business and non-profit has many strategic partners and they probably are not a client. A strategic partner is someone well connected to many of your potential clients. Once they trust you, a strategic partner can send you steady streams of referral business on a consistent basis.
To identify who your strategic partners are, first think of your clients. Who are they and what are they doing when they need your service? What other services do they need at that same time?
For example, one of the target markets for the marketing firm was βmedium sized businesses opening or expanding operations in Tucson.β There are additional services these businesses need before they open. Some examples might be a commercial realtor, business attorney, CPA, business consultant, graphic designer, website builder, business telecommunications, fleet vehicle sales and a host of others.
After identifying the right strategic partners, we identified a marketing plan specifically designed to reach them. The plan included direct mail, social media, and which professional referral groups they should join to build relationships with these strategic partners.
Once you have identified your strategic partners and developed a marketing strategy to reach them, the challenge becomes how do you get them to send business to you? Most strategic partners already have a good relationship with one of your competitors, and may have been using them for years.
That was the final topic of the presentation, and will be a topic for a future Biz Tips article. Keep reading our tips each week, and start being more strategic with your marketing efforts.
