KEY POINTS:
Rushing in to get an ally to promote your product is like meeting someone at a party, and then jumping into bed 15 minutes later.
Have you ever bought a house?
No sooner do you buy the house, than the real estate agent refers you on to an insurance agent, a lawyer, and to assorted other services.
In most cases, the real estate agent doesn't get a commission,
but the lawyer, insurance agent and others refer their clients back to the real estate agent.
As a result, everyone's super-busy because they're all in mutual alliances.
It makes sense to have strategic alliances, but not all businesses fit as easily as the real estate agency into that model.
So how do you start an alliance and what benchmark do you use to rate whether it is a success?
Do we get the ally to promote our products?
Do we get them to send out our articles?
Do we simply wait, or bug the hell out of them?
You do none of the above.
Rushing in to get an ally to promote your product is like meeting someone at a party, and jumping into bed 15 minutes later.
Rushing in to get them to send out articles is like kissing someone 11 minutes after having met.
Bugging them is not really designed to get results.
So what's the goal?
The goal is to start a conversation and keep it going till
the other person recognises you on the "street" and says hello.
That person gets your email and doesn't trash it,
gets a letter from you and doesn't use it as toilet paper,
gets a phone call from you and actually takes it, or returns the call.
That's the goal. And this recognition comes from conversation.
You talk. They talk back.
No talk about jumping in bed quite yet.
You're just having coffee after coffee after coffee, and
these three coffees are critical.
They're the benchmark.
They're what gets the other person to know you and like you (in some way).
This is how you know you're succeeding.
So the question arises: what should you do when drinking all that coffee?
You should be talking about "what you can offer" the strategic alliance.
The only real thing a potential ally is interested in is what's in it for them.
And you're more than likely to have something that's of value to two groups: 1) Their prospects.
2) Their existing clients.
It's important to spend that coffee time finding out how the ally attracts prospective clients.
Offer to give them a physical product or information product (I'll call them goodies) that will help the alliance attract even more clients.
Then watch as your ally's ears perk up.
Notice how their eyes become less glazed.
This is because you're talking about them, and not pushing your own product or service.
In the same manner, you can ask how the ally rewards existing clients.
In nine cases out of 10, the ally will have no reward for existing clients at all.
If you step in and provide something of value, then immediately the ally is going to be interested.
Of course you're smart enough to know that when the prospective or existing client gets the goodies, you'll get access to a whole new audience.
The more generous you are, the more likely the ally's prospective or existing clients will have a look at your website, or try your product, or come to your seminar.
You've not only created an incentive for the ally, but also
created an incentive for the ally's client.
And in doing so, created business for yourself.
So now you've downed enough coffee.
You've started a conversation.
How long before you get results?
Sometimes it takes a few weeks.
Sometimes it takes a few months.
Sometimes it may take years.
Keep drinking the coffees.
Keep talking, as long as you see that the potential alliance is worth the trouble.
Because one day, they'll accept the goodies you're offering.
And send those goodies to their clients.
And that's the day you'll open the floodgates to hundreds, even thousands of customers.
And it all starts with a simple coffee.
Or two.
Or 200.
And no, I don't have any alliance with the cafe.
Not yet, at least.
Sean D'Souza is chief executive of Psychotactics and is an international author, speaker and trainer.
www.psychotactics.com
