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Marketing
Without Migraines:
The
Power of Strategic Alliances
Everywhere I go lately,
it seems that the biggest headache everyone has
is trying to figure out how to effectively market themselves.
Whether you are in a job search, or just trying to find
a few new customers for your business, locating prospects
that may have an interest in you can be quite a challenge.
The question seems to be – how
do you reach decision-makers that have no time to read about,
think about or talk to you, and who also
happen to be very good at using technology to avoid you?
Spend
Your Money or Spend Your Time
When it comes to marketing,
you generally need to decide how
much money you have to spend, and how much
time you are willing to invest. You can spend a lot of money
on TV, radio or print advertising, or you can spend a lot
of time on cold calling and networking. Both options can
produce results in varying degrees, but what if you are
coming up short on both money AND time? Just how
many ads do you need to run before someone notices you?
How many networking functions can you attend before you
run out of time for cash-producing activities? And what
about this “Do Not Call List” stuff? Will anyone
who doesn’t know me even talk to me if I do call?
Strategic
Alliances – Your Option for Leveraging Your Time &
Your Money
If you haven’t
heard the term yet, you soon will. Strategic Alliances
– the most cost-effective and time-effective way
to market yourself into a new job, or into some new customers.
Think of it as developing your
own “virtual marketing team”
without the cost of hiring employees, and without having
to be at every networking event on the planet!
A strategic
alliance, simply defined, is a reciprocal relationship you
develop with someone whose prospect/client base is the same
as or similar to yours. This does not mean you
are going out to look for a competitor to work with (although
I’ve seen it work quite well!), but someone who can
work synergistically with you. A good example would be two
employee benefits consultants – one selling health
insurance, the other selling legal plans. Both
are trying to reach business owners or benefits administrators,
but their products do not compete with each other.
The key to success
in developing a strategic alliance involves getting to
know, like and trust your potential alliance partner,
and to feel comfortable with their products. Your partner
must also be willing to invest that same time and energy
in you. When both parties have developed a belief
in their partner, and a belief in their products,
then it is time to develop a plan for referring business
to each other.
If
Strategic Alliances are So Great – Why Doesn’t
Everyone Have One (or Two)?
Having one or more
strategic alliances IS a great thing, but it requires
an investment of time and trust, and a
willingness to develop a win-win relationship.
The biggest challenge to be overcome in developing
an alliance has a lot to do with human nature.
Most people
wander through life looking at every situation from a “what’s
in it for me?” perspective.
Although this perspective creates a great self-protection
mechanism, it is often counter-productive to developing
a strategic alliance. Both alliance partners go into the
relationship realizing that they are looking for assistance
from each other in the form of referrals, but referrals
will rarely be generated until at least one of the partners
can shift their perspective from “what’s in
it for me?” to “how can I help you?” In
general, the more one is willing
to give within a strategic alliance, the more one is likely
to receive. If one partner is able to make
the shift and starts giving referrals, but the other partner
does not, the relationship will not last very long, and
the opportunity will have been lost.
What’s
the Bottom Line – Are Strategic Alliances Worth the
Effort?
In my experience,
the answer to this is simply a resounding YES! Although
there is an up-front investment to be made, the
ability to leverage your time and your money through the
use of strategic alliances is well worth it.
Let’s look at a real-life example.
An office equipment
sales and service company decides to form an alliance with
a toner cartridge re-manufacturer. They both deal mainly
with business owners and office managers. As one company
is out repairing copiers, printers and faxes, they hand
out fliers for the toner re-manufacturer. As the toner company
delivers toner cartridges, they hand out fliers for the
service company. They are
not competing with each other. They are helping each other
access each other’s client base. In
this example, they also pay each other referral fees for
each new client secured, although this is not necessary
to make an alliance work.
Imagine having two,
three or four alliance partners on the street handing
out your marketing material, talking favorably about you
to their clients or asking questions that will uncover
a need you can fulfill. That’s the power of strategic
alliances! Think about it – how
large do you want YOUR “virtual marketing team”
to be?
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Sheyenne
Kreamer