5-Steps to Create Effective Strategic Alliances To Explode Your Business

A little over twelve months ago I began to get concerned about the direction the economy was going. I made a pro-active decision to shift my marketing strategy into high gear and being that like most small businesses with limited marketing funds I had to get creative. So, I decided to begin marketing a marketing idea among a group of business associates whom I trusted and respect, the concept of Strategic Alliances.

Strategic Alliances are a powerful marketing approach that allows you to leverage your value and maximize your efforts and energy. We’re only halfway through 2009 and I can pretty much guarantee this is going to be my best year of my eight years in business.

Basically, the way I view Strategic Alliances is that they are one or more businesses that offer complimentary products and services that have significant to a similar target market. For my business which focuses on improving the bottom-line and company culture of businesses my ideal strategic partners are in the following industries: commercial insurance, commercial banking, commercial lending, accounting, bookkeeping and payroll services, advertising specialty firms, web and internet marketing companies, and traditional advertising/marketing/pr firms.

Here are some tips for getting started on adding Strategic Alliances to leverage your marketing efforts:

STEP 1
Brainstorm the types of businesses that go after similar target markets with complimentary products and services.

STEP 2
Identify the specific components of your product and service offerings that you could proivde as a “value added” offer to your alliance partners (e.g., I offer a 2-2 1/2 hour introductory workshop for the clients and prospects of my alliance partners, which is a $3,000 retail value).

STEP 3
Identify individual businesses from #1 above that you already have established relationships with. Then grade those relationships on an A, B, C scale for those that you have a high “know, like, trust & respect” factor.

---

NOTE: Notice that two of my upcoming speaking events, August 5th & August 6th, in the column to the right are Strategic Alliance programs!

---

STEP 4
Create your offer to your Strategic Alliance partners in a way that they can easily see the benefits of offering your expertise as a “value added” service to their clients/prospects. Always craft the pitch so that it focuses solely on the value the SA partner receives by joining forces with you.

---

*side note here: these Strategic Alliances are all around you, once the Reticular Activating System in your brain is engaged by understanding this concept you will begin to notice them. I just noticed one this morning as I was watching the US Open Golf Championship on NBC-TV. When the network cut away to its “Sports Update” at the top of the hour the anchor read a story about the Wimbledon Tennis Champions starting in two-days and that defending Champion Rafael Nadal withdrew due to an injury. This was a valid news story any network would have announced, but particularly pertinent since NBC-TV hosts the Wimbledon Tennis TV coverage. After the story, the announcer told the audience to pick up a copy of USA Today on Monday, the first day of the Wimbledon Tournament to get all the tournament news including a feature on 5-Time Champion Roger Federer. Behind the announcer was a very prominent USA Today logo. It clearly shifted from a true news story to a cross-promotion with the newspaper. Another example is when Disney releases a new animated movie, or the latest Star Wars, Star Trek or Super Hero movie comes out. The Hollywood production houses always partner with fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, etc. and the soft drink companies because they are catering to similar targets, families and kids.

---

STEP 5
Begin calling your “A” list, letting them know that you have identified them as your first choice as someone you’d like to work with in their industry and that if they decide they are not interested you have other competitors of theirs you will be reaching out to.

Results for me have been truly outstanding. I’ve delivered eight SA workshops in the last 10 months which has exposed me to over 300 new business prospects. It has brought me two significant clients this year I wouldn’t have secured otherwise, allowed me to sellout a “open enrollment” workshop that I offered mostly to those new members of my database which allowed me to net about $3,000 for a one-day program, and finally I’m meeting next week with three new prospects for consulting projects directly related to my Strategic Alliance marketing efforts.

That’s all there is to it, other than delivering on your promise in the Strategic Alliance, of course. Get started. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at Info@SkipWeisman.com