WEBVTT
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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
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liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
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or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W FOURCY Radio.
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Welcome to Powerful Business Strategies, where you will find out
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that everything you have ever learned about growing your business
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is wrong. Finally, a show where you'll learn the right
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way to grow your business by learning business and financial
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strategies that your competition isn't doing. And now here is
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your host. President of NeXTSTEP CFO Michael Barbarita and joining
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Michael for today's show as an executive moderator is chooky obio.
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Yes, this is schukin.
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I believe that gratitude is undefeated and growth is about
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the next step. It is an honor for me to
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moderate today's discussion with my good friend Michael.
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Michael, how are you that's ask the CHK, how you doing?
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How are you choke? Can you hear me? Up? Yup? Frozen?
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Well, my name is Michael baberta president of Next Step CFO.
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Next Step CFO is a strategic implementation firm and fractional
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CFO firm, and business owners hire us to double and
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triple at profit using business and financial strategies that their
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competition isn't doing.
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And our vision is to ensure that.
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Overwhelmed business owners achieve the time, freedom, and consistent profits to.
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Build a legacy and the life they desire.
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Our mission is dedicated to guiding small business owners to
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leveraging their time, exploding their profits, and to build a
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meaningful legacy. And this show powerful business Strategies in our
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book of the same name, is a step towards accomplishing
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that vision edission. And so with that, I'd like to
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hand it back to my co author and moderate it
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for today's show to key Obio.
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Michael.
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I mean, we've got so much insight packed into today's episode.
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We may break the circuit, we may break the internet. Michael,
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Just so you know, I think we already have exactly
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very energized about today's episode it's titled Strategic Partnerships and
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joint Ventures Multiply your revenue without spending more on marketing.
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And just a quick disclaimer before we really get started,
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Michael and I are both affiliated with a number of
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different organizations. I currently serve as a managing director of
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business development for Betterprice of business focused law firm. But
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Look in addition to that, it's truly in honor to
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collaborate with Michael to moderate business roundtables and document the
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insights from these roundtables as part of our book, Powerful
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Business Strategies.
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Please note that the views.
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Expressed on this show are our personal views based on
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successful experiences. My mission as a fearless moderator to ask
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the right questions to help you, the listener, learn the
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best business strategies that the competition isn't doing. Michael back
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over to you.
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Thank you, chokey So business owners, you know, I see
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the constant pressure that you're under, the never ending demands
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to generate more leads, to convert more customers and grow
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your revenue. You're pouring money into marketing that delivers diminishing
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returns while your competitors seem to be everywhere. But what
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if I told you there's a growth strategy hiding in
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plain sight, one that doesn't require more ad spend, more
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content recreation, or more social media posting. A strategy, a
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strategy that lets you tap into established relationships and trust
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that other businesses have already built. And the most successful
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businesses aren't those with the marketing the biggest marketing budgets.
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They're the ones that master the art of strategic partnerships.
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Companies like Apple, Starbucks, and Amazon didn't reach the top alone.
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They leveraged powerful alliances that multiplied their reach and accelerated
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their growth. Today, I'm going to show you how even
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small businesses can implement these same partnership principles to dramatically
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increase revenue without spending another dollar on traditional marketing. So
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let's unlock that game changing growth strategy together. So let's
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start right out with a fundamental truth about growing a business.
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Traditional marketing is getting more expensive and less effective every year.
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Digital ad costs have increased by forty percent of the
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past five years.
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Social media reach continues to decline as.
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Platforms prioritize paid content and consumers are bombarded with thousands
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of marketing mesas such as Daily Making It harder than
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ever to break to the noise. This puts business owners
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in a difficult position. You need to grow, but the
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traditional paths to growth, like advertising more, hiring more salespeople,
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creating more content, all require significant investment with increasing uncertain returns.
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The good news is there's a powerful alternative that most
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businesses overlook, and that.
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Is strategic partnerships and joint ventures.
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This approach allows you to leverage the most valuable asset
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other businesses have already built, and that is trusted relationships
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with customers who need what you offer.
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Think about it this way.
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Would you rather try to convince a complete stranger to
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buy from you or someone that or have someone they
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already know and trust recommend your product or service? Now
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the latter is not only more effective, but typically cost
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a fraction of traditional marketing. So let me share a
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quick example. So a home remodeling contractor was spending five
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thousand dollars monthly on advertising with of course, mediocre results.
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He identified that his ideal customer had recently purchased homes
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and were likely working with mortgage brokers, real estate agents,
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and insurance providers. Now he developed a simple referral partnership
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with five mortgage brokers who would introduce his services to
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new home buyers. Now, within ninety days, these partnerships were
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generating twice the leads his advertising had produced at zero
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additional costs, and within six months he had completely eliminated
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his advertising budget while growing his business by forty percent.
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Wow. This isn't an isolated.
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Success story virtually every industry because they're based on the
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timeless principle and the most that the most valuable business
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asset is trusted relationships with customers. And when you can
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tap into relationships other businesses have already built, you create
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a shortcut to growth. Now you might be thinking that
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this sounds great, but why would other businesses want to
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partner with me?
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Well, the key is creating what I call a mutual
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value proposition.
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What I mean by that is these are partnership structures
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where everybody wins your business, your partner, uh partner's business,
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and most importantly, the customer. Strategic partnerships an't about convincing
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someone to promote your business out of the goodness of
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their heart. Systematic arrangements where your partner receives meaningful value,
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albeit financial rewards, enhance customer relationships. Competitive differentiation or other benefits,
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including referrals for connecting with you with connecting you with
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their customers. On today's show, I'm walking through our proven
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system for identifying, approaching, and structuring profitable partnerships that can
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dramatically accelerate business growth without the escalating costs of traditional marketing.
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Michael, it's interesting, right, I mean, you really struck a
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chord here, Like this concept of strategic partnership sounds powerful.
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But I'm curious though, what types of businesses can benefit
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from this approach and is it limited to certain industries
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or company sizes.
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Yeah, that's really a great question, Shookey. So one of
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the most powerful aspects of strategic partnerships is that they
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work for virtually any type of business, regardless of size
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or industry. And I've seen successful partnerships for everything from
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a one person service business right up to multimillion dollar
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manufacturing companies, and for service businesses like consultants or.
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Accountants or marketing agencies.
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Partnerships with complementary service providers who serve the same client
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base can be really productive. For example, a web designer
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partnering with a digital marketing agency or a business coach
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partnering with CFO services like ours, and of course we
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do both CFO services and strategic quotation. And for retailers
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and e commerce businesses, partnerships with non competing businesses that
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serve the same customer demographic can drive significant foot traffic
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or online sales. A boutique clothing store might partner with
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a jewelry store, or a pet supply e commerce site
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might partner with a pet insurance provider. And for manufacturers
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or wholesal wholesalers, partnerships with retailers, installers or service providers
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who interact directly with end users can open it entirely
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new distribution change cannels with an interior designer, or a
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food producer might partner.
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With local restaurants.
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The key insight is that strategic partnerships aren't about the
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size of your business. They're about the value you can
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provide to your partner's customers, and of course vice versa.
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Even a solopreneur can forge powerful partnerships with much larger
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organizations if they solve a significant problem for those partners customers.
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In fact, smaller businesses often have advantages in partnership development
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because they can move quickly.
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They can customize their offerings for.
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Specific partners partner's needs, and provide personalized attention that larger
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competitors simply can't match.
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So whether you're a.
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Startup or an established business, a local service provider, or
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even an international manufacturer, strategic partnerships can be a game
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changing growth strategy when correctly implemented.
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So now let's dive into that.
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First step of creating successful strategic partnerships, identifying your ideal
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potential partners. Many business owners make the critical mistake of
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approaching partnership development randomly, reaching out to any business that
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seems remotely related to theirs or that happens to be convenient.
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This is a scattershot approach really produces anything meaningful.
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So effective partnership.
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Strategy begins with a systematic approach to identifying potential partners
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who can provide maximum value. I call this the concentric
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circles methodology.
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Let me explain this.
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Imagine your business at the center of target, with three
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circles expanding outward, and each circle represents a category of
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potential partners, with those closest to the center typically offering
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the greatest partnership potential. So the inmost circle contains what
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I call natural allies. These are businesses that serve the
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exact same customers as you, but offer complementary, non competing.
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Products or services.
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And these businesses are your highest priority partnership targets because
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they have established and already assembled the precise audience that
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you want to reach.
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For example, we'll give a quick example.
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If you're a financial advisor specializing in retirement planning, your
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natural ally might include an a state planning attorney, or
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a medicare insurance specialist or a senior living consultant. All
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serve the same retirement age clientele, but offer services that
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complement rather than compete with yours. The second circle contains
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adjacent providers. These are businesses that serve customers who are
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similar to yours, but may very well be at a
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different stage in their journey. And these partnerships require a
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bit more creativity but can be tremendously valuable. For example,
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if a wedding photographer. If you're a wedding photographer, adjacent
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providers might include engagement ring jewelers who serve their who
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serve your ideal customer before they before they need you,
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or a newlywed financial advisor who serves those same customers
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after you. While these businesses don't target the exact same
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customers you, the significant overlap in the customer profile. And
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the third circle contains value amplifiers. These are businesses that
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don't necessarily share your customer base, but can significantly enhance
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the value of your offering through collaboration. These partnerships are
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more complex, but can create really powerful competitive advantage. For example,
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if you're a corporate training company, a value amplifier might
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be a software platform that could track the implementation of
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your training methods, adding a data driven component to your
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service that sets you apart from your competitors actually adding things.
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So once you've mapped potential partners across these three circles,
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the next step is prioritization, so you see not all
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potential partners offer equal value. You want to focus your
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partnership development efforts on businesses that possess three key characteristics.
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The first is they have a substantial relationship. They have
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substantial relationship assets where they've established trusted relationships with a
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six significant number of your ideal customers, and the more
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extensive and trusted these relationships are, the more valuable the
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potential partnership. Second, they have compatible business values. And what
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do I mean by that is similar standards of quality,
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similar standards of customers.
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Service, and ethics.
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Partnering with businesses whose values don't line up with yours
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can damage your reputation and create operational friction. Ah And Third,
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they have clear reciprocity potential, so you find obvious ways
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they can benefit.
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From a partnership with you, because the.
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Strongest partnerships create substantial value for both parties. And let
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me share a case study that illustrates this process in action. So,
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a high end kitchen renovation company was struggling to generate
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qualified leads well. Using the concentric circles methodology, they identified
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several categories of potential partners. First, their natural allies, and
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they included interior designers, real estate agents, especially those specializing
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in luxury homes, and high end appliance retailers, all of
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whom served the exact affluent homeowners of the kitchen renovation
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company client was targeting. And then the next set of
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circles are circle is the adjacent providers, including custom home
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builders who served similar customers earlier in their journey, and
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home automation companies who served the customer the same customers