Leverage Strategies – Getting Others To Help

How can you get others to help you meet new customers and sell your products and services? Are there other businesses that have the same or similar profiles of customers? Can you double your efforts to reach more customers by working together? The concept is called Leverage.

Leverage Strategies are opportunities to do more with less. They rely on the use of outside business partners to help you market your firm. Marketing partners can have huge multiplying effects on your marketing efforts.

Marketing partners are any firm or individual that will positively present you to a potential new customer. In most instances, in return for something (money or the opportunity for you to reciprocate to them).

An example, might illustrate this concept more clearly. A retail movie rental business and a pizza delivery service in town have the same prospective customer base. There is a natural correlation between the two products/services, as many families will choose to purchase a pizza and watch movies at home.

If the movie rental business distributed coupons for pizzas to its customers and the pizza company did the same to its customers, both businesses would reach more potential customers. By leveraging they accomplish more marketing.

This may sound familiar. Sounds like the traditional development of referrals. It is, but it can be much, much more. We all recognize that referrals from our customers and from other "centers of influence" generate a great deal of business.

Let’s develop this basic idea further and introduce the use of the third dimension (also known as host/beneficiary relationships or joint marketing relationships). We refer to these relationships as Marketing Partners.

Marketing Partners

Who are your marketing partners? Ask yourself, who else is trying to sell to the same group of targeted customers as I am (excluding competition)? For many types of businesses, one natural group of marketing partners come to mind, your referral sources. These companies send you clients and visa versa. You therefore have similar targets.

For the accountant, this group includes the lawyers, insurance agents, investment advisers, etc. But don’t stop there. Dig deeper. Who else is trying to sell to the same-targeted group of customers? Think nontraditionally and outside your familiar industries.

The Meaning of Partnering
It seems that the term “partnering” is being used quite frequently and almost always in different ways. When we refer to marketing partners, we are referring to partnering on the sales and marketing side of the business.

Do not confuse this with partnering to outsource, increase productivity or to consolidate suppliers. Don’t get confused about partnering with customers.

Partnering in terms of marketing partners relate to those people and firms that will help market and promote your firm because 1) they share the same customers as you and 2) believe it is to their benefit to do so.

Finding Your Marketing Partners

Then brainstorm on everyone else that serves that same niche segment. Write these types of companies outside and around the circle.

Another way to identify marketing partners is to make a list of the companies that you wrote business checks to this year. Each of these groups represents unexplored and potentially significant channels of new leads to prospective customers.

Leveraging Your Marketing Partners
OK, you understand the concept of marketing partners but are still a little unclear on how you leverage them to get more prospective customers knocking on your door. Let’s go into more detail. Since most businesses don’t have infinite amounts of people and money available for marketing, you need to get the most bang for your marketing effort as possible.

That is where Leverage Strategies come into play. If you can convince others to help you market your services you expand the breadth of your resources. Before we discuss how to convince your marketing partners to help you, let us spend a little more time on developing the possibilities Leverage Strategies hold.

The number of ways your firm can work with your marketing partners is mathematically limited to infinity but recognizing that some of us are more creatively challenged than others let’s look at a few possibilities. In doing so, we hope you will start getting a better feel for the nature of Leverage Strategies.

Example #1: A Law Firm and a CPA Firm
A small law firm and a CPA firm have a long history of referring work back and forth to each other. About one-third of their respective client lists are mutual clients. The Law Firm says to the Accountant, “How can we work even closer together and get your remaining clients to change to our law firm?” The CPA suggests, “Why don’t we do a joint seminar.” “That’s a good start, but I want to get in front of all of your clients not just those that come to a seminar”, said the attorney. “OK, I guess I could write a letter of introduction to my clients and enclose your brochures, but what are you willing to do for me?” said the CPA. “I don’t have the staff for a large mail campaign... how about I put a note in each of my clients’ bills asking if they want to change CPA firms, then when they tell me “yes” I refer them to you?”

Marketing partners? You bet! Each firm gains the exposure and subtle endorsement of the other.

Example #2: An Insurance Agent and a Wholesale Customer
The wholesale customer has a number of insurance needs but is concerned with the cost. The insurance agent offers a deep discount on the insurance in return for personal introductions to ten customers, vendors or suppliers of the wholesaler.

The insurance discount cost the agent roughly $3,000 in revenue but the agent knows that for every ten face-to-face meetings he gets, he lands one new customer. He also knows that marketing efforts typically cost $4,000 for each new customer won.

Under this scenario, the insurance agent would be $1,000 ahead, have a closer relationship with the wholesale customer, and the potential to win more than one new customer from the wholesaler’s referrals.

Finding ways to work with another firm just takes some creativity and the willingness to try out your ideas.

Where to Start
The easiest place to get your feet wet is to identify your best referral source relationship (a win-win relationship whereby both sides are actively referring equal levels of prospective customers to each other). Would they be open to such a relationship? Toss a few ideas around. Try them and work from your successes.

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