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by Debra S. Valle
Fuel
for your business
Our “raving fans”
often hold the key
to greater
visibility for our
careers and our
businesses, but
because we do not
customarily see them
as bridges to a
wider audience, we
rarely leverage
these relationships.
Who are our raving
fans?
Raving fans
are clients and
colleagues who love
our work and us, who are willing to
test new ideas, and
who are delighted to
promote and move our
work forward.
They
can provide the
impetus we need to
take that next bold
step toward
expanding our
businesses—the
development of
alliance
opportunities that
create greater joy
and fulfillment in
our work, as well as
increased visibility
and profit.
Why form alliances?
We form alliances to
grow business. We do
this by exchanging
something of value
with an alliance
partner in return
for greater exposure
to a shared target
audience and
increased revenues. Each
partner
brings to the
relationship a
product or a service
that increases any
(or all) of the
following:
credibility,
visibility with
target audiences,
exposure to new
markets, or greater
revenues.
What's the
hallmark of a great
alliance? They're
fun, hassle-free,
and they're easy to
get into, expand
and get out of.
Your first alliance
There are many types of
alliances.
Typically, the
easiest to set up are
those created with
your raving fans.
Such alliances often
represent a “safe”
place to play, and
are a great first
step.
When looking at
your raving fans,
ask yourself, “Does
this potential
alliance partner
share a mutual
target audience with
me? Is this raving
fan making contact
with customers and
prospects when the
need for my product
or service is
highest?”
A raving
fan becomes a prime
alliance opportunity
when he or she is
able to promote you
and is willing to
recommend your
product or service
at precisely the
right time—the
moment of truth when
the customer is
ready to buy.
Judy Feld and Ernest
Oriente, authors of
SmartMatch Alliances™,
call these types of
alliances “Just-in-time” (JIT)
alliances.
Examples of JIT
alliances are
an
orthodontist and a
dentist; a
sales coach and a
software vendor that
sells sales tracking
software; a web
developer and a
marketing
consultant; a
printer and a graphic
designer, and so on.
Head upstream
You can make even
more out of your JIT
alliances by asking
your alliance
partners to
introduce you and
your business to
five or more
individuals just
like them. For
example: if you are
an orthodontist in
alliance with a
dentist, ask yourself,
“Are
there five more
dentists I could be
working with? And if
there are five, where do they
meet locally so I
can get in front of
more of them? And if
they meet locally,
do they meet
regionally,
nationally, and so
on?”
Think of the
possibilities!
It works
Using this JIT
alliance approach,
my clients have seen
amazing results. One
writes articles for
a newsletter with
two million
subscribers, another
offers classes
through schools
training on software
skills, and another
sells products
through third party
vendors.
What’s the key?
JIT alliances are
typically easy to
establish and quick
to close because the
relationships with
your raving fans
already exist— as do
the products and
services you and
your raving fans
bring to the table.
The inspiration to
create the alliance
and the vision to
see it through is
all that’s missing!
See
Fuel
cells for ways
to identify the
right raving fans to
begin work with
today.
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Fuel
cells
You have a goldmine in your raving fans
To start, look to
your own
client/contact
database and create
a list of "raving
fans"—people who
love you and what
you do.
Once you’ve
created your list
of raving fans,
rank them based on
the following
criteria:
- Can this
raving fan get
me in front of
my ideal target
customer at the
“moment of
truth” when the
customer is
ready to buy?
- Does this
raving fan
communicate
consistently
with my ideal
target market?
- To what
extent will an
alliance with
this raving fan
allow me to do
the work I love
to do?
- Will an
alliance with
this raving fan
allow me to work
with clients I
love to work
with and who
appreciate and
need my
services?
- Is this
opportunity
financially
lucrative for
both my raving
fan and me?
- Will this
raving fan want
to and be
able to promote
me easily?
For each
criterion that
applies, give
yourself a point.
Once you’ve scored
your list, decide
to let go of the
“opportunities”
that did not get
at least five
points. For those
that do score
five or more
points, make these
your first
attempts at
alliance building.
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Fuel for your soul
Consider these words of wisdom:
“One's mind,
once stretched
by a new idea,
never regains
its original
dimensions.”
– Oliver Wendell
Holmes
“Only from
the alliance of
the one, working
with and through
the other, are
great things
born.”
– Antoine de
Saint-Exupery
“Focus 90% of
your time on
solutions and
only 10% of your
time on
problems.”
– Anthony J.
D'Angelo
“Energy is
the essence of
life. Every day
you decide how
you're going to
use it by
knowing what you
want and what it
takes to reach
that goal, and
by maintaining
focus.”
– Oprah Winfrey
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