TRP 254: Strategic Alliance Partnerships for Rainmakers with Scott Love

[00:00:10] You're listening to The Rainmaking Podcast, hosted by high stakes headhunter, author and professional speaker, Scott Love. Hey, this is Scott Love. Thank you for joining me on The Rainmaking Podcast. Our guest today is myself, a solo cast. I'm talking about some ideas I think will help you. And the topic title is Strategic Alliance Partnerships. We're going to talk about what that is and how that can help you.

[00:00:38] And I'm going to give you some specific action steps to do that. So I'm going to tell you that in just a second. But first, I'm going to give a shout out to the sponsor of our show, one of my favorite and longest Strategic Alliance Partners, Leopard Solutions, Firmscape and BI, Leopard BI. Push it out of the pack with the power of Leopard. And always on our show notes of the show, you can find their contact info. Just check it out. It's a solution that I think can help you. Anyways, let me talk about what this means. Strategic Alliance Partner.

[00:01:07] Now, you may think you have referral partners and you probably do. And I hope that you do. And I hope you can get very deliberate and intentional about working with people on a regular basis where you're giving to them and they're giving to you. And you will find mutually beneficial relationships through referral partnerships. For example, you might be a partner with a global law firm and you work in the medical device field.

[00:01:33] Well, I would be willing to bet there's management consultants that work in the medical device field. There's probably accounting professionals that work in that area. There's probably even trade associations that have tons of sponsors, people that work in the medical device field. And I'd be willing to bet that over time, you might develop a referral partnership of maybe about a dozen people where you know them, you refer people to them and vice versa. In fact, there are actually groups that do this, such as provisors.

[00:02:00] Also, other groups that you might find that might be more appropriate for whatever niche that you work in. And that's a good thing to do is to be deliberate and intentional about building that referral partnership. In fact, a book I'd recommend that talks about doing this is called Relationships to Infinity, written by Jason Levin, who's been a multi-guest, a repeat guest on the Rainmaking podcast. He talks about the science and the secret of keeping in touch with people. That gives you a whole formula on how you can follow that.

[00:02:27] But let me talk about the difference between that and a strategic alliance partnership. Let me give you a definition. A strategic alliance partnership is a relationship that you have with a person or an organization where there's mutual benefit in promoting each other's solutions. Let me give you an example. I mentioned Leopard Solutions. And years ago, I got to know Laura Leopard and her staff and their fantastic people. And then we became friends.

[00:02:56] But more than that, we became strategic alliance partners when I would do webinars for her constituents, which were law firms and even other recruiters. I'd even done a presentation for people in that category that she sponsored. So that was the beginning of a relationship where I would do work. I would provide solutions that would get eyeballs on their solutions. I would provide content that would get people interested in just checking out their program.

[00:03:23] So that's an example of what a strategic alliance partnership is. So I would recommend looking for opportunities to do things like this. And I'll give you some structure and some examples. Your goal, I think, should be to have two to five regular strategic alliance partners where you collaborate together and sharing value with your mutual networks.

[00:03:46] For example, there might be a management consultant that consults in the medical device industry that holds medical device webinars and medical device retreats for executives in the medical device industry. And you, as a specialist in that area, could develop a strategic alliance partnership with that management consultant. Perhaps find out who those people are.

[00:04:09] And the way you build those relationships, you just don't say, hey, listen, I want you to help me get in front of the people that you have in your program. It's a different whole formula where you say, how can I help you? You invite them to do something with you. Perhaps identify those people that could be really good strategic alliance partnerships and invite them to collaborate on something that can immediately help them. It opens up the door.

[00:04:37] So you may even want to look at who are your referral partners? Who are those people that have visibility within your niche where you might be able to work on a project together? I've done this several times with coaches, consultants, people that work within legal. They'll have retreats. I'll speak at their retreats or even speaking at conferences, both of us sitting on a panel. That's an example of what you can do.

[00:05:01] So I'd recommend setting a goal to find two to five strategic alliance partners. And instead of it kind of being random and haphazard, I always say write a Word document. Get a Word document right on the top objective to build two to five strategic alliance partnerships and get real clear on your clarity of who are the people that you might want to reach out to. And it doesn't have to be obvious. You don't say, I'm going to sit down with you and talk about a strategic alliance partnership. You might reach out to people that you don't know.

[00:05:30] And as that relationship builds, so for example, invite them to or quote them in an article that you're writing. That's a really good way to start a relationship with someone. There's somebody I have in mind. I'm not going to mention who it is, who's not yet a strategic alliance partnership. But this is somebody that's a pretty big deal within my niche. And I remember sending her a message saying, I quoted you today in a presentation for the industry. And that's a really good way to establish some sort of connection.

[00:06:00] And it hasn't been some sort of stalkerish goal that I've had to really get to know this person. But I've kept that person in mind when I see other people that are my referral partners know. They know who she is. They've sat on panels with her and conferences that I've noticed that I'm kind of in the same circles as that person. And then you can slowly take steps that are natural and organic. I don't think it should be too contrived. I think it should be intentional.

[00:06:28] And I think you should be deliberate about who are these people. But you just allow those relationships to build naturally over time. You find that you're attending the same conference. You send that person a note and say, I see you'll be at this conference. Let's grab a cup of coffee and say hello. And that's all you have to do. You don't need to get a lot of time with them. Just a little bit of time. Just let them know that you're a bona fide. You're a professional. You have credentials. You're the real deal.

[00:06:55] You're someone that isn't going to embarrass them, which kind of is my subconscious concern. Am I going to embarrass people? Gee, you know, I'm not as buttoned down nor as fancy as them. It doesn't matter. Be yourself. Bring your value forward to your industry niche and find out who those people are and be deliberate and intentional about who are those people you'd like to have at some point as a strategic alliance partner. Other things that you can do.

[00:07:23] You can co-author a white paper together. I've had executive coaches and speakers within the client development area reach out to me. Henry DeVries and Mark LeBlanc, they both co-authored books before together. They reached out to me to co-author a book called Rainmaker Confidential. And we released that about two years ago. I'll even put that in the show notes in case you're interested. But it's a book that talks about how to build a practice. How do you become a rainmaker? That was something that we did.

[00:07:53] And in promoting our book, we had other projects that we worked on and it benefited all of us. And I think that's the whole goal is to work together so there's mutual benefit to everybody. Other things you can do. There could be strategic alliance partners. Maybe they have a podcast. And if you have one, you can guest on each other's shows or you can refer people to them.

[00:08:14] But if you're actively working with people in thought leadership where there's mutual benefit, that's a strategic alliance partnership. Webinars are an easy way to start also. And then things that are a little bit more advanced, like I mentioned sitting on a panel. What are the industries that you would love to speak at or get on a panel with? Perhaps inviting someone that maybe they're a referral partner. Maybe there could be more things you do.

[00:08:42] Invite them to talk about sitting on a panel together and submit that panel description to the committee. And when you have somebody that has a big name, then you sort of borrow that fame from them. When you're sitting on a panel with that famous person within your industry niche, you shine a little bit brighter. So that's my goal for you right now is to think through who are those two to five strategic alliance partners and take action on that.

[00:09:08] Now, let me summarize this in three action steps like I always do at the end of every episode. Number one, write down on a Word document your goal, objective to develop two to five strategic alliance partnerships within the next six months. That's step number one. Step number two, do some research on this. Make a list of who are all of your referral partners, people that could become strategic alliance partners.

[00:09:36] And maybe some of those people might know those potential strategic alliance partners, people that do have a lot of thought leadership and you can add value. You're not competing with them directly. And sometimes I've done projects with people that I compete with and it's totally fine. We help each other out. There's a lot of business out there. But that's step number two is make that list of who are the people that you think could become potential strategic alliance partners. And then here's kind of a sub point of point number two.

[00:10:05] Write down what are the possible opportunities you could do together. A podcast interview, a webinar, sitting on a panel, speaking at a conference, co-authoring a white paper, and even co-authoring a book, although that's a pretty heavy lift. And then number three, take action and reach out to them. By the end of this week or next week, within the next five to seven business days, reach out to at least one of those strategic alliance partners.

[00:10:33] Maybe not with a proposal to do an event together, but just to get to know them. And like I said, it can develop over time. I hope this gave you some value. Thank you for listening to the show. And one thing I've done recently, I've added Tuesdays, not every Tuesday, but maybe every week Tuesday or every other week Tuesday. It's going to be a legal focused show.

[00:10:57] I've got a lot of podcast episodes in the queue and I don't want the show itself to become purely legal, although the people in my world are illegal. So Tuesdays are going to be legal specific topics that are appropriate and interesting only to people at work in the law firm world. Thursday is going to be something that benefits everybody. So that's a recent development. And if you've been getting good ideas from the show, if you've been listening to a few of them, if you could take a moment, go to Apple podcasts.

[00:11:24] And if you could leave us a nice five star review. I haven't really asked people to do that much. We've got maybe 40 some odd reviews. I think we should get a little bit more. So I'd appreciate it. And that would be a favor to me. If you get value from this, I'd really appreciate that. Thank you so much for doing that. I hope to see you next time. And remember, we started putting these episodes on the YouTube channel. You can check that link out in the show notes also. We'll see you next time here on the Rainmaking podcast. Thank you for listening.

[00:11:57] Thank you for listening to the Rainmaking podcast. For more information about our recruiting services for international law firms, visit our website at attorneysearchgroup.com. To inquire about having Scott speak at your next convention, conference, sales meeting or executive retreat, visit therainmakingpodcast.com. Thank you.