- What's up Believe Nation?
It's Evan.
My one word is "believe" and I believe
that you have something special to offer and I'd love
to see it explode so that you can help change the planet.
So to help you on your journey today
we're going to look at seven different ways
that you can make business alliances.
- [Robotic Voice] Nine...
Eight...
[Upbeat Music]
- So one of the fastest ways to grow your company
is through alliances.
You find people who are already selling
to your target market and instead of you
having to go one, by one, by one, by one,
talking to potential customers you want to be able to talk
to one person, who then could open you up to tens,
hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of customers.
And so today I'm going to talk about
seven different ways to be able to do that.
[Upbeat Riff]
Way number one is to look at where do people buy
before they buy from you?
So understand that buying is a cycle.
People are not always ready to buy from you.
People are not always ready to buy
from you potential alliance partners and there's a phase
where you buy one thing from somebody
and then you graduate and buy the next thing,
and buy the next thing and so what you want to look at
is wherever you are in that buying cycle,
you want to find all the people that your customers
are buying from before they buy from you.
So as an example, if you are a graphic designer.
You know, you're a graphic designer
and you want to figure out the buying cycle.
Maybe before somebody buys graphic design services,
they have built a website or they've got hosting,
or they've just incorporated a business
and so all of those people here,
you want to start making connections with.
You want to take them out for lunch,
you want to approach them, grab a coffee,
understand them and you want to learn about their business
and it's way easier to set up a meeting
with a potential partner because you can help each other out
much more that it is to make a cold call
and try to get a meeting with a customer.
And so I'm trying to understand these people.
I'm trying to figure out how I can help them.
If you get business that you
could potentially give to them, that's great, right?
If you now know somebody that needs website design,
or needs hosting or business set up, you could refer them
to these people and also you're hoping
that if you make a good impression,
they could refer business onto you.
And understand that sometimes you need to work out
a relationship with a commission or a fee structure
where they get a flat amount in they refer you a client,
or they get a percentage of a deal
if they refer you a client.
A lot of times they do this just because
it makes them look good.
It's a value added service.
If I'm a web hosting company, and I've just taken on
a new client and I know they need graphic design,
if I introduce them to somebody who does a great job,
it makes them look good.
So if you do a great job for your clients,
anybody that's been referred in,
it actually makes that person look great as well
and you're going to get a lot more deals coming through.
So understand who the people are that your clients
are buying from before they ever buy from you.
Get to know them, take them to coffee,
understand their business and try
to find a way to work together.
[Upbeat Riff]
Way number two is to understand where people
buy from after they buy from you.
So, we understand where they're buying from before,
obviously then they're buying from us.
What's next?
Who is out in this range?
So if I'm a graphic designer, and I'm making people
a beautiful business card, well what's next?
They're going to need a printer.
So what I'm going to do now
is go and meet all of these people,
because these are all potential alliance partners
for my business as well.
I want to talk to all the printers in my area.
I want to talk to anybody who they're gunna
then take my graphic design services
and do the next step with.
I want to talk to those people cause again,
one, it's easy to make those meetings
cause those partnerships you could potentially
help both of each other out.
It gives you a path to refer your clients onto,
and then if clients are going to them and saying
"hey I love your printing services, but before we use you
we need to get a good graphic design concept completed
for our business card," right?
They could then pass it onto you, right?
And if you do a good job then you make them look good.
So again the same idea of do you want to give them
a commission, a flat fee or just be able
to pass those frills back and forth and have
that kind of trusted relationship.
Meeting with people on both sides of the equation,
and forming as many partnerships as you can
can really help explode your customer base
much faster than going after customers one at a time.
[Upbeat Riff]
Way number three to make alliances
is through your customers.
A lot of times your customers can be great conduits
for either becoming a business partner in your company,
passing referrals onto you,
doing a tighter kind of integration with.
In my first software company,
we always used our customers to fund our next development.
So we had our base software, and then if a customer wanted
a custom feature built, we would charge them for it.
Like, okay, you want that thing added?
Great, we can do it and it's going to cost you
this amount of money.
We would do it at cost.
We wouldn't really make a ton of profit
off of that development, but then that feeds into
our product and we can sell to everybody
and so any time any customers wanted
that custom integration, custom development,
we would do it and it helps everybody else.
So they're helping fund our business to grow.
On my YouTube channel, as an example.
When I wanted to promote my book, we reached out
to a number of you guys that had YouTube channels
that were already a part of the community.
You guys are my customers and we're doing
some business development with and see
how we can help each other out and I appeared
on your channel, you appeared on my channels
and so there's a lot of ways to make it work.
If I look at at Toronto Dance Salsa as an example,
we look at the companies that people work at
and often the students who come in then take
the message back to their company and they tell
their friends and they might put up a sign
in the lunch area and help promote the school
and talk about us on social media, you know,
so you want to basically get as close
to your customers as possible.
You want to understand why they came to you,
what their needs are, what they do for a living,
what makes them tick, what their needs, passions,
desires are and one: that just helps you
get more referrals, right?
If they know you, like you, trust you,
they might tell their friends about you
but it could also lead to a greater integration
with what they're doing.
It may lead to a tighter relationship
with the business that they're at.
More sales, more orders.
Introductions up the line.
When I had my software company, another quick example.
So we got one scientist at Johnson and Johnson
to buy our software.
Johnson and Johnson's a huge company.
They have tons of scientists and so we want to really
get to know that person and see how can we use that person
to get introductions to the other scientists?
And then you get all the scientists in that one area.
Then how do you use those guys to leap frog to another area
and so soon you're getting more and more and more
and more and more of the company.
Now you can't do that with every customer
but the more you understand
each individual customer you have,
then you can try to figure out
is there any kind of relationship that we can have
to help grow this business together?
[Upbeat Riff]
- Tip number four is to use social media.
So I wanted to build a list of potential alliance partners.
The first thing I did was to reach out to people
who are already familiar with me.
I have a series called "Unlocking Lily" on this channel.
I reached out to people who are commenting on my videos
to do possible collaborations.
The second thing I did was to reach out to people
who have reviewed Evan's book
or interviewed him on their channel.
That way we have a mutual interest as well.
And the third thing that I did was to go through
Evan's videos and to read the comments of the people.
And there I looked at people's comments
that resonated with me and I looked at their channel.
If they had an "About" page I looked at what
they were about to see if we align with our mission
and we could work well together.
From there I was able to create my list of a thousand names
and I had some great collaborations
and even out of that I made some great friends.
So to build alliances on social media,
the number one thing you want to do is create a big list.
Mine was a thousand.
The more names you have, the more possibilities you'll have.
Number two is to find people that already know you
and who are already following you
and number three is to find people
who have similar interest as you.
If there's certain videos that you love to watch,
look at the people commenting.
Chances are they're on the same mission as you.
[Upbeat Riff]
- The number five way is though your suppliers.
Think about all the people
who you are currently spending money with.
People who you are paying on a regular basis,
whether you're buying a product or service from them,
and see if there might be a way that they could help make
introductions for you to other people
that might help your business.
So an easiest case example is looking
at lawyers, accountants, bookkeepers.
These are people who deal with
a lot of different entrepreneurs.
A lot of different kinds of businesses.
And so if they know what your business is about
and they know the kinds of partnerships
that you're looking to make, just letting them know.
You know, this is somebody who you might be paying
once a quarter, maybe once a year.
Maybe more frequently if you have more business,
but they have a vested interest
in helping their clients come together
and form greater relationships because if you do that
then they're going to make more business, right?
Like, you're going to come back.
You're going to give them referrals.
If you're looking at people that you buy supplies from.
You know, if you're buying t-shirts from them
and you're putting a big order every month to buy t-shirts,
is there anybody that they may know
that could potentially help your business?
Like what is the kind of alliance partnership
that you're looking for in an ideal world
and do they have somebody that they could introduce you to?
And so it doesn't hurt to make a list of all your suppliers.
All the people that you're spending money with.
Now, if you're spending thirty bucks a month on, you know,
Verizon to get internet, I'm sure they're not going
to really care about helping you out.
And so the easier ones that when you're dealing
with a person, you know, an entrepreneur,
or a physical sales person at a company
and you have a relationship with them.
Learn to tighten that relationship.
Get to know them.
Take them to coffee.
Have a lunch with them.
Understand what they're after to.
And try to figure out how you might
be able to help each other out.
Suppliers can be a fantastic alliance partnership for you.
[Upbeat Riff]
Way number six is through banks and governments.
And I put these two together
because they're both low leverage typically
but it really just depends on the person.
And so when I first just got started in my business,
I went to the bank and I said "hey, I'd like some help."
And he said "well do you need a loan?"
Uh, I dunno if I need a loan.
I just got started.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I need help.
So that's not what banks really do but it was with somebody
who was nice enough to then put me on to somebody else
who then became one of my first mentors in my business.
So again, banks see people all day long
who are potentially able to make connections for you.
A lot of people don't even know their banker.
It's a good idea just in general to get to know
who your banker is cause if you ever need money,
if you're ever trying to get any kind of debt facility,
that personal connection makes a big difference
but they may also be able to refer you
to other clients that they have.
Again, it really depends on the individual.
Sometimes individual bankers are really friendly
and really customer focused and really driven
to help their clients succeed.
Other times bankers just want to climb the ladder,
they hate this job, they want to move up to the next step.
They don't really care about their clients.
And so it makes it harder to form that relationship.
Government, on the other hand, a lot of governments
have different programs in place.
In Toronto, as an example, we have a group called
"Enterprise Toronto."
It's funded by the city.
It has multiple locations here and you can walk in
and get help with your business.
They have advisors who try to give you feedback.
They will help assess your business plan.
They have multiple different programs where you can apply
for funding and different opportunities
but they also try to connect you together.
You get to know the resource manager.
At Enterprise Toronto, they may have mentors
they can connect you to, they may remember
another entrepreneur that came in last week
that might be a good potential fit for you
and so it really depends on what's happening in your city.
You may be fortunate enough to have a lot
of good government programs.
You may have nothing.
So that may not be a path for you.
So put banks and government together
because it really depends on the circumstances
and who you end up being able to connect with
but it's at least worth exploring to see if there's
an opportunity for you to make an alliance partnership.
[Upbeat Riff]
And number seven, my last way to form alliance partnerships,
is through targeted events.
I'd be looking at where my ideal partners are hanging out.
What kind of events they're going to
and go to those events to get to know people.
So if you're looking at making a partnership with people
who are, you know, techies who are really into programming.
You want to have a custom development shop
as an alliance partner, then you want to hang out
at the events that they care about.
Even if it's not super relevant to you, right?
Like, you may not care anything about programming
and the latest PHP development
and all the stuff that's coming out.
You don't care about that, but they do,
and they're hanging out there so you want
to go there and get to know them.
Whether that's a conference, whether that's a meet up group,
whether that's some local event that's happening
in your city, if you know your target partners...
This is marketing 101.
If you know your target partners are gunna be there,
you want to be there to get to know them.
And the advantage is of you being there
is a lot of times the people who are like you,
your competition, is not gunna be there.
The people who are gunna be there are more people like them.
Their competitors, who may not want to talk to
and do deals with, but this outsider comes in promoting
this different option that is potentially complimentary
to them, you stand out in the sea of similarness
and people will want to talk to you
and it's a competitive advantage.
Versus where you might go.
If you're a marketer, you might go to marketing events.
You're like everyone else there.
If the programmer came there, he would have an easier time
making those connections and so hanging out is for talking
to customers too, but hanging out where the people
who you want to talk to are, even if it's outside
your comfort zone or where you would normally go
is super important because that's how
you're gunna get the connections.
So those are my seven tips
on how to form alliance partnerships.
Again, forming alliances is one of the fastest ways
to grow your company because you're thinking
"I want to target one person, or ten people,
or a group of people who then could introduce me
to tons of people."
The goal is not to go after one customer, one customer,
one customer at a time.
It works but it's not very efficient of effective.
Where if you talk to the people who could make multiple
introductions for you, you're much more likely
to hyper explode your business.
So I'd love to know what you think.
I'd love to know which one resonated the most with you
that you're gunna try and apply to your business ASAP.
If you're going to add an eight, nine, ten to the list
leave it down in the comments below.
I'd love to hear that too.
Now I made this video because "I AM OMAR" asked me to.
So if there's a topic you'd like me to cover
on a future "7 Ways" video,
check out a link in the description.
Go there, cast your vote.
Have your say and I just might do it.
Finally I wanted to give a quick shout out
to Daniel from the "LonelyBookaneer."
Daniel, thank you so much for picking up a copy
of my book "Your One Word."
Doing the review.
Posting it on your Instagram channel.
I really appreciate the support, man
and I'm so glad that you enjoyed the book.
Thank you guys again for watching.
I believe in you.
Hope you continue to believe in yourself
and whatever your one word is.
Much love.
I'll see you soon.