Building a Coaching Business - Finding Strategic Marketing or Referral Partners

Finding someone you can jointly market with is one great way of finding a marketing or referral partner. Think of others that either market to the same market as you do, or, might actually do what you do but from a slightly different angle.

If you've found it difficult to get initial sales meetings, finding a strategic referral partner that , by partnering, you can increase people walking through the door for both of you, you will become a Super Star for your referral partner, and you will find ways to grow your business....fast.

Who are Potential Marketing and/or Referral Partners

For me, as a business coach, here are a few businesses that make excellent strategic marketing partners. If you are some other form of coach, life coach, career coach, or whatever, use this as a springboard for your brainstorming and find partners that work well in your market.

• Banks - I grow businesses, sometimes pretty fast. So, a bank can be an ideal partner because they usually have a commercial loan department who have loans out to companies that could be my clients. And, the bank sees me as a resource in several directions.

a. We both have the same clients, I refer to them, they refer to me.

b. By partnering together, they provide an additional service to their customers in growing their business through the help of the bank.

c. With 80-90% of all businesses daily, I increase the success ratio of companies (they get the immediate benefit of fewer failing loans, and when the public knows this it is an added advantage to use that bank.

d. By partnering -- I do seminars jointly with the bank. We jointly advertise luncheon "Build Your Business...Fast" seminars that brings a lot of traffic into the bank that otherwise wouldn't even know the bank. I do one on "How to Double Your Business in 3-4 Weeks" which is the most popular and fills a room fast, followed by "Improve Sales Success by 3-4 Times" and "Get 5-10 Times More People Walking Into Your Business". seminars over the next few weeks. Frequently these are luncheon series over 3 weeks, or sometimes once a month for 3 months. I'll end it with an offer to join in our mastermind group that will meet monthly in the banks board room. My original seminars are either free (sponsored by the bank), or a minimal fee, usually pays for lunch. The mastermind follow-up group is a for-fee program. There are a lot of ways to structure that. See other articles on how to structure a mastermind group.

Obstacles: Some banks may hesitate to be involved with an "unknown" who may, in their opinion, say something that would make the bank liable for a business problem. It is up to you to either give them enough track record to overcome that, or keep looking until you find the bank that will work with you. Keep looking, you will find one. Also, use your networking friends and partners to get that introduction. It opens the door for you.

• Web developers -Theoretically, web developers are supposed to grow businesses. What I've discovered is that 99% of all websites don't work and the reason is that they aren't marketing companies. They are software developers who can write code for the website, or maybe graphic designers that can pretty up a website, but neither of those results in NEW CUSTOMERS, at least not very often. So, I have an opportunity here...a really big one. I help the web developer understand what is missing, and how to increase his own sales greater than he has ever imagined. I show him how to sell and market that gets his clients swarming to him. And then I have to help that web developer to make his own clients every bit as successful. One great way is to do a series of joint seminars. He'll market to his hundreds of existing clients to show them how to "Double Their Business on the Web Even Further Than They Have So Far". Of course I'll market to new prospects (my target market). We'll fill a room of people who "want to grow a business" and show them how they can grow the overall business (my participation) and how the internet can be one of those great tools (jointly, the web developer and me).

There are LOTs of other potentials out there,

• IT 5B4companies work with lots of companies that are also my focus, other coaches who work in different areas of a business than I do (I'll sometimes do sales training while the coach works with the executives, or vice versa),
• Radio (I do a radio show where I bring on experts of all kinds on building a business, coaches, speakers, trainers, and, although we do overlap this is a win-win. They are exposed to a MUCH larger audience, and at the same time we all build our audience. I make sure to highlight them and not me. But now I'm the coach builder (one of my target markets). My job is to always be seen as a Super Star business and coach builder. The more people that grow because I am around them the more valuable I am seen and the more people who want to partner with me.
• Financial Planners, CPAs -- both work with my clients and are both involved with helping them grow financially.
• Chambers -- offer to do joint semianrs with the chambers. I've found that, not matter how good my marketing has become, by partnering with a chamber the number of people replying to my marketing is approximately 2 times greater when partnering.

These are just a few for me, a business coach, and a coach's coach. So, find your ideal marketing and referral partners for your type of coaching. Who are those that either work with your ideal client, or those that do somethi59Cng similar....but in a slightly different way?

Do you want to learn more about how to increase your coaching businesses?

I have just completed my brand new guide to coaching marketing success. You'll also get a free invitation to join a mastermind group of other coaches as they build their business. Hear what works and doesn't work.

Get your "How to Build a Super Star Coaching Business" for free

Alan Boyer coach's coaches, who want more business than they can handle, or at least more than they imagined...before this.....The reports have been "5-10 times more clients in just a few weeks, and still growing. http://www.leaders-perspective.com/Super-Star-Coaching-Business.htm

Skylights
Tile Articles