When I was selling digital transformation services we had a problem that every small business knows well. Finding new leads takes time, money and effort that most of us don’t have enough of.
The solution we landed on had nothing to do with advertising or cold calling. We started swapping leads with commercial real estate agents.
Think about it. A business that is relocating its office is about to need everything at once. New IT infrastructure, furniture, fit out, painting and plastering, phones, internet, and yes, digital transformation services. We were all looking for the same lead in different markets. So instead of each of us hunting independently we started sharing the leads we generated. When one of us found an upcoming relocation, everyone in the group heard about it.
When the tide rises all the boats go up.
What Partnering Actually Is
A business partnership for lead generation is simply an arrangement between two or more complementary businesses to share leads, referrals, costs or marketing activity. You are not competitors. You serve the same customer at different points in their journey or with different parts of their needs.
Done well it multiplies your prospecting reach without multiplying your costs. Done badly it gives all your leads to your competitors.
The Four Ways It Works
Referral arrangements. The simplest version. You send clients their way when relevant, they do the same for you. No money changes hands, just goodwill and mutual benefit. Works best when there’s genuine trust and roughly equal lead flow on both sides.
Shared marketing costs. Split the cost of a campaign, an event, a publication or a sponsorship with a partner. You reach the same audience at half the price. A marketing firm and a sales agency running a joint seminar for small businesses is a clean example.
Bundling. Combine your product or service with a partner’s to create something neither of you could offer alone. A bookkeeper and a financial planner packaging a small business starter offering. A caterer and a venue doing combined event packages. Bundling can also justify a higher price point than either business could command individually. It also gives you access to larger clients.
Co-branded content and events. Run a webinar together, co-author a guide, host a breakfast event. You share the audience, the credibility and the cost. Both businesses walk away with leads the other one brought in.
What to Look For in a Partner
Trust and ecosystem are everything. There can only be one painting company, or one furniture company, or one IT company, and the trust that a lead you share stays in the ecosystem.
Same customer, different service. Complementary timing, meaning they interact with the client just before or just after you do. (One stage upstream or downstream is ideal). Roughly similar reputation and standards, because their work will reflect on you. And a genuine willingness to refer, not just receive.
All sides need to make money or they will quit. The arrangement breaks down quickly if one side is taking more than they give. Set expectations early about how leads will be shared and what constitutes a fair exchange. Like any barter system you have to give and get.
The Takeaway
Write down your ideal customer and map out every other type of business that serves that same customer before, during or after you do. That list is your potential partner network. Reach out to one of them this week with a straightforward proposition: share leads, compare notes, see if there’s a working arrangement in it.
You don’t need a formal contract to start. You just need a coffee and a conversation.
