4 ways to spread the word.
by sandi leyva
whenever you partner with another business person, you have access to all of their clients, effectively doubling your network.
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of course, they have access to all of your clients too, so the benefit must be mutual and fairly even. it’s great if your partner has something you need but don’t have, and vice versa.
tip: when you partner, you have access to your partner’s clients.
a recent example of this for me is i partnered with a registered nurse to write a continuing education book for nurses. i didn’t have the nurse credential or contacts like she did. but i did have the content for the book, the structure to make the project go fast and the marketing to sell it online. she had the credential, many experiences to draw on to use as examples in the book, the knowledge of how to meet the requirements to make it a ceu product and the connections in the industry that will jumpstart the sales. now that’s a perfect partnership.
do your due diligence and ask questions of your potential partner. will the cost and profit be split 50/50? how many clients or prospects does your partner have access to? are your ideal clients a match? how will the work be split? should you sign a contract?
a similar situation to partnerships is a third-party endorsement. these endorsements can be very powerful, even if they are not actually endorsements (they may be implied by the simple act of being connected in some way). for best results, the third party needs to be a well-known company or celebrity. there are many sources available in the accounting industry for this, including the sleeter group, intuit, the american institute of cpas, your state cpa society, accounting & financial women’s alliance and many more.
if you are highly niched in an industry, you might be able to become part of an affinity program for a professional association. you could become the go-to vendor in your specialty industry with an affinity partner “endorsement” from an association.
once you’ve decided to partner with someone, you’ll need to look to the other marketing channels to get the word out about what you are doing together. for example
- you could send mutual emails to your clients,
- you could conduct a joint open house,
- you could do a seminar together and
- you could even do a bundled service together.
two examples of that in my business are the ultimate accounting vcon and the beyond the basics training series that michelle long and i have done together.
in your business, you may be able to find an attorney to bundle your legal and accounting services for startups. or, you may be able to work with a financial planner to take care of estate planning clients.