The Importance of Strategic Alliances
Strategic alliances or partners form a valuable marketing channel for many businesses. With clients in the same sectors, they act as introducers or referrers. Invariably they offer complementary products and services to companies in the same sector and frequently provide the client with a higher quality end result, as a recommendation from a trusted professional holds a great deal of weight with a client.
To understand how the synergy works, here are some straighforward examples:
Accountancy and legal professions
Whether dealing with individuals or businesses there are many occasions when the services of both of an accountant and a solicitor are beneficial. For instance, when acquiring or disposing of a business, in complex divorce or probate cases, when trading overseas. Close ties between an accountancy firm and a variety of specialist law firms not only provides existing clients with trusted advisors but also may be a source of referrals.
Website developers, copywriters and graphic designers
Launching a new website requires the combined skills from different disciplines in order to provide the client the best online presence. A website developer may find synergy with a number of different businesses including photographers, graphic designers, SEO specialists, PPC specialists, social media consultants, copywriters, to name just a few.
Financial advisers and will writers
Frequently, planning savings, pensions and insurance involves discussions regarding estate planning and who will inherit the assets. For a will writer, financial advisers are natural introducers.
Finding strategic alliances on LinkedIn
To find strategic alliances on LinkedIn go to the Home page on a browser version of LinkedIn and type the title of the perfect strategic partner into the search box. In this case “will writer”.
Press enter and then people.
(See screenshot below)
You can then filter the search by a number of factors by clicking on All filters.
A slide-in panel will reveal various filters which can further refine your search. (See below)
The most important filters are: location, job title, and sector. Click Apply to see the list of profiles which meet your criteria.
I recommend saving the URL of the search for future use.
Invite the strategic alliance to connect adding in a personalised note and then follow up with each person as they accept your invitation to connect.
