Creating Key Referral Partnerships – a Powerful Way to Grow your Practice!
Creating partnerships with key referral partners is like networking on steroids. It really is strategic visibility and business building. Instead of doing the regular one-on -one connections where you’re hoping that person will work with you some time soon, or buy one of your products, you’re up-leveling your game, and looking to build relationships with key partners who are a natural fit for you and who you serve, and vice versa and will send you clients!
This means you don’t have to do all the heavy lifting, when it comes to getting clients! Getting clients one at a time, can be time consuming and soul-destroying. Although some of you are happy to do it that way. That’s ok. But for those who want to leverage their time, reach more people to make more of a difference, and earn more – key referral partnerships for you! You don’t need to do ALL the heavy lifting.
Let’s give an example here of one of my past clients who is a doctor and health coach, who decided to partner with a local gym / fitness club. Each week she would be on their premises at certain times to see the gym’s clients for health coaching. The beauty of this was that she didn’t need her own premises, and they were swallowing all the costs of utilities, rent AND marketing. She was helping them give way more value to their clients by offering something they did not do themselves. And at the same time she could recommend her personal clients to the gym as a place for them to exercise and get what they needed when it wasn’t something she could provide for them.
There’s a Caveat:
You don’t need to have a reciprocal arrangement though. Sometimes we get caught in thinking this is necessary. It could just be a financial arrangement where she could be paying the gym a specific commission for each person she sees. Or that she is paying a one-off fee per month for using their premises. Personally I think, the commission is better, because the gym will be more engaged in promoting her services.
So the beauty is that each partnership can look very different. You get to decide what the parameters of that relationship will look like.
Here are a few key things to take into consideration when you set something like this up:
1. Do they serve the same audience? (This is MOST important)
2. Do they have the same values and mission as you?
3. Do you feel energetically aligned with them as someone you’d like to deal with?
4. Does the arrangement or set up suit you? (this is a two-way decision)
5. Are you clear on what you want from the partnership?
6. Is there a win-win-win? (for you, the partner, and your /their community)
7. Do you have an agreement? (depending on the arrangement – do you need one?)
Those are just a few thoughts – I know there are more! (feel free to add in the comments below)
One of the key factors I point out (see below), is making sure you serve the same audience, so that it makes sense to partner with them. I sooooo often see folks randomly agreeing to work with a partner, when what their partner is doing is so unsuited to their own audience. We can get wowed just by being asked, particularly at the beginning stages in our business.
Another is having clarity about WHO your audience is – in other words your NICHE. This means a specific group of people with a very clear challenge or problem you’re able to help them solve. Your partner might support them in a different way – but have the same audience. So it makes sense to connect and work together. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE you want to get clear on before you start trying to partner with folks – otherwise you’ll be working hard without getting much return for your efforts.
If you’d like to find out more about how to get clear on your audience / potential clients – the people you serve and want to work with, I’m excited to share that you have the opportunity to access a short and sweet video series called: 3 Niching Snafus guaranteed to Sabotage your Marketing efforts I’m sure you’ll find them insightful! Click on the link, so I can share the first one with you straight away.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to work with folks you’re truly aligned with and feel excited to connect with – AND have 2 or 3 specific funnels of clients being sent to you? That’s what’s possible when you kick your networking and relationship building into high gear.
In the meanwhile, let me know what you thought about this post! 
And if you’re interested in filling your practice with ease and alignment and want to get out the struggle of: not knowing what to do next, putting the cart before the horse, and inconsistent income, then feel free to click on the Voicemail button to the right of this page, and let me know that you’d like to connect and what your particular challenge is. You might even want help defining your niche or how to create natural referral partnerships for yourself. Whatever it is, I’d love to hear from you.
