This Is The Partnership You're Looking For
You know when you think you can't love something any more than you already do - but then something happens and you do?
I had this with Star Wars earlier in the week. I'm not a full on cos-playing mega fan, but I do love it, and have for the majority of my 45 years, and yet when I watched 'The Skywalker Legacy' documentary it upped it a notch.
(It's an extra feature on 'Rise of Skywalker' on Disney - with a behind the scenes look at the last film, but also the originals)
We all know the insane budgets, and so it wasn't the effects work that impacted me. It was the sheer amount of joy, compassion, thought, effort, attention to detail, call backs (a few I'd missed), giddy excitement that the whole team and cast showed.
And so after all these years what made me love it more?
Connection.
I could feel the love that little bit more, understood the care, and it made it even more special.
And isn't that what we're all trying to strive for?
Connection.
Tapping into our tribal nature to want to connect based on shared values. It's at the absolute core of relationships but in business I wonder how consistently honest we are. Giving people a real peak behind the curtain?
In an environment like agencies, where trust is everything with the client, it's even more important with partners.
But deep trust, not just superficial.
And that trust comes from more than just case studies, cred decks, awards and certifications. However useful they might be in getting the conversations in the first place. It comes from people really knowing and liking each other.
Of course there has to be an alignment in services and audience, and a willingness to engage, or else no-ones passing any introductions no matter how nice the conversations are. But you could sign a list of partners as long as your arm based on these metrics and only get a handful of leads.
Find the ones where you not only have commercial alignment but human connection as well and everything changes.
Don't be shy in sharing your story with partners, introducers, anyone in your network who you want to connect with.
What makes your business tick. Your outlook, how it works, why it works, why you do what you do. Go all in. It might push some people away - that's not a bad thing. Because it will pull the right ones in closely.
And back to Star Wars, if you've seen it what did you think, (what they do for John Williams is so cool) and if you haven't go watch it and let me know!
Hi, I'm Dave. A Nearbound specialist helping agencies, and service providers who rely on high degrees of trust, to identify, nurture, & scale referral and partnership opportunities.
If having the strategy, skills, and systems to get more ideal client introductions would be a good thing in your business - drop me a message, and we can have a chat about how to build those genuine connections that lead to fruitful partnerships.
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Do it - before I have to Jedi mind trick you into it.