Financing For Your Small Business
Apply For Funding Today! | contact@funder.org
|
Posted on Mon, 02/13/2012 - 02:20 PM by
viewed 67 times
About once a week I receive an email or phone message that goes something like this: “I really like your site, I think we have a lot of synergies, we should get on the phone or go to lunch and explore ways to work together.”
But here’s the thing – and here’s how it applies to you – in the crazy, busy world we all live in today, if you’re going to make the effort to reach out and connect, do it with an attractive purpose. The vague, “we should get together” could indeed mean, we should get together because I have a brilliant idea that’s destined to make you lots of money or it could just as equally mean, we should get together so I can suck about an hour of your time trying to learn how I could benefit from your network. Now, let me share a better approach. If you want to capture the imagination of potential partners come to the table with a very specific idea that’s attractive. So, what’s attractive look like in this context? If your potential partner does not know you, either personally or by reputation, than it’s a pretty good bet that attractive looks very much like something that will immediately benefit their interests. I don’t mean to imply that you don’t have incredible ideas to share and that working with you might indeed make a ton of sense, but just as in any sales environment, you first have to capture my interest and you do that by helping me clearly see something that’s in this for me. So, if you want to be more attractive to potential strategic partners
I’m guessing you can see the common thread running through most of the above suggestions – one of the most powerful ways to be more attractive is to give before you get. This is true in building any relationship – with potential partners or potential clients. Once you’ve established trust through this initial, genuine purpose, you’ll find that the doors to “working together” may naturally swing open, but even if they do not, you’ll have established a much more potent method of building relationships in a way that will produce the best kinds of opportunities – those that are mutually beneficial. MORE NEWS FROM DUCT TAPE MARKETINGHow to Create a Bold, Daring and Utterly Irresistible Pricing ModelThere’s a traditional, somewhat logical, pattern to how business has always been done. The seller describes a product or service, promise benefits, maybe even paints a rosy picture of the prospective buyer’s life with said product or service, and asks the buyer to pay a set price in order to a... How and Why I Use LinkedIn Groups to Build My BusinessAs I’ve written here in the past, I think there are solid business reasons for participating in most social networks these days, but if your business sells primarily to other businesses, you must get more active on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not the biggest or most talked about network these day, bu... What If Your Customers Could Talk to Your CRMI spend a lot of time talking to and about the stuff that we do to make it work now. So sometimes it’s a real treat to get to talk to someone that’s so far out ahead of most of us in their thinking that you pretty much just listen with your mouth open when they talk. (I would put my conversati... Who Doesn’t Need Great Free Stuff?Next week is National Small Business Week in the United States and to help celebrate all things small business I’m holding a live webcast where, among other things, I’m going to give a number of lucky participants some awesome business tools like: A copy of Premise Landing Page Softwa... 5 Reasons Why Landing Pages Are a MustOnline marketers have used the term “landing page” for many years to describe a sales tactic focused on getting people to take one, specific action. Today, landing pages have simply become a required element in the marketing toolbox for every imaginable business, including local brick and mort... RELATED SMALL BUSINESS NEWSFacebook Isn’t the Right Fit for Every BusinessYou may have seen this article already: I put my family business on Facebook. Here’s what happened. What can content marketing do for your business?Content marketing. It seems like everyone’s talking about it. But what exactly is it and what can it do for your business? How NOT To Get Good Reviews in Google PlacesThe topic of fake reviews in Google Places (which has been around for what seems like forever) is getting airtime on Denver TV. Is Seek or Shout the Holy Grail for PR, Bloggers and the Disconnected Media?This is a guest post from Yvette Pistorio of Cision. Two shifts have dramatically changed the way media and public relations professionals interact over the past few years: the move away from email in favor of online social channels, and the emergence of versatile, freelance content creators who ar... Content marketing is important but not free!One of the things that irks me is when I hear a marketing “expert” extoll the virtues of content (or social or digital) marketing and to close the sale — they remind their audience — “and best of all, it’s free.” |
Get funding to grow your small businessLet us help you find the best financing option for your business needs.
Stay up-to-date with our small business newsletterTweet, +1, and Like FunderFollow Us  |
|
Copyright © 2012 RBF Management, LLC | Lighter Capital Network™ Privacy Policy | contact@funder.org |
Now, don’t get me wrong, with the exception of the use of the word synergy, I’m flattered that people are reaching out to me. In fact, it would be more worrisome if nobody wanted to develop these kinds of connections.