Develop a Relationship with Your Strategic Partners
That's a Win-Win for Everyone, Including Your Clients!
Strategic partnerships can be powerful tools in your arsenal to promote the growth of your business. The ideal partner is not only a benefit to you, but should also bring value to your clients. When considering a new strategic partnership, always think about how this can benefit your business in the long run.
Most agents understand the value of having multiple partnerships. But tread carefully because having too many strategic partners can lead to unfulfilled expectations, and ultimately turn into a bad business relationship. Your focus should be on cultivating partners with a long-term strategy, one that allows you to expand your network and lead sources. Yes, it’s okay to have more than one partnership at the same time. It just needs to make sense for you and your business, follow the tips below, and don’t undermine another partner.
How to create effective partnerships in real estate?
1. Define your vision and principles
Write down a vision statement and principles that both parties will abide by. Having your mutual vision, goals, and principles documented will help guide everything you do together and keep you focused on the shared results for your businesses.
2. Create an equal exchange of value
Partnerships never work if it's all one-sided. One of the biggest mistakes any business makes when entering a strategic partnership is not clearly defining, writing down, and agreeing upon the value expectations that each partner desires. You must know what you will get of value when entering into a partnership, or else the likelihood of it failing will only rise.
3. Establish communication expectations
"Communication to a relationship is like oxygen to life. Without it...it dies." Tony Gaskins is right! No relationship will succeed without constant, proper, and purposeful communication. It is the duty of each partner to know how they communicate and what style of communication is most effective for the other person. Learn to communicate often and with intent.
4. Outline what the customer should experience
The most important part of your business is the experience you and your partner will work to create for your clients. The client experience is so crucial that each party should sit down together and take the time to outline step-by-step what would be the ideal customer experience and also anticipate possible solutions to issues that may arise during a transaction.
5. Assess regularly
Everyone involved in the partnership should assess regularly. Have planned check-ins to make sure that everyone’s expectations of goals and values are being met. These scheduled meetings are also a great time to reassess tactics and continue strategizing to maintain a positive collaboration.
Not every business will be in a position to be a part of a strategic partnership. If you or a potential partner are in the early stages of business, your business may not yet offer the value that another company seeks. And that’s okay.
Remember, the goal is to establish a partnership in a thoughtful and strategic way.
You've got this!
