Networking for Potential Strategic Alliances

Who would you prefer to meet at a networking event?

A potential lead or client?

OR

A potential strategic alliance who could generate tens, hundreds or perhaps even thousands of leads for your business?

If you are like most people you probably answered the second. So how do you go about identifying a potential strategic alliance partner for your business?

Typically strategic alliances work best when you have something in common. So here are ten potential opportunities to watch out for.

1.Do you form part of the same supply chain? E.g. a real estate agent, mortgage broker and settlement agent or a web designer, graphic designer, copywriter and photographer, or all the businesses associated with weddings? If your business is part of a supply chain of some sort then you can’t afford not to have alliances with other businesses in that chain!

2.Do you share a common target market? The tighter the niche the more effective the alliance will be. E.g. a marriage counselor and a divorce lawyer or an accountant and a financial planner, or complementary businesses in the health and wellness sector.

3.Do you share potential overlapping target markets? E.g. business owners are also individuals who may also face health issues, go out to dinner or want a holiday.

4.Do you have complementary products or services which when combined could enable you to service a new niche market?

5.Do you share a common geographic location such as the same council area, suburb or even shopping centre?

6.Do you share a common value? Are you both “green” businesses or do you both support the same charity or cause?

7.Are you in the same business or profession? Some of the best alliances come from competitors turning into collaborators.

8.Do you both face a similar problem or challenge in your business that could be more easily solved as a team? E.g. increased buying power or leverage.

9.Do you have complementary business strengths or connections which could be of benefit to each other?

10.Do you share a common personal interest that you could optimize? E.g. have children in the same sporting club, or share a common hobby. Look for ways that you can leverage shared marketing opportunities such as sponsorship or loyalty schemes and member reward programs.

What if you can’t find something in common? All is not lost:

Why not create a referral network or support group together or perhaps you can co-sponsor a charity or community group.

Finally three top tips for creating successful strategic alliances.

1.Make sure that you have 100% confidence in your new associate or alliance partner

2.Make sure that both parties goals are being met and that there is a WIN for your clients or potential clients as well

3.Always leave the door open for both parties to leave the relationship without damage.

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Article by Brenda Thomson of Networking World.

www.NetworkingWorld.net.au

Want to know more about how to create great strategic alliances for your business? The Networking World Strategic Alliance Success Program gives you all the information you need to create powerful WIN WIN marketing and business development strategies guaranteed to generate new leads, improve conversions, reduce costs, increase profits and save you time. Topics covered include developing an alliance plan, identifying potential partners and how to get them to WANT to work with you even if you have NO MONEY and NO LIST, creating irresistible offers, referral and affiliate strategies, host beneficiaries, joint ventures, cross promotion strategies and much, much more. Find out more and get your free CD “How to Recession Proof Your Business Using Strategic Alliances.”

The Law of Advance Planning

By Brian Tracy

The best salespeople prepare thoroughly before every call. This principle is so simple that it is often overlooked. The hallmark of the true professional is thorough preparation, reviewing every detail, before every sales meeting. The very best salespeople are those who review their presentations and study the details of their products and their sales materials repeatedly prior to every new sales contact.

The Customer's Situation
The salesperson with the best knowledge of the customer's real situation will be the one most likely to make the sale. The more time you take to thoroughly understand your prospective customer and your prospective customer's situation, the more likely you will be in a position to sell at the critical moment.

Sales Professionals Plan their questions in Advance
There is a direct relationship between the quality of the problem focused questions that you ask a customer and the likelihood of a sale taking place. The only way of assuring that your questions are clear and penetrating is by writing them out, word for word, in advance. Some of the most successful salespeople who have ever lived have been "question experts."

Notes
The power is on the side of the salesperson with the best notes. Plan your sales-call objectives thoroughly in advance of meeting the client. Write down and itemize exactly what you hope to accomplish in this visit. After the call, quickly write down everything that was said. Don't trust it to memory. Remember the Chinese saying, "The palest ink lasts longer than the finest memory." Prior to every sales call, and no matter how many times you have visited this same customer, take a few minutes to review the customer's file, the customer's situation, and your own notes on what has taken place in the past. You'll be amazed at how impressive you sound when you go into a sales interview having just reviewed the customer's file a few minutes before. And customers always know if you have done your homework.

Prior to Closing a Sale
The top salespeople in every field prepare exhaustively prior to selling, prior to their presentations, and prior to closing. They think everything through in advance. And they leave nothing to chance. Remember, it's the details that make the difference. The salesperson who has taken the greatest amount of time to acquaint himself or herself with the most specific needs of the customer is the one who builds the highest level of trust and the best sales relationship. Thorough preparation is the essential precondition for successful selling.

Let It Be You by Jim Rohn

Each and every day, there are people all around the country and world who are living their dreams. Millionaires are made every day. Families are experiencing tremendous relationships. People are becoming more and more healthy. Lifelong learners are growing intellectually and improving their chances for success.

The fact is, living the life of your dreams is possible. People prove that every day. Someone somewhere is going to get rich, get healthy and improve their life. My recommendation is this: Let it be you!

Have you ever wanted to make more money? Have you ever looked at someone who has money and wished it could be you? People think about getting wealthy all the time, when only a small percentage actually do. But any of the masses could. Someone is going to start a business. Someone is going to make a great investment. Someone is going to begin the journey to great wealth. So why not let it be you?

Someone is going to decide to improve their relationships. Someone is going to enjoy love with their family. Someone is going to schedule some meaningful time with their friends. So why not let it be you?

Someone is going to go back to school to improve their life. Someone is going to become a lifelong learner. Someone is going to set a goal to read a book or listen to a CD each week for the next year. So why not let it be you?

Someone is going to look in the mirror and see that they need to lose a little weight and make the decision to become healthy. Someone will run their first marathon. Someone will join an aerobics class and improve their health. Why not let it be you?

I think that by now you get the point: Everyday people are improving their lives. Whether you do or don’t doesn’t matter to those who do. They are going to do it, regardless. It is simply a matter of a decision being made. Let that person be you!

You may be asking, “OK, Jim, but how?’ Well, let’s cover the very simple actions.

The first and most important thing to do is to make a commitment to work on yourself. Are you going to improve or stay the same? No matter what you have achieved, you are at a certain point right now. What you have achieved in the past is fine, but it doesn’t make a difference for the future. The decision about what you will become is made each and every day. Each day, someone is making the decision to better himself. Let that person be you!

The second is to make a plan. Once you have decided to become better, you will have to have a plan. It doesn’t have to be a long, intricate plan. It can be simple. Save a dollar a day. Walk a mile a day. Read an article a day. It’s a simple plan with achievable goals. Someone is going to develop a plan that will take them into the future of their dreams. Let it be you!

The third is to begin to act. All of the great ideas, without action, become stale and useless. The key to turning dreams into reality is action. People who have great ideas are a dime a dozen. People who act on their dreams and ideas are the select few, but they are the ones who gain the health, wealth and wisdom that is available. Someone will act today. Let it be you.

My encouragement to you is to stop looking at others who live the good life, wishing that you were as well, and begin to commit to your improvement, develop a plan and act on it. Someone is going to. Let it be you!

To Your Success,
Jim Rohn

Moving from Procrastination to Proactivation

Here are some ideas to help make you a victor over change rather than a victim of change:

1. Set your wake-up time a half hour earlier tomorrow and keep the clock at that setting. Use the extra time to think about the best way to spend your day.
2. Memorize and repeat this motto: “Action TNT: Today, not Tomorrow.” Handle each piece of incoming mail only once. Answer your e-mail either early in the morning or after working hours. Block out specific times to initiate phone calls, take incoming calls, and to meet people in person.
3. When people tell you their problems, give solution-oriented feedback. Rather than taking on the problem as your own assignment, first, ask what’s the next step they plan to take, or what they would like to see happen.
4. Finish what you start. Concentrate all your energy and intensity, without distraction, on successfully completing your current major project.
5. Be constructively helpful instead of unhelpfully critical. Single out someone or something to praise instead of participating in group griping, grudge collecting or pity parties.
6. Limit your television viewing or Internet surfing to mostly educational or otherwise enlightening programs. Watch no more than one hour of television per day or night, unless there is a special program you have been anticipating. The Internet has also become a great procrastinator’s hideout for tension-relieving instead of goal-achieving activities.
7. Make a list of five necessary but unpleasant projects you’ve been putting off, with a completion date for each project. Immediate action on unpleasant projects reduces stress and tension. It is very difficult to be active and depressed at the same time.
8. Seek out and converse with a successful role model and mentor. Learning from others’ successes and setbacks will inevitably improve production of any kind. Truly listen; really find out how your role models do it right.
9. Understand that fear, as an acronym, is False Evidence Appearing Real, and that luck could mean Laboring Under Correct Knowledge. The more information you have on any subject—especially case histories—the less likely you’ll be to put off your decisions.
10. Accept problems as inevitable offshoots of change and progress. With the ever more rapid pace of change in society and business, you’ll be overwhelmed unless you view change as normal and learn to look for its positive aspects—such as new opportunities and improvements—rather than bemoan the negative.

There is actually no such thing as a “future” decision; there are only present decisions that will affect the future. Procrastinators wait for just the right moment to decide.

If you wait for the perfect moment, you become a security-seeker who is running in place, unwittingly digging yourself deeper into your rut. If you wait for every objection to be overcome, you’ll attempt nothing. Get out of your comfort zone and go from procrastinating to proactivating. Make your personal motto: “Stop stewing and start doing!”

-- Denis Waitley

The Secret to Intense Focus by Chris Widener

One of the common elements you see in almost all successful people is focus. They saw what they wanted to achieve, and they focused in on it like a laser. Then, when they become famous, and we, the common folk, know their name, we are amazed at the focus they have.

Focus will set two people apart who have equal skills.

What I am about to say may appear to be blasphemous to some: Tiger Woods is not that much more highly skilled than the other top PGA players! No, I haven’t lost my marbles. Take any of the big names, stick them on any course and on any given day, and they can shoot a 65 for 18 holes. You see, it isn’t whether they can—they all can—it is whether or not they do. And that is determined mostly by F-O-C-U-S.

Watch Tiger sometime in a close race to the finish. Watch when he hits a bad shot. Does he fall apart and grumble to anyone who will listen? No! In fact, it is almost eerie to watch him lock back in, even more focused than ever. That is what makes him a champion. I truly believe it is Tiger’s focus that has distinguished him from the rest of the field to become the best golfer ever.

The same is true with others who achieve great things, even in crucial and highly tense situations. Think John Elway in those final minutes of those games he brought the Broncos back in. Think of all of those last-second shots that Michael Jordan took (that everyone in the entire arena knew he was going to take—including the other team). These are classic examples of focus.

So what can the average person do to increase their focus? There are some things you can do to train yourself. You may never be Tiger Woods on the golf course or in the office, but you can increase your focus to where it needs to be to give you the success you desire.

In the remaining part of this article, I want to show you how to stay away from a common mistake and turn toward a discipline of focus that will be the first step in greatly enhancing your ability to focus. I will show you a practice technique that will greatly enhance your focus and your performance.

The myth is that, to focus, we must push other things out of our mind. For example, people will say to an athlete, “Don’t listen to the fans.” Or someone will say to another, “Don’t think about…” This doesn’t work! For example, right now, do not picture your car. You thought of it, right? Exactly. This myth actually gets you to focus on exactly what you don’t want to focus on!

Instead, the secret to intense focus is to set your mind intently on what it is you want to focus in on. For example, let’s say you are standing over a 10-foot putt. (I’m hoping we have some golfers here—and if not, make the changes you need to, but you should get the point.)

What do you want to focus on? Making that putt! So what are the elements you should be aware of? Focus on them. But go beyond mere observation. Most people just look at the line of the putt, take a guess on how hard to hit and then fire away.

Here are some other things to do: (Remember the process here is to get you highly aware of your surroundings and to focus with intensity.)

Look at the hole. Is the plastic cup even with the top of the grass or is it sunken in? How much? Bet you never noticed that before. Does the grass tip in at the edge or is it even? How long is the grass between you and the hole? Does it waver in length from foot to foot?

Is there sand along the way in your path? How much? What color? What size? Is it even or just for a section?

Are there any bugs sitting on the ground between you and the hole? Does the hill go up or down at all? Not significantly—you would have already noticed that—but even slightly?

Is there a slight wind? Can you feel it blowing on your face?

Lastly, imagine that ball rolling along that path, curving slightly if it has to, and falling in the hole. I mean, really create that movie in your head and watch it!

You may ask, “Chris, is this the secret to making your putts?” No, but it’s an example of how to focus. Be observant. Notice. Focus. Lock into your focal point(s).

The same could be done at a business meeting with all of the people there, what questions they are asking, what points are being made, what may come next, what everyone is wearing, why they chose that outfit for this meeting, what they were trying to accomplish, etc.

The myth of most focus advice is to try to not focus on bad things.

The secret to intense focus is to focus to a higher degree than you normally do on the “good things”—the things you are trying to accomplish!

Give it a try for a week. Focus intensely on what you want to accomplish. Bring yourself to a much higher degree of awareness of the surroundings, etc., and see for yourself the power behind this methodology!

Then, when you have taught yourself to do this for practice, it will become a part of you and you will start to do it naturally, and that will be an incredible day!

—Chris Widener

Practice Uncommon Appreciation

by Jack Canfield

A recent management study revealed that 46% of employees leaving a company do so because they feel unappreciated; 61% said their bosses don’t place much importance on them as people; and 88% said they don’t receive acknowledgement for the work they do.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, manager, teacher, parent, coach or simply a friend, if you want to be successful with other people, you must master the art of appreciation.

I’ve never known anyone to complain about receiving too much positive feedback. Have you? In fact, just the opposite is true.

Consider this: Every year, a management consulting firm conducts a survey with 200 companies on the subject on what motivates employees. When given a list of 10 possible things that would most motivate them, the employee always list appreciation as the number-one motivator.

Managers and supervisors ranked appreciation number eight. This is a major mismatch, as the chart below so clearly shows.

10 Ways to Really Motivate an Employee
Employees Appreciation Feeling “in” on things Understanding attitude Job security Good wages Interesting work Promotional opportunities Loyalty from management Good working conditions Tactful discipline	Supervisors Good Wages Job Security Promotional Opportunities Good working conditions Interesting work Loyalty from management Tactful discipline Appreciation Understanding attitude Feeling “in” on things

Notice that the top three motivators for employees don’t cost anything, just a few moments of time, respect and understanding.

Keeping Score

When I first learned about the power of appreciation, it made total sense to me. However, it was still something that I forgot to do. I hadn’t yet turned it into a habit.

A valuable technique that I employed to help me lock in this new habit was to carry a 3” x 5” card in my pocket all day, and every time I acknowledged and appreciated someone, I would place a check mark on the card. I would not allow myself to go to bed until I had appreciated 10 people. If it was late in the evening and I didn’t have 10 check marks, I would appreciate my wife and children, I would send an e-mails to several of my staff, or I would write a letter to my mother or stepfather.

I did whatever it took until it became an unconscious habit. I did this every single day for 6 months—until I no longer needed the card to remind me.

Appreciation as a Secret of Success

Another important reason for being in a state of appreciation as often as possible is that when you are in such a state, you are in one of the highest emotional states possible.

When you are in a state of appreciation and gratitude, you are in a state of abundance. You are appreciating what you do have instead of focusing on, and complaining about, what you don’t have. Your focus is on what you have received… and you always get more of what you focus on.

And because the law of attraction states that like attracts like, the more you are in a state of gratitude, the more you will attract, and even more to be grateful for. It becomes an upward-spiraling process of ever-increasing abundance that just keeps getting better and better.

Think about it. The more grateful people are for the gifts we give them, the more inclined we are to give them more gifts. Their gratitude and appreciation reinforces our giving. The same principle holds true on a universal and spiritual level as it does on an interpersonal level.

I challenge you to discover ways to immediately appreciate someone in your life, starting today!

For more tips and suggestions on how you, too, can find ways to appreciate those in your life, read Prinicple 53 in The Success Principles.

© 2009 Jack Canfield

The Laws of Negotiating

By Brian Tracy

The Laws of Negotiating are closely related to economics. They are part and parcel of the same process. Both economics and negotiating are based on the fact that each person places different values on different things. Everyone behaves economically in the sense that they always strive to negotiate the very best situation or result for themselves in each situation.

The Universal Law of Negotiating

Everything is negotiable. All prices and terms are set by someone. They can therefore be changed by someone. Prices are a best-guess estimate of what the customer will pay. The cost of manufacturing and marketing a particular product or service often has very little to do with the price that is put on it. Don't be intimidated by written prices, assume that they are written in pencil and can be easily erased and replaced with something more favorable to you. The key is to ask.

The Law of Futurity

The purpose of negotiation is to enter into an agreement such that both parties have their needs satisfied and are motivated to fulfill their agreements and enter into further negotiations with the same party in the future.

The Law of Win-Win or No Deal

In a successful negotiation, both parties should be fully satisfied with the result and feel that they have each "won" or no deal should be made at all. When you are determined to achieve a win-win solution to a negotiation, and you are open, receptive, and flexible in your discussions, you will often discover a third alternative that neither party had considered initially but that is superior to what either of you might have though of on your own.

The Law of Unlimited Possibilities

You can always get a better deal if you know how. You never need to settle for less or feel dissatisfied with the result of any negotiation. If you want a better deal, ask for it. You will be quite astonished at the better deals you will get by simply asking for a lower price if you're buying and asking for a higher price if you're selling.

The Law of Timing

Timing is everything in a negotiation. Whenever possible, you must plan strategically and use the timing of the negotiation to your advantage. If you are in a hurry to close a deal, your ability to negotiate well on your own behalf diminishes dramatically. The person who allows himself or herself to be rushed will bet the worst bargain. You resolve 80 percent of the vital issues of any negotiation in the last 20 percent of the time allocated for the negotiation.

The Law of Terms

The terms of payment can be more important than the price in a negotiation. You can agree to almost any price if you can decide the terms. It is important to never accept the first offer no matter how good it sounds. Act a little disappointed when you hear the first offer, and then ask for time to think about it. Realize that no matter how good the first offer is, it usually means that you can get an even better deal if you are patient.

Action Exercise

Whenever possible, talk to someone who has negotiated the same sort of deal with the same person. Find out what the other person is likely to want and what he or she has agreed to in the past. Forewarned is forearmed!