MBA1940 Q&A Wednesday: How to Approach Partnerships With No Evidence of Success

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Hey O. Welcome to the $100 MBA Show. Powerful business lessons delivered to you daily every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started by co founder back in 2014 and today's episode is Q and A Wednesday. On Q and A Wednesdays I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you got a question you want to ask, go ahead and ask it. Just email me over@omar00mba.net Today's question is from Julie and Julie asks how to approach partnerships with no evidence of success. Julie writes in and says hey Omer, I'm trying to launch a business that heavily relies on partnerships. The business is similar to ClassPass. We offer customers credits to work out at fitness Studios. However, I don't know how to approach Fitness Studios without having any evidence of success. I'm so glad that Julie wrote in and asked this question because a lot of people will find themselves in this situation in business, especially when you're starting out. How do you get the ball rolling? How do you get momentum? How do you get that first client, that first partnership when you don't have a portfolio? When you don't have a track record when you don't have what Julie says, evidence of success. Well, that's what I'm going to teach today. How to do that, how to make sure you break through, and then how to parlay that, how to leverage that win into more wins into more partnerships in Julia's example, or more clients in your example. Can't wait to get into this one. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business, okay?

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So in today's Q and A Wednesday, Julie asks the question, how does she build partnerships if she has no evidence of success? She's building a business that heavily relies on having partnerships, so the business has legs. How does she approach fitness studio so they can partner with her in her app? What does she do? So, Julie, and for everybody who's listening, whether you're looking to do a partnership for the first time or secure your first client in your first business or a new business, this is what you do. And you need to trust me in this process. The first thing is that don't get overwhelmed. Don't think, oh, man, I gotta get all these clients. I gotta get 4, 5, 6, 10, 20, 30, 100 clients or a hundred partnerships to make this work. Your only focus at the start is to get one partnership is to get one client to get one person to say yes. Why? Because that's all that matters right now. Without that one, you don't have any evidence of success, like you say, Julie, So you need that one so you can use it to get new clients, to get a reputation. So what I like to do is I like to go for the easiest one I can get. So in your case, Julie, go and find the fitness studio that you have any relationship with. I'm talking about maybe you're just a student at that fitness studio. If you're not a student at any fitness studio, start becoming a student. Start frequenting that studio. Okay? Become a member. Get to know the staff, get to know the management. Be a regular, okay? Build a relationship with them. It's a whole lot easier to say yes to somebody you already know instead of just cold calling them or just showing up and they don't know who you are. This may take a few weeks, but it's going to be well worth it because the value of this one client is going to be huge for you. That one partnership is going to help you with so many things in the future. Second, kindly ask them for their time. Say, hey, I'd love to sit down with you and talk to you about an opportunity or partnership I want to do with you to help your business. Anytime you're partnering with anybody, anytime you're trying to get a client, you're trying to work with somebody, you have to be mindful of the fact that all they're thinking about is what's in in it for me. Okay? So you need to make sure that you approach it in that angle. Hey, I'm here to try to help your business. I have an idea that can really help you get more business. Can I have some time? Can I take you out for a after workout smoothie? But the actual ask is important. And when you say this with a little bit of credibility because you are frequenting this business, hey, I've been going to all your yoga classes and you guys got great, great instructors and great facilities. But there are a couple of areas I think you guys can really improve on. And I actually can help you with that. I'd love to take you out for an after workout smoothie or breakfast on Sunday or whatever it is, and I can share some ideas with you. By the way, it's not going to cost you anything other than 30 minutes of your time and breakfast is on me. Make it super simple. You need to get that first. Yes. You got to do whatever it takes to get them just to say yes to sit down with you. Okay. They may say no, okay. And they're going to come up with an excuse, oh, I really can't do this Sunday. No problem. When can you sit down? This is actually a really good technique I learned in sales back in the day is whenever anybody says, no, I can't because X then just flip it on them and say, hey, okay, no problem. When can you do this? They might come back to you and say, oh, I actually don't make the decisions here. No problem. You can pass on my information. Or you could just simply say, which I often say is, who does make the decisions? Who can I speak to that can make some of these changes? One of two things are going to Happen, they're going to refer you to somebody because they're obligated to ask for it, right? They refer you to who actually can make those decisions. Or they'll say, well, actually I can make those decisions. I stand corrected. Let's sit down and talk. The point here is that you got to figure out a nice, approachable, no problem, no friction way to sit down with them. If for any reason it doesn't work out and you don't have an appointment with them, no problem. Try a week later. Persistence is key in business. Okay, this is not annoying. Okay? Some people just get busy. They just have a busy schedule. They're dealing with things in life or in business. And for you just to come back and say, hey, I just wanted to circle back, I just wanted to see if you're available. Now people appreciate that, especially if you're trying to help. Now when you do sit down with them, this is your opportunity to secure this client, to secure this partnership. You need to do everything in your power to get this client, even if it costs you money, even if it costs you time and effort. This has to be a no brainer decision for them. Okay? You have to present them something which is like they'll feel stupid if they don't say yes. So maybe in your example it was like, hey, I'm going to list you in my directory. It's going to give you free advert advertising. I'm going to get your studio exposure to new students. I'm going to get you to be able to secure more revenue because of the way we have a revenue model and a share revenue share model, whatever it is. I'm not sure what you do, but the point is that you're going to basically tell them, here are all amazing benefits you're going to get by working with me and partnering with me. And even if your business model for some reason has some negatives or some cost or something like that, try to make them as minimal as possible. Just for this first client, you know, you want to give them a sweet, sweet deal or just like, okay, so where's the catch? There is no catch. I'm actually here to help you out and by you succeeding, I succeed as well. Show them how to win. Win next. After making a no brainer pitch to them, you got to make sure that they agree to it as quickly as possible and you don't let time pass. So you have to have some sort of real scarcity. So you might say, I'm going to do this for the first five studios. I and this could be true. You're going to do this, actually. And I recommend this sweet deal, this discounted deal, this no brainer deal. So I would recommend that we agree right now, even if it's just a verbal agreement and I can add you to my site and I'll send you everything via email that you can sign or that you can agree to and we can wrap this up before the end of the week because come next week, I can't guarantee that all those five spots are not going to be taken by other studios in the area. This is very important, okay? You have to understand what makes your business owner, the person you're speaking to tick, okay? They're highly aware of competition, they're highly aware there are other studios in their area encroaching on their business. And if they can get some sort of advantage, you need to highlight that, hey, this is going to put you in an advantage here. And you might even want to make sure that those five studios are not competing studios. So, like, you're the only yoga studio. The other four are going to be other kinds of studios. Maybe a karate studio or a dance studio. This is going to make them feel like, wow, I am getting in the game, I'm getting in early before anybody else. And this is going to work out the whole point, okay? The whole goal here is to secure your first partnership, your first client, so that you can use this client to get more clients, to get more partnerships. Now you might be wondering, Omar, what if they say, how do I know you're going to be able to do this? You have no track record. I haven't heard of you before. All these other things that you might be thinking, number one, don't assume people are going to think that. Some people will not think that. Some people will be like, hey, this sounds like a good idea, let's do it. They're not thinking about what's the track record if they do show them how they have nothing to lose, just get in front of it. Yep. I don't have any evidence right now. You are the first person I'm speaking to. And this is a great opportunity for you. This is a no brainer. You do not lose anything, okay? Even if there's something that they have to pay later on, you can defer that payment or you only have them pay after you get them results. Do anything you can to get this client to say, there is no loss for me here. And you just flat out say, hey, my evidence is going to come when you get the business. Okay? So maybe the Evidence is not here now, but the evidence will come. And you only pay. You only have to do your side of the bargain after you get results. That's the all the evidence you absolutely need. And any business owner with any kind of logic or sense is going to say, yep, that's all I need to see. I just need you to bring me the customer. You got me a customer. That's all the evidence I need to see. Once you secure this client, this partnership, things are going to get a little bit easier. My recommendation is you're going to do the same exact thing for your next few clients. Give them a sweet deal. Now, this time, you have a client. Hey, I just signed up Studio X. They're super keen and they can't wait to get started. After you've spoken to a few other studios and secured your first client, you can now say to other clients, hey, we've already secured Studio X and I've already spoken to these studios to be a part of our program already. You're going to be ahead of most people in business because they don't do the Lego work, okay? They don't actually go ahead and do the work ahead in advance before getting the business. And that's going to be enough for you to get more business and your first few partnerships and clients. You want to document everything in the process. You want to make sure that you know exactly what went on, how many clients you got them. You want to get testimonials. You want to learn about how much money each client you brought spent. You want to get as much information as possible. Why? Because this is going to be great data to get, you guessed it, more. More clients, more partnerships. Hey, I worked with Studio X and I got them 50 clients this month. The average customer spent $120. And it only cost this Studio X amount of dollars to get these clients they would not get otherwise. In today's business world, data is king. This is why Instagram got sold for a billion dollars. It's not because it puts some filters on some photos. It's because it's got tons of data on people and data can be used to sell. And in your case, you need this data so you can continue to grow your partnerships.

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To wrap up today's Q and A Wednesday's question from Julie how do I approach somebody for a partnership with no evidence of success? It's all about getting that first partnership, making it a no brainer for them. Even losing money on it is okay. Prove to them that you are valuable to them that you're going to get them business before they have to actually shell out any money or have to worry about contributing to the partnership in any way. And there's one more thing I want to mention in your business, Julie. Just like any business, the circle that these businesses are in is a very small circle. The circle of SaaS business software as a service business is very small. I probably know half of all the founders of all sasses that are big players in the market. The studios that you work with, that you spoke to, they're going to start talking to each other. They're going to start hearing about your product. Once you start getting some clients, you get one, you get two, you get three, get a few partnerships going. They're going to talk to each other, they know each other, they're in the same Facebook groups, they go to the same meetups or the same conferences. So if you deliver results for these clients, for these partners, they're going to talk, they're going to say, wow, this has been a great addition to our business. And those who are in the out or not part of your program are going to start getting jealous. Hey. They're going to start approaching you and say, hey, we want to be part of your platform. So it's all about momentum. It's about getting that first partnership that parlays into your second, your third, your fourth, your fifth. Don't worry about getting 100 right now, just worry about getting that first one because it's going to lead to so many more. Thanks Julie for asking that great question in today's Q and A Wednesday. If you've got a question you want to ask, just go ahead and email me over@omar00mba.net and I'll make sure I answer right here on Q and A Wednesday. If you love this show, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. We'd love to hear what you think of the podcast. We have over 1200 reviews and we read every single one because we'd love to hear what you love, what your favorite episodes are, what your favorite takeaways are. So we can continue to give you more value. Before I go, I want to leave you with this business. Like anything you do is hardest at the start. It's hard to start a new workout or to start going to the gym. It's hard to start learning how to ski, keep falling on the floor, keep falling down the slopes. It's hard to learn the piano. You start hitting the wrong keys and the wrong notes. It's hard to get started. But it's so important to get started. It's so important to give it your all, to give it your energy, to give it everything you got in the beginning because it's going to push you over that, that initial hump and get you to the point where most people quit, most people don't make it past that hump. So if you're trying to secure that first partnership, that first client, do everything in your power to make it happen, to make it a no brainer for them, even if it costs you money. Okay, you might take a loss, but you'll gain credibility, experience and your first client. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care of.

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals like business management, strategic planning and effective communication. And you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.