Creating and Maximising B2B Referral Partnerships

Michelle O'Hara, Director - OH! Marketing
(blog link click here) 

Particularly here in Queensland, relationships are extremely valuable and important for business growth. Quite often people come up together in business and build a trust that simply cannot be overlooked. Alliance or referral partners are imperative to ensure a consistent pipeline of work in specific segments, for any industry. Making sure you maximise the personal and professional relationship is the key.

In this article, I share some insights inspired from a group of amazing Queensland Leaders’ businesses and share how any business can build their own partnerships.

And remember…

Whilst we classify B2B and B2C, it all comes down to P2P – people wanting to deal with people so remember to keep it real and professionally personal.

Market overview

The main challenges we are seeing from a Decision Maker point of view right now are:

1. Lack of staff or otherwise productivity of current staff plus there is a movement of Staff as they feel businesses are starting to crunch numbers.
2. As a result of a) people are overworked, very busy and wearing a lot of hats.
3. The market for some industries is very quiet, for others booming.
4. The time to convert a lead has extended and because people are so busy, the amount of times you need to follow up, has increased.
5. People are worried about money, looking for deals and most importantly “value for their money.”
6. There is still a bit of uncertainty around the interest rates and the election, so in some commercial areas particularly, people are still waiting and projects are getting pushed out. This makes it difficult to plan for Staffing and to fill in the gaps in the meantime.

As a result of all this, from a marketing perspective, once again it’s time to shift.

The Must Dos

1. Most importantly and one sometimes as Business owners we forget – Cement your current relationships! Say thank you to your clients, make sure they are sticky and well looked after and are very happy with your service. Remember, it’s 7 times harder to win a new client than it is to keep a current one.
2. Get very clear on the value you are providing specific segments and promote only this to them in a clear and concise way – in other words, Find your lane and own it!!
3. Try to break down your value offering into smaller bite sizes that are more easily digestible to your potential clients. Get your foot in the door with a smaller piece, build trust and build from there.
4. Put more potential clients into the pipeline now as they may take longer to convert but you will consistently have a flow of clients. It’s always to better to say you will have to wait then sitting around twiddling your thumbs with 20 staff having nothing to do.
5. Consistently market to ensure your potential clients are being hit at each touch point to push them through the buying cycle.
6. Have a backup market segment. Whilst commercial or project work might be your cream, it’s important to review your business model and identify segments that can potentially fill in the gaps during wait times otherwise cash flow could become a problem.

How to utilise Referral Partnerships to help with the process

The most important point to remember with referral partnerships is that it is set up in a WIN-WIN situation that benefits both parties. Many ask, “Who should I think about to become a referral partner?” Think about where your ideal client goes before you in their purchasing journey and after you – these people will then become your perfect referral partners and… they already have a database of your ideal clients.

A few things to think about though before you go asking them to dive into a trustful relationship with you.

1. Is your Brand perception up to scratch so they will want to associate with you? Step outside your company and look at how your company is perceived from an outside perspective. Ask yourself:
   1. Is it clear who we help, how we help them, the value we provide, the level of clients we deal with? Is everything aligned telling the same message? Perhaps your team’s LinkedIn profiles have no photos, your website hasn’t been updated since 2010, everything is just a little out of date.
   2. Would you want to partner with your company the way it appears?
2. Have you got ways you can promote them, so it becomes a win-win situation?
   1. Do you keep in touch with your clients? Either via monthly newsletter, through social posts, via regular tradeshows, lunches, live events, webinars, through networking events, a CRM system to remind you to touch base? These are all great ways that both you can inject a referral partner and they can inject you.

Promoting each other in a win-win and productive way

Ok, the relationship is set up, the trust is there, the alignment is there, now what? Here are some ways to maximise the partnership.

1. Tell them specifically and simply what you are looking for in an ideal client i.e turnover, no. of staff, industry, challenges they are facing. Even give them a script of questions – if you hear your client say this, this, this, introduce me by saying this.
2. Put an education piece or lead magnet into their newsletter (i.e a checklist, a downloadable white paper or case study that you can track). Make it easy for them to promote you and make them look good at the same time.
3. Do video testimonials for each other but organise just once.
4. Provide Google reviews for each other
5. Run an event together and invite both databases – a live luncheon, education or networking event, a webinar, have them as a guest at your tradeshow (good for a break too). Use experiential marketing techniques to make a competition more fun, offer up prizes to promote both parties etc.

From a marketing perspective, make sure you tag each other in posts, share each other’s posts, comment, like and share and of course, make introductions when appropriate.

Unsure where to start or how to carry this out – that’s where our team play. Feel free to talk to us about a strategic planning session today. Ph:  0438 765 718 | e: michelle@ohmarketing.com.au | w: www.ohmarketing.com.au