Form Alliances with Matchmakers to Gain Even More Profitable Alliances

Chances are that perfect allies for you are also out there looking for allies and have not considered you. The main reason that your two organizations are not currently allies is that you have no current business relationship.

How can you make contact with potential allies?

Increasingly, individuals and organizations are springing up who specialize in helping you find allies. A CFO joined an organization of other CFOs who were not competitors of his company. At a meeting for prospective members, another CFO (who was not yet a member of the CFO organization) for a small customer worked with the first CFO on a planning exercise for adapting to irresistible forces.

As a result of this experience, the customer CFO suggested that both CFOs could do better if they met and worked together on joint projects in the future. Within months, sales to the customer company increased substantially, based on the projects initiated by the two CFOs. From this experience, the first CFO's company developed a policy of having each senior executive work regularly with her or his counterparts in customer and supplier companies to establish closer and more effective relationships.

Cross-industry groups of all kinds can provide similar kinds of exposures and experiences. Experts who often come into contact with people from other enterprises and cultures can also play this role for you, by helping you consider who would be the best allies.

Unfortunately, many companies construe this advice as encouraging them to work primarily with their investment bankers for this purpose. That approach can bear fruit, but investment bankers are often more highly compensated for developing acquisitions than for crafting informal business alliances. They may follow their pocketbooks as a result.

Keep in mind, too, that having helped someone when it was not expected will often generate a life-long friend. Young people are often surprised to learn that they will bump into the same people again and again for the rest of their lives. After all, it's a big world and it's natural to assume that you will only be meeting new people. Having been surprised by that observation, they fail to realize that their interactions with these same people will have a large bearing on their future success.

A public speaker some years ago made a promise to himself that he would be sure that everyone who heard him speak would enjoy a better life as a result. One way he did this was to teach each person in the audience how to set personal and career objectives, and to offer to discuss these objectives with anyone who cared to follow up at any time in the future.

Every time the speaker met someone who had once attended one of these talks, the hearer would begin by telling the speaker what a big difference the objective-setting training had provided. The rest of the meeting then would tend to focus on how the grateful hearer could now help the speaker.

Over time, dozens of the most successful people in the speaker's field came to credit part of their success to the speaker, and the speaker added allies faster than he had the opportunity to call upon them for assistance.

You can do the same. Magnified and reflected good will toward you fills a reservoir of untapped desire by successful, effective allies to help you.

About The Author-- Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through 2,000 percent solutions and receive tips by e-mail by registering for free at http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

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