Right now is a perfect time to strengthen and expand your strategic partner network. Who are strategic partners? They are the people interested in the same client that you are. Your strategic partner network should be one of the foundations of your business and it needs consistent care and feeding to bring you the most business.

Here are 5 Steps To Strategic Partner Success:

1. Start With Your Database. Just as it is a good idea on a regular basis to go through your database and "clean it up," the same exercise is valuable to take a look at with those strategic partners. Hopefully you have these in a database and have a separate category or group for them. If you don't, do that first. If you use Outlook, at the bottom right of every contact card, there is a category. You can create a general category called Strategic Partners or further define into subcategories, such as real estate vendors, farm area merchants, waterfront vendors, etc.

2. Do Some Strategic Thinking. Make a good long list of people you'd like to have as strategic partner. Here is my Team 100 list to help with the brainstorming. You want to choose vendors, businesses and other folks who have:

3. Create A Plan! What a concept, huh? One of my clients did a great job of this by starting with a letter introducing herself, complimenting the prospect and suggesting they get together to discuss ways to mutually grow their businesses. A few days after the letter arrived, she called to set a lunch(or could be coffee or breakfast).

Then her purpose was to find out about their business and to see if there was enough commonality to pursue some joint marketing campaigns or to determine what might be a way to refer actively. If your list consists of people you know well, you could skip the introduction letter and just invite them to meet.

4. Refer. We get by giving! As you develop your relationships, remember to keep your ears open for opportunities to solve someone's problem ( needing something and not knowing a good source!).

The more you refer, the more you are building capital in the bank account that will repay you. In Robert Ciadini's classic book, Influence, he calls this The Law of Reciprocity. He says people have a need to balance the scales when someone has done something nice for them.

5. Use The Tech Connection. Exchange website and blog links with your partners. Think of ways to help each other:

Designing your plan and implementing are the actions that will give your business and influx of great energy and reward you with some business. The most important element is to have fun. Build your dream team and then play the real estate game to win!!!! You might even want to consider playing a Real Estate Game® to energize things! More strategic partners=more referrals and business...Go Have Fun!

Borrowed Wisdom

Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail and Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine, stated in his interview with Stephen M. R. Covey on The Speed of Trust: “Money was the currency of the old economy; Trust is the currency of the new, global economy.”

"Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself." — Richard Bach

Tech Tip
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Giving Back

Many of you generously have supported the www.WebWomenGivingCircle.com last year with donations to the humanitarian organization, CARE. Those donations help many people and were much appreciated. CARE is on the scene in Myanmar. They say,"We were well-positioned to respond to this emergency, with more than 550 staff who have worked on projects in Myanmar for more than 14 years. To date, we have provided clean water, food and emergency supplies to more than 125,000 people around Yangon and throughout the Irrawaddy Delta......" To read more about what's being done or to make a donation (no matter how small..it all helps) please click here. 

Last Calls

1. June Fossland Forum: Michele Martineau is a brilliant marketer. Her ideas "Elevate Your Business" will help you build more business! These monthly interviews are my gift to you. Remember, they are archived and you can listen any time or download them

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

PDT: 11:00 AM | MDT: Noon
Central: 1:00 PM | EDT: 2:00 PM
Hawaii: 8:00 AM

Register for the Next Forum here

2. Tired of Negative Headlines? Join me with Frances Flynn Thorsen, managing editor of RealTown, Hilary Marsh from NAR and Blanche Evans, Editor of Realty Times and learn how YOU can make a difference.

Join us for this special, FREE No Blogger Left Behind Breakout session on Tuesday, June 17:
2 PM EDT,1 PM CDT,12 Noon MDT,11 AM PDT and Arizona, 8 AM Hawaii

Register here.