Partnering Is Like Courting - Small Business Article

By:Joshua Feinberg

Partnering does not happen overnight. You should approach it slowly and methodically like courtship or dating. In the same way you wouldn't sleep with someone or suggest going to bed with someone on the first date, you don't want to try to close a deal with a potential partner in the first meeting.

Don't try to close the partnering deal the first time you meet. It's a recipe for failure. Partnerships may take weeks or months, sometimes even years to evolve.

It's being introduced maybe by a common client or a common friend, getting together for coffee, trading some email, some phone calls back and forth, getting together for lunch again, talking about some common client problems that you're running into, some things that you can't fill. Make sure that you take your time to do this right and that you don't ask for the sale or try to close the deal too soon.

It's as much about personalities meshing together with the trust and the chemistry as everything else. There's got to be some IT-related connection or business-related connection, but even more importantly than that, the personalities really have to connect.

Keep your antennae up for opportunities whenever you're going to reseller channel events or going to technical training classes or business expos. You never know when you're going to meet your next potential partner.

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