The way to create a partnering goal is to construct a partner prospecting list. Take out a piece of paper and write down the next 12 months on the year on there. Start with this month and finish 12 months from now. For each month, either put down one of the following:

the name of a person
the name of a company
the type of role they play

Now if you knew 12 people that you wanted to partner with, youd probably be doing it already, but you surely know a couple of people to put down in some of those slots. For example, if you know three non-competing technology providers in your area that youve met through training or other meetings, those are good people to sit down with and talk about partnering over the next couple months.

How To Fill Your Partnering Slots

Start defining your business and figure out what it is that you want to do and that youre capable of doing. Think about the gaps in your business. Think about the types of things that a small business client has asked you for in the past or you think will ask you for in the future that you dont think youre going to be able to fulfill in-house. Thats what you should put down on the remaining lines.

What Can't You Do? Consider Partnering With Someone Who Can

You might realize that you could really use a partner who has very high-end wireless expertise; the kind of partner who can go in and install the long-range antennas on the top of the building that can go 20 or 30 miles that replace T3, T1, or the private line. Or maybe you have a lot of expertise in bread and butter LAN infrastructure but not a lot of expertise in Citrix and terminal services, and you want to partner with someone who does.

Perhaps you could really use someone who knows how to do IP telephony. So you put down on the slot I want to meet a potential partner in whatever month who does IP telephony.

The Bottom Line about Partnering

Whatever it is, you want to think of 12 people that you can get together with one a month over the next year, and it makes it a lot more manageable to think about growing your partnering relationships like that.

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