The power of networking…it really can transform a business.
Understanding others’ offerings and skill sets; aligning them with your own in order to capitalise on opportunity; and ultimately adding a valuable new contact to your growing network.
These can all be the rich rewards of an effective partnership model: the two-way benefits of personal referral.
For example, a customer of your insurance firm needs to change fleet car provider so you hook them up with one you know and trust.
Or maybe the chain of gyms to which you provide digital marketing is looking to expand rapidly so you connect them with a property agent you know who can likely help source potential new sites.
No marketing, no PR, just wonderful word of mouth.
Those who know me well will know that networking is a big part of who I am.
Yes, the social aspect is hugely enjoyable and there’s nothing quite like catching up with industry pals from time to time.
But I have always valued the ability for a professional friendship to provide a platform for both parties to put a mutually-beneficial deal together.
It’s why – when I formed Flexible Group earlier this year – I added a referral component to the commercials.
It’s easy – I pay referees 20% of total contract margin on any project they send my way.
I guess it’s what many of us when we first started out described as ‘getting a drink’ when we somehow helped a contact win some business. Or, as Hannibal Lecter more elegantly put it, ‘quid pro quo Clarice’.
Flexible Group’s approach is a little more formal (nothing too onerous, just simple confirmation via DocuSign) because I want it to really mean something - a proper piece of collaborative business, brilliantly done and righty rewarded.
It’s because all businesses have sector overlap to one degree or another.
In Flexible Group’s Commercial Real Estate vertical, players include communications technology providers like us but also office fit-out firms, landlords, facilities management companies, removals companies, project management consultancies and even escalator and elevator providers.
Individually, they are all experts in their fields.
For instance, Flexible Group is the one-stop shop for internet connectivity, managed wi-fi, cabling, telephony, switching, security, IT hardware, mobile devices, access control, CCTV, even commercial energy.
We know which connectivity providers are already lighting up our customers’ new buildings and workspaces because we have close relationships with all those national network operators.
That means we can provide our customers with the best possible deals, ensure their go-live dates are achieved, and then support them going forward with a brilliant service wrap.
What Flexible Group is not so brilliant at are things like the aforementioned office fit-outs, facilities management, removals, project management, or fitting escalators and elevators.
However, we know plenty of people who are brilliant at that stuff; and, in turn, they know us.
I’m sure you get the picture.
Let us help you also do the maths..!
· Paul Gibbs is Managing Director of Flexible Group – technology, made easy. He blogs regularly on how businesses can leverage the power of technology to succeed and grow.
· To learn more about how Flexible Group can help your business, visit www.flexiblegroup.co.uk
created Friday 22nd of July 2022
