Discover The Benefits Of Strategic Alliances For Life Coaches

How Strategic Alliances Can Work For Life Coaches?

A strategic alliance is basically a relationship developed between two businesses or practitioners who's services compliment each other. For life coaches this is usually based on complimentary skills, joint marketing of services, events or products.

For life coaches the relationship is most often set up between you and a complimentary service to your coaching, who can refer to each other. For instance, if you are a career coach, you might set up an alliance with a recruitment company.

Another example: If you are a coach specialising in coaching people through divorce, a lawyer or accountant could turn out to be an excellent opportunity for cross referrals.

There may be no actual money involved though some may decide on a referral fee. It's really up to the parties to decide.  

How To Find Strategic Alliance Partners

The trick to finding a good strategic alliance for your coaching is to find someone who has influence with a lot of possible clients, So, the questions to ask yourself is "Who has my possible coaching client?"

 In other words, who is likely to have clients who may need what you offer as a life coach.

This could be your local GP, a psychologist, a fitness instructor, a nutritionist, lawyer, and so on. There will be plenty of related fields depending on your coaching niche or specialty.  

One of the most common examples is setting up an alliance with a respected therapist, for when you feel a client needs this rather than or in addition to your coaching.  In turn they may pass on to you clients who they think could benefit from coaching as well as therapy.

Another way to find people where there can be a mutual benefit is through networking, either in person where you get to chat and create relationships or through social media.

As with any kind of business partnership there are traps to avoid and tips to make sure the  alliance is a profitable success, rather than a regretted failure. Let's now discuss these. 

How To Make Sure You Reap The Benefits Of Strategic Alliances

These tips will help you achieve successful alliance relationships and highlight some of the reasons why they sometimes fail. 

1. Make sure the attraction is mutual!

When someone approaches with an offer of working with you it’s because they find you and your coaching practice attractive and see benefits for them in hooking up with you.

And that’s great for the ego. But you need to make sure that they are as attractive to you, in a business sense, as well, and offer something of equal benefit to flow your way.

Of course some of the people you refer clients on to may be purely altruistic - part of your service - and offer no real benefit to you. But they may pass on favourable comments about you - that can raise your profile and result in clients. 

2. Discuss and benefits and fears and decide on the goals and outcomes

Have an initial meeting to get clear on what both of you hope to achieve from the alliance and and how it will work. Set some firm goals and outcomes for what the partnership is to achieve.  

In that meeting also have no holds barred (but polite) conversation where you not only discuss all the benefits you see in working together but lay on the table all the fears you have about what could possibly not work or go wrong.

Getting all this out in the open right at the start and having the necessary conversations to clear up any misconceptions or misunderstandings is essential to save future disagreements and disappointments. It also helps you to get to know the other party really well!

3. Seek out the opinions of others on the proposed alliance

Ask questions of colleagues or friends who have worked with this person or company. Here are some of the things you might want to check out.

• How did it work?
•  Were they reliable? 
• Do they have a good track record? 
• Did they have integrity in their dealings? 
• Did they follow through with their agreements? 

4. Catch up regularly 

A good policy is to have regular catch-ups, either face to face or online, to discuss how it is going, ask questions and handle any problems, considerations and possible misunderstandings, however seemingly trivial.

In other words, keep the space between you clean and don’t let uncertainties fester into upsets that could blow the relationship apart. 

5. Have a trial period 

Not all strategic alliances that you set up as a life coach will work. For instance you may find you are sending a lot of business their way but nothing is coming your way.

A trial period allows both parties to enter into it more confidently knowing that the agreements are not set in stone.  

6. Put everything in writing, continually

 If you are forming an alliance where money in exchange for referrals or some other tangible exchange is involved, have written signed agreement to prevent any misunderstandings. 

If the intended partner questions the need for this, tell them it is for the benefit of your both so there are no misunderstandings. 

7. Confirm all discussions

After each meeting or conversation with your strategic partner, write an email confirming what was discussed and any decisions made. This will make sure you are both still on the same page.

If there are delays in their response, excuses or justifications when you are setting up be wary.  It could be a taste of how the relationship will be so far as communication is concerned..

8. About those goals and outcomes

My book,  Mastering the Art of Goals Coaching (click on the link to get a taster of the content) is a particularly useful  handbook for you to use to set goals, whether for yourself or with your strategic partner. 

One section deals with failed goals which may help you get positive about the relationship again if you have had a bad experience with a previous alliance. 

Another guides you with the challenges and pitfalls of goal setting for a partnership such as one you may form with another professional. 

In conclusion, strategic alliances are just one way of attracting more clients and expanding your network.