Let explore some ideas for creating synergy between rainmakers. The ideas here are generic possibilities. True synergy is created when the parties involved can compare notes and delve into the array of possibilities. One thing about Rainmakers, they do not let the conventional or the status quo stand in the way of making more business.

Synergy requires establishing trust. We need an open discussion of challenges and opportunities, of constrains and strengths- any pertinent information that is material. Trust is established as the proposed parties interact with each other. This can happen in many venues. It might have been established through prior experience. It can be established in the course of the conversation. Rainmakers are very intuitive. They have an ear for BS. They know and deal with the elephant in the room. We know what people sound like when they talk about taking care of customers. Everybody here watches out for the interests of everyone else with a particular dedication because it is in our DNA. We do our best work because that is us, not because we want to leave a good impression. In collaboration, we have to be watching out for the interest of everyone or it doesn’t work.

Collaboration requires honest conversation about challenges and opportunities. You need facts to think strategically as a team about what you can do together. When everyone knows the situation, then everyone can share ideas and brainstorm about how to cooperate in the fulfillment of the idea. Collaboration allows the leveraging of everyone’s strengths by all the partners. Effective collaboration enables robust business growth for each partner.

Together, we can forge a strategy that dominates our selected market niches. The question is how. Talk is cheap.

Two Critical Questions are

What can we do together that we can’t do alone? Or another way to look at this question, is
What can we do together than is much easier and more effective than what we might try alone?

These are essential questions. Rainmakers are not standing around looking for what to do. I know some top guns. They get more done than 2 or 3 average people. So if you are going to suggest ideas to help a top gun Rainmaker, make sure you first earn trust- and that is not by demonstrating how smart you are, but it helps to articulate what you are trying to do- you are hoping to find a means to create synergy, and you maybe toss out a few ideas to get a reaction… BUT be prepared to shut up and listen. When the top gun Rainmaker realizes you are serious and that you have substance ( yes, this is tricky but being a good listener helps) Asking a really good question helps.

Something like, you are a really great at business development, have you ever stopped to analyze what stands in the way of you making your next leap in performance?

I would suspect that he or she has. Here is why collaboration is so critically important. It changes the game. Instead of working to develop incremental improvements in performance, Collaboration allows big jumps.

Yes, Collaboration can be a big game changer.

We have already talked about dealing with limitations. Now we are ready to talk about synergy.

So let’s look at some great possibilities.

1) We already discussed the power stroke of the Rainmaker and that is the role of trusted adviser. Now imagine one top gun Rainmaker well trusted by his or her client and introducing that client to a collaborating top gun Rainmaker. Imagine the number of leads that can be exchanged. Imagine the fast track to being a trusted adviser. And, of course, such a referral is based on trust, but who would you trust more with your clients that a real pro at doing well for his clients. Becoming a trusted adviser is not based on your skills of elocution or your ability to blather. It is based on an accumulation of encounters that add real value to your client.

And what is wonderful are that their are so many easy ways to introduce your partners that don’t call for any pushing at all. Lets look at a few.

• There is the tradition endorsement letter which when done well can be effective to start a dialog.
• Then you can share blogging space and create valuable discussions and look at issues from different disciplines and create value for clients.This is a very effective way for all the collaborators to meet each others clients. You invite them over to your blog. You invite them to partake in a free newsletter and then you just make easy introductions.
• A webinar or a seminar is a perfect place to let partners display their expertise and add value. Top gun Rainmakers know how to talk value. They can intertwine disiplines and create a comprehensive information source that adds great value to the listeners. And of course, you offer everyone easy steps to the next interaction.
• Collaborators can use public speaking engagements, training sessions, whatever… to influence people and make new friends.

What is fascinating is that in working to overcome limitations on time,  the solutions can be carried right over into creating synergy and new options for business growth.

2) As collaborating Rainmakers

• We can gather good intelligence.
• We can glean from observation.
• We can ask questions, without being annoying and
• combine this strategic information to aid the collaborative effort.

This is a much broader field of collaboration. This is a great place for all our Rainmakers to play, even those who are unemployed. Each of us has great power in that we are the authority on what is happening where we stand and on our own turf. Rainmakers are either busy closing business and keeping new clients happy and being in a exploratory phase with not enough business being closed but plenty of time to think and study and ask questions and find gaps in performance. Yes, many Rainmakers are underemployed or unemployed right now. It doesn’t make them any less capable, it just gives them differing strengths. Extra time is an asset.

Does that feel a little flippant?  I hope not. I want all of you to feel light on your feet and unburdened. I want all of you feeling like a star athlete in your element dealing with whatever comes at you on the field of sport. I want all of you gully engaged in achievement with little time for recrimination and doubt. And so none of us is perfect, but by fitting into a collaborative system where we have plenty of opportunity to concentrate on creating value, we get to work taking action. And by being in a supportive environment we can help each other check our baggage at the door, knowing that when we are feeling down and beat up we would certainly appreciate some encouragement and some straight talk when less than ideal happens.

We can share technology resources for tracking market information. We can share resources for understanding and utilizing new technologies effectively. We can prevent wasting time in frivolous applications of technology by sharing our broad perspective. We can build market intelligence together, and we can share expertise in reaching out to select prospects. We can create unique connecting tools to reach out by leveraging the tools and tactics we use as a coalition. Each partner has an understanding of the market place. We can put our minds together, blend this mosaic of information, and create innovative ideas to grow business together.

Great intelligence and creative thought not only helps us create strong connections to clients among our coalition members, but let’s work together to create systems and leverage to reach into new companies and create new clients, new points of influence, maybe even new markets.

And all our Rainmakers can find their niche within this superstructure of support. We can define points where a resource makes sense and someone or a team of people can get involved. When we can create success like this, we can build on success. And when you start building on success you are growing and your community is growing and our Rainmakers are engaged and adding value and it is a win win win in any direction you turn.

It all requires trust. It takes a little patience to make it work. New always takes a little longer to perfect that what you do the same every day. But in the end the results will be amazing.

3) Markets change. Change can be confounding. Finding a profitable path again can be a battle. Being about to share business concerns and listen to business wisdom among the coalitions members is a great asset for the group. You might call this a mastermind group. Some of you might see this process as an engineering or design review process. The name does not matter.  We can share concerns. We can share challenges and describe opportunity. We can share great ideas. We can share lessons learned from hard knocks. Nothing limits our ability to share and work together. Nothing limits the synergy we can create.

Again, the mastermind group allows for great minds to stimulate each other and not only solve challenges but define and create new offers to take advantage of newly discovered opportunities. There is so much good that can come out of a free and honest discussion within a mastermind group.

4) Does everybody understand the concept of positioning in marketing. We will assume you do. Better positioning for a Rainmaker makes marketing easier. Good positioning helps create more useful conversations with prospects and with clients. Working through collaboration, none of us are a single voice vying for attention in our market. Our collaboration allows us to create our own positioning, lets us set the agenda and the venue which best leverages the synergy we can create.

5) Lead Nurturing is critical in this day and age. Not everybody we run into is ready to do business right now. Business is a little slow right now, but smart companies are raking up small deals and laying the foundation for taking market share from those waiting for conditions to improve. Lead nurturing helps take prospects out of the shopping around game. You can be in as the trusted adviser when it comes time to close the deal. Lead nurturing is more than calling up to see you someone is ready to sign the contract. Lead nurturing is add a spell drip of value to the relationship over time. This works particularly well through a collaborative effort. You make a good impression. Your coalition looks good and you are all sharing the load of being interesting and compelling.

Who hasn’t been shocked by what you thought was a loyal customer calling someone else? Working together we can create the value, and provide the support that wins over our community. Our collaborative effort will build a powerful bond. We can build our brand into a community resource as big as our ambitions. The Internet will empower this process.

5) Does anybody really want to listen to you toot your own horn? Hype and self promotion is so last century. It just doesn’t work as well these days. Wouldn’t it be great to have collaborative partners who can tell your story for you. Wouldn’t it be great to join into a conversation with other collaborating partners that allows clients and customers and prospects to figure out for themselves that you are who they want to deal with. It takes effort. It takes self examination, but it can be done very effectively.

6) I hope every one has some sense of a blog. In fact, you most likely came to this wiki from a blog reference. Blogs are a very powerful tool to speaking to your market community. But our theme here relates to the power of collaboration. What does collaboration have to do with creating a voice with a blog? Creating a voice, that is, creating a blog and speaking to your constituency is a critical component in marketing today.

It also is time consuming. It doesn’t fit everyone’s strengths. If you are busy doing business now, taking time to blog seems like a waste of time. Well, blogging and connecting to your community is what will insure that over time, you will still be doing business. No guarantees but you will certainly be better off than if you are doing business as usual.

As markets continue to evolve, as traditional advertising models shrivel, as the Yellow Pages fade away and classified advertising shrinks with its market impact, those companies which have created communities of people who trust them and value their resources will flourish and those who depend on the conventional world of anonymity and brands and advertising will struggle mightily to slow the pace of decline. If you don’t adapt, no matter how strong you are now, you will go extinct. This is the lesson of survival of the fittest. We don’t want any of our friends proving this principle one more time.

Collaboration works here very well. Combining voices in a market helps build critical mass. We have addressed this issue before, but now we address it from the point of view of creating content and making a connection to the community and creating value for our community. Instead of one lone voice, you can join in with a chorus of voices which not only helps diversify the message but also puts less burden on you to create content. And the interaction between the partners and the readers builds stronger relationships and helps solidify the bonds between service providers and clients and prospects. It is a win win all around.  Our collaborators are able to establish authority as experts and our readers win because they can act with great advice and get useful help when they need it.

It is at this point of collaboration that the technology and writing support team comes into play. This is where the rest of the collaborative team can participate. We have many roles. We coordinate themes. We help with gathering the pictures and the themes  for content. We help keep the process of creating useful content as easy as possible. We are also the last line of defense to prevent hype and pushiness to filter out and offend our readership. We win hearts by delivering value.

Pushy salesy content pushes your community away. They don’t come back either. Your emails are a click away from the digital dumpster. Your direct mail scores 2 points in the trash can. Oh, we will make great offers but we don’t push. We help create the aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Who has to push hot and fresh chocolate chip cookies? All you have to do is offer them to those who want them and then keep baking.

There are myriad more ways to create synergy between contributing Rainmakers, but lets stop here. We need to say a little bit about the process of making collaboration work. When you get the collaborative model working right and your community grows. It flourishes as you maintain a dialog around real value. But it does take a little time for people to learn new systems and become comfortable with them. It is new, people need a period of time to get familiar with new processes. But when participants get used to new collaborative systems, sales will come easier and more often.