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What you’ll learn in this episode:
If you’re constantly looking for new leads, new platforms, or new marketing strategies to grow your business, tIf you’re trying to grow your business by constantly chasing new leads, you may be overlooking one of the highest-leverage growth strategies available to you: strategic partnerships. In this episode, I break down how aligning with other business owners who already serve your ideal client can dramatically shorten your sales cycle, increase client quality, and create revenue with far less effort. Instead of building trust from scratch, you can borrow it — intentionally. This episode is part of a special series where I’m walking you through the highest-leverage ways to simplify your business and grow your revenue without doing more.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why partnerships can be a high-ROI alternative to chasing new visibility
- The difference between random collaborations and strategic alignment
- How to identify businesses that already serve your ideal client at the right buying moment
- Why borrowed trust accelerates conversion and improves client quality
- A simple framework to activate one high-leverage partnership this quarter
This Episode Is Part of a Series:
In this series, I’m guiding you through the highest-leverage shifts you can make to simplify your business and increase revenue with more ease. If you missed Lever #1 (The Buyer Moment), Lever #2 (Your Offer as a Profit Lever), or Lever #3 (Existing Proximity), I recommend going back and listening. These episodes are designed to stack and build on one another and the results compound!
Just like we did in Episode 233 – visit this link, sign up to access the worksheet, fill it out, and send it to us using the email listed at the bottom. You could be featured on the show and invited to get coaching on your business as a guest.
Mentioned in this episode:
Your Strategic Partnership Lever Worksheet
Work/Connect with me:
Jessica Miller (00:07.854)
Hello everyone and welcome back to this week’s episode of the It’s Your Offer podcast. I’m so excited to be here with you, and I want to interrupt this broadcast with a special announcement. We were going to talk about messaging today as part of our Profit Lever series, but I actually had one of these lightning-strike moments where I wanted to slide in a slightly different topic today and talk about a lever in your business that is related to the existing proximity lever that we
talked about last week that I think is really important and that I thought would be well-suited right here. So I created some notes and I jumped on the podcast, and here we are to talk about this special lever. So if you happen to be listening to our episodes, you might have been expecting a lever around messaging, but we’re going to just push that off for one week and we’re going to jump in and we’re going to talk about a lever that I think is right in front of us. It sometimes is invisible.
and it’s come up a lot this week and I thought, my goodness, I almost forgot to put this in this series and I want to talk about it because it is so important. And this is the strategic lever of partnerships. It’s about borrowed trust as a profit lever. So last week we talked about this idea of existing proximity — people that are in your world, that have proximity to you, that know you, that trust you
and how that’s a really powerful lever in your business to grow. This week, really nestled right up next to that, I want to talk about borrowed trust as a profit lever. And that is the trust that is created from strategic partnerships or people that you know and align yourself with that also help your ideal clients. So I want to talk about this growth strategy that, as I said, many people do not treat as a strategy.
they actually treat it more like networking. Partnerships, when done intentionally, are actually one of the highest-leveraged profit levers in your business. And if you’ve been following this series, you know that some of the levers that we’ve talked about are the buyer moment — like thinking about your ideal client and the buyer at the moment that they are ready to buy. They’re already bought in. They’re just looking for who to trust in order to buy from.
Jessica Miller (02:31.756)
We’ve talked about your offer as a very powerful profit lever. We’ve talked about this idea of existing proximity — people who are close to you — that are also levers in your business. Today, I want to talk about this lever of strategic partnership and basically expanding on this idea of proximity because sometimes the proximity that you need is not yours; it’s someone else’s. And thinking through who that is and what that looks like is really important.
Strategic partnerships are not about random collaborations, and I really want to stress this. Sometimes we think we just have to, you know, nestle up with someone else, and it’s going to be powerful. But actually, they are about aligning with other business owners who already serve your ideal client at the exact buying moment that you care about. So they are on that journey with this ideal person at the moment where this problem that they have, or that this other person might be uncovering,
is actually the buying moment for you. So this is about borrowing trust instead of buying attention. We’re not collaborating with people just to be seen. We’re actually collaborating with them to borrow the trust that they have created with this ideal client in this specific moment so that it is a sure connection to you and what it is that you’re helping people with.
So this really leverages this idea of doing less, making more, higher ROI — like depth of relationship to this buyer in this moment — over breadth of just locking arms with anyone. So why are these partnerships specifically high leverage? Like what is it about them? Let’s really break this down. So when we think about leveraging partnerships with other people who are
also working with our buyer closely or in that same buyer’s moment, we are looking at tapping into an audience that is ready for us versus a new audience — versus someone random or someone who may be meeting that client at a different point on the journey, or they’re not actually working with our ideal clients. So when we think about a new audience, here are some of the phenotypes of that, right? A new audience means
Jessica Miller (04:56.246)
zero trust, means a higher cost to actually educate people. It often means a longer sales cycle, right? These are people out there that don’t know you, don’t know why they should be paying attention to you — never mind why they should be giving you their money. But if we think about an aligned partner and how we can leverage that and why it’s a really important leverage point in our business — why it is a profit lever — again, why is it easier and more profitable to
really capitalize off of that? An aligned partner has a shared audience. They have pre-established trust with this person, and there is faster conversion because of all of that proximity to the client and the moment that you want to be interfacing with this person — already being created with your aligned partner — and then you really coming in right in that place. When someone that I trust introduces me to someone else,
I skip half of the skepticism. It’s like — I always joke — it’s like jumping to the front of the line. It is a path to cut the line because I am associating this person with this other person that I know. Or if someone else tells me that I should work with this other person, the trust also goes up because I trust the person that I’m talking to, right? So it shortens the sales cycle dramatically. And this is really
the next level of existing proximity extended. Because existing proximity, as we talked about in the last episode, are the people in your audience that are closest to you. This is one standard deviation beyond that. It’s taking the people that you know that are not your ideal client but that actually interface with your ideal client, and then tapping into those people through them. And so it is very close, it is very hot, and it is very aligned.
So this begs the question, like what makes a partnership strategic? Like what exactly does that look like for you in your business? So here’s what it’s not. It is not random guest swaps. It’s not like “let’s go live together on Instagram.” It’s not surface-level cross-promotion. Strategic means a couple of very important things. Here are the things that it means. Number one, it means that you are both focusing on the same buyer moment. Number one.
Jessica Miller (07:22.050)
They serve the same ideal client at the same time, but they solve different problems. So here’s an example of what that might look like for many of you who might be listening to this. Maybe you’re a med spa owner and you would strategically align with a functional medicine practitioner. Or you’re a business coach and you strategically align with the CPA who services that same person at that point on their buyer journey. Maybe a fractional CMO and a sales consultant. Or
a wedding venue — somebody who runs a wedding venue — and a photographer. A boutique gym and a nutrition coach. Those are the kinds of strategic partnerships that are aligned around the same buyer moment — meaning this person is looking for help. And at that moment where this person is interfacing with them — like someone who is looking for a wedding venue, a bride and groom that are looking for a wedding venue —
have a problem that they need a venue, but they probably also need a photographer. So that’s an example of that buyer moment. The second thing is that they are complementary and not competitive. I know this sounds like “of course, Jess,” but this is really important. Like how do you complement each other? Meaning how do you solve adjacent problems and maybe not the exact same problem? Again, if we go to the wedding venue — you know, the wedding venue person is not in competition with the photographer.
Like there’s two separate issues for the same person in that moment, but you can both help them. And then they have shared standards. So there’s some alignment in the way that you do work and how you are both doing business. So maybe it’s like you’re both tailored to higher-ticket clients, or you have a similar price point around that. Maybe they’re similar client quality — like you only work with a certain type of person — or similar expectations. Maybe you’re both about like
getting things done quickly or creating results quickly where there is synergy there. There’s some shared standards. So good partnerships really multiply the clarity. They multiply the problems and the value that you give to these clients versus just partnering up with someone who creates a lot of complexity and a lot of noise versus actually making everybody’s life easier and being something that is cumulative and
Jessica Miller (09:45.070)
compounding versus just adding on for the purpose of adding on. So what are some examples of how this would actually play out in real life? And I jotted this down because I wanted you to be able to see how does this look in real play? So I’m just going to use some of the examples I used above like brick and mortar — like a med spa. You know, maybe there’s a med spa
where most of their clients are women in their late 30s and 40s who are already investing in their health and appearance. They want to look their best. They want to feel their best. And that owner — that med spa owner — realizes that many of those best clients are also working with a hormone specialist or a functional medicine doctor. They’re going there for different reasons but trying to solve a similar problem. And that is someone that they’ve never intentionally partnered with. They’ve never intentionally partnered with these providers.
So maybe they were running their business mostly on word of mouth and things like that — which is amazing — but really there’s an opportunity for an intentional referral pathway for this person. In this particular example that I’m giving you, a referral pathway, some sort of relationship and agreement there — even co-hosting events — because again, there’s a singular buyer in a buyer’s moment that has different problems as a result of what it is that they’re looking for
that both of these people could actually serve. So maybe it would be a co-hosted educational event on something like that. Again, when people are pulling from both of their audiences into a similar space, it dramatically increases trust and long-term relationships, which shortens the buyer cycle for these clients, right? So that’s one example. So you’re not like chasing strangers. You’re aligning with someone who already has this exact buyer and they’re also
at the exact readiness moment, right? Someone who is trying to feel better that is going to a functional medicine specialist wants to take care of their body, wants to look and feel their best, also could need the services of the med spa. Another example in more of the service-based consulting coaching space would be like maybe someone that is a coach and they’re helping people scale their revenue or, you know, simplify their offers for example
Jessica Miller (12:02.450)
and they realize that their best clients that they usually work with are also being helped by fractional CFOs or accountants right before they hire them. So they’re in a situation where their client has just gone through their numbers or they’re looking across their books and something is not aligned — like they’re seeing something in their numbers — and they realize that they need help with their business growth, right? They need help with something related to their revenue.
That is an example where you could build intentional partnerships with these financial professionals because there’s that overlapping buying moment. And when you start thinking about these partnerships, those moments start to become really obvious. Like my gosh, if someone is working with my client to help them uncover their numbers and look at this against where their goals are and the revenue that they want to be making and they may not be there, what do they need next? It’s someone to help them with that.
That type of thing — when you strategically partner with people around that — that’s leverage. Because instead of convincing someone that they need help, you’re meeting them right after someone else has surfaced that problem. And that — again — skip the line, right? Go right to the front. That’s really where it’s at with those types of partnerships. So that’s the kind of thing we’re talking about. So you want to activate this without overcomplicating it. You want to make it
really easy. So here are some of the steps you want to think about when you’re trying to find where this is in your world as it relates to your business. So number one, you want to identify some businesses who, as I mentioned earlier, serve the same buyer, they’re at the same readiness level, maybe they have complementary services, okay? Keeping it simple — like who are these businesses that are helping the people that you’re helping? The second step is opening the conversation with them.
You know, talking about the shared insight where you’re seeing that there’s overlap here and how this might be symbiotic for both of you. You know, connecting the dots for people, letting them see what that value exchange is, being in that servant heart where you’re going to be able to provide more value for this customer overall. And it’s actually going to benefit both of you. You know, you’re not pitching them. This is about collaboration, but it’s allowing them to see it in a way that again they can connect the dots super easily.
Jessica Miller (14:22.031)
And then, you know, the third thing is keeping it simple in how it plays out. So maybe you set up a simple referral agreement and you can roll that out super simply. Maybe you’re co-hosting an event, like I said — you’re pulling people into the same place. Maybe there’s a co-created resource that you both can share. Even just sort of a strategic introduction loop — like “let me introduce you to these people and let them understand why I’m introducing you”
and all those pieces that actually work with making that super simple. These partnerships and setting them up for success are really about depth — they’re not about volume. It’s about doing this really well and being very intentional with the way that you architect these things because you don’t need 20 partnerships. You need two really good aligned ones. And for many people listening to this podcast, if you’ve ever been in a situation where someone has easily
connected you with their clients, or you have done this vice versa, it is like a beautiful symphony. It just works like music to your ears — literally — because it’s so smooth, it’s so simple, and it just flows in a way that actually works for everyone. So this is easier, it feels easier, because you’re not — again — you’re not trying to convince strangers. You’re not building cold trust.
You’re speaking into an already warmed-up room. And when things feel easy, it’s often because they are a sign of alignment. And a lot of times we discount this — like yeah, that’s just a one-off thing, or this thing happened and I’m going to kind of forget about it. That ease, it is not “too easy.” The ease is a signal that something is working. And partnerships, when done well, they feel — dare I say — effortless. Like they are calm. It’s like
hand and glove. It’s just so, so good. So I want you to take a pause right now, and if you’re in a place where you can go to the show notes, I have created a tool to help you actually walk through this. If you’re not, just listen along and you can go back and do this later. But I want you to take what we’re talking about here and I want you to go and let the rubber hit the road immediately in these simple next steps that I’m going to talk to you about.
Jessica Miller (16:48.633)
This does not need to be hard. It does not need to take a long time. Every single person listening to this knows somebody else who is in their proximity — the strategic proximity. So this is something you can do today. And I am not overreaching when I say I have seen people sign deals, make crazy money in their business — like two minutes after doing this. You could have a new client by next week because again,
when we think about strategic partnership, we are thinking about you being connected to the person who is looking for you, right? It’s the client who is already ready to buy, who just doesn’t know how to trust or hasn’t found you yet. But when someone they love introduces you or someone they love brings you in in the moment where they’ve been looking for you or need you — guess what happens? It’s a love fest. So that’s what we’re talking about. So go to the show notes, download the worksheet.
And here’s what I want you to ask yourself. If you had to identify three businesses that already serve your ideal client, who would they be? Who would they be? And if you had to build one intentional relationship before the end of this quarter — right, just one — who is the highest leverage? And I want you to really think about this because this is your next move.
You don’t have to overthink it. It doesn’t have to be that hard. Give yourself a few minutes, sit down and think about it. And for some of you, the answer is just going to come right up there. So don’t overthink it. It doesn’t have to be hard. Like who are a handful of people that this could be — the strategic partnership could be? And if you needed to just pick one, who would be the highest leverage? And that’s the one that you want to be leaning in on. So,
in the worksheet, it’s going to walk you through those steps. It’s going to help you tease out what problem do these people solve that comes before or after yours? Why are they a good strategic partner? How would an introduction from them decrease the friction and reduce the skepticism that your clients might have and vice versa? And what’s one simple way that you can connect with them? Is it like scheduling a 10-minute Zoom call? Is it inviting them for coffee?
Jessica Miller (19:14.446)
You know, what is it? And then what are some of the things you can do together? Like is it a simple co-hosted webinar? Is it something that you have that could benefit, again, your ideal customer in their audience that they could share — again, like a shared resource, something like that that is super simple? And then really declaring, like in the next 30 days, what is one partnership you’re going to prioritize? Again, like what is the one thing
(which by the way, if you haven’t read that book, it’s so good). But you know — what’s the one partnership you’re going to prioritize? Because again, this is one of the most overlooked levers in your business. You don’t have to spend tons of time creating your own audience and pushing the boulder uphill. You can borrow somebody else’s audience that is strategically aligned with your buyer in the buyer’s moment.
So you’re borrowing that trust, you’re skipping the line, you’re helping this person in a more powerful way, and it’s also helping your partner. Because for example, if we go back to like the coach and the CFO — you know, if the CFO or the accountant is helping their client who is struggling with their cash flow, and you come in and you give them a plan as a coach to generate revenue —
guess whose life gets easier? The CFO’s, right? So this is how it works too. Everybody wins — it’s a win-win-win. And it just becomes a huge ripple effect. So in summary, we want to make sure that we are looking at the strategic partnerships from the perspective of profit levers. It is easier to partner — and more powerful — to partner with someone who is helping your ideal client in the moment they are looking for you.
And sometimes that person doesn’t necessarily know they’re looking for you in that moment until your partner interfaces with them, which makes them a great partner because they’re uncovering the next problem that this person has that requires your help. So recapping what we’ve talked about so far — in lever number one, it was the buyer’s moment, right? Your ideal client is in a buying moment — it’s the time where that person is looking for you. Number two is about your offer.
Jessica Miller (21:37.002)
Your offer is a powerful lever in your business to generate cash in a very easy way. The third lever was about existing proximity — the people that are closest to you and warmest are the most likely to convert — and leaning in and helping those people first as a lever in your business is easier and more powerful than trying to run after cold traffic. And then today was about expanding that proximity strategically and really leaning into these strategic partners. So,
make sure that you go and download this worksheet if you haven’t done it already. And you walk through this exercise because your homework is to go and identify those people, identify the simple way you can partner with them, and pick one person to go all in. Next, we’re going to talk about how to communicate all of this clearly. Because when we think of messaging, we think of it as a broadcast. But in the vein of levers and doing things
more powerfully — it is not about broadcasting. Messaging as a profit lever is actually about signaling. It’s about signaling to the right people and the right partners — as we talked about today — that you’re the obvious choice, that you are the obvious choice, that these people are looking for you and you are sending the signal to them to pull them in. And you are speaking to that person in that moment that is the right
person for you. And that kind of leverage is higher ROI. It’s easy, and it will make you a lot of money and bring a lot of joy into your business — your clients’ business — all day long. And that’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what we want. So if you missed any of those earlier levers, go back and listen. They stack, and you do not want to miss them. So I’m cheering you all on, as always. Please, if you want to send in your worksheet as you fill it out, we want to hear from you. So go to the
email support at jessicamillercoaching.com. Send us in what you have. We want to see it. And we read these things on the air, and we’re looking for someone to invite on to talk about their business and help them uncover their levers in their business as a result of the work that they’re doing with these worksheets. So don’t just do it — share it. We want to hear from you. Until next week, everyone have a beautiful, beautiful week.
