Partnerships are my ‘go to’ resource to accomplish anything. Want exposure for one of your clients? Media partnerships. Want to get more leads to an event? Affiliate partnerships.  Overseas expansion? International partnerships. And so on.

Over the years, I’ve failed way more than I’ve succeeded in trying to create ‘win/win’ relationships with strategic business partnerships. I can always look back at an error I’ve made in one of the following five steps. Hopefully this can help you win more success with partnerships:

1. Take The Pressure Off (Kiss Lots Of Frogs)

Nothing sets a deal up for failure faster than when you really really need the deal to work. Funnily enough, others rarely share your sense of urgency. If you feel yourself having any sense of desperation for a deal to work out, it is time to start phoning round other partners. Most deals will not deliver exactly what you hope for; therefore, take the pressure off any one deal by having multiple fall backs.

2. Think Big. Have A Vision. Bake A Deal Pie

In almost every deal I have ever done, there was always something else we could have brought in as a negotiation tool or just as a way of working more effectively together. Don’t be afraid to have fun with your partners. Imagine multiple ways you could work together. What would happen if you added a third partner or a fourth? What if you added more products or even created a separate business to maximise this opportunity?

3. Think Small. Baby Steps

Big thinking is great, but always set up something small that you can start doing right now, today, to get something started. It doesn’t matter how small it is: a tweet announcing we’re planning to work together, a timeline of actions, a date for launch. Just get something nailed down. If you can’t move forward with anything on the first meeting, then it is likely an indicator of how this partnership will turn out.

4. Treasure Map Matrix

Picture a 2 x 2 matrix with ‘High Value and Easy to Implement’ in one corner and ‘Low Value and Hard to Execute’ in another. You want to have a basket of ‘easy to implement’ partnership options that you can pull out at any conversation, that can move things forward. Do you have a free gift that you can make available? Some research you can share? A database you’re happy to promote for them? Making it super-easy for people to work with you is the key to building long-term relationships and moving up the ‘value ladder’ to the game-changing deals.

5. Over Deliver/Over Communicate

Make a point of over delivering in every partnership. The only way you can do that is to really understand how you create value for them. Once you have that down, you will consistently have your pick of people to partner with on whatever you need, because you have set up an expectation. Whether you’re over delivering or under delivering, ensure that you are communicating more than you think is necessary. The most common mistake is when stuff stops working like you hoped it would, and so you go into hiding. Don’t be that person.

Strategic partnerships are, to my mind, the fastest way to achieve anything in business. Like anything, they need practice, attention to detail and a healthy dose of humility to consider others’ needs first. However, with these five steps you can hopefully avoid many of the common mistakes.