Welcome back Founders,
In this week’s edition we’ll break down how Jon Farah, founder of pblc, built his business from zero to $12k/mo by building strategic partnerships.
Read on to learn more about his approach to partnership building, and exactly how he fostered and nurtured these relationships to land his first clients and reach his revenue goals.
Without case studies or testimonials, Jon leveraged partnerships with other agencies to build a referral network and drive early growth.
Using LinkedIn for outreach, consistent follow up and communication, and a compelling referral incentive, he scaled his revenue from $1k/month to a peak of $12k/month within 16 months.
Jon started his consultancy, pblc, with a strong background in lifecycle marketing automation.
Working with big-name agencies and big-name clients gave him a strong background in driving results for top companies across a variety of industries, but it didn’t afford him his own case studies, social proof, and client base.
In building his consultancy, he was starting from scratch.
To overcome this challenge, he aimed to build relationships with complementary agencies, like those who offered paid ads, SEO, and conversion rate optimization.
These agencies served the same client base, but were not competitors. This way, Jon’s service offering could add value to their clients and even present a more complete solution when bundled together.
Besides demonstrating his value to potential partners, he offered an incentive where partners could earn additional revenue by bringing him on to projects or by referring him business outright.
LinkedIn proved to be the best platform for connecting with agency owners.
Instead of pitching services outright, he started conversations by asking simple questions to avoid the “hard sell” and build rapport. This approach led to natural introductions and opportunities for collaboration.
It’s important to note that this outreach was not automated.
He used LinkedIn search to find his prospects in the beginning, providing a free way to create a list of prospects in his target audience.
Eventually, even more hyper-targeted lists can be created by LinkedIn Sales Navigator or tools like Apollo or Listkit, as they offer more advanced filters and background information on prospects.
But as we can see here, nothing beats doing a little bit of manual research and leading with some background knowledge in your outreach.
After establishing initial connections, Jon added all referral contacts to a list and reached out bi-weekly.
Each follow up conversation provided value, whether through relevant industry updates or insightful discussion topics.
This approach kept him top of mind and reinforced the relationship over time.
To encourage referrals, he offered a 12% referral fee for the lifetime of any deal brought in. This substantial incentive motivated partners to actively refer clients.
Without a strong offer, it’s nearly impossible to build an active referral network with new connections.
By offering a very solid revenue opportunity to potential partners, he gave them a compelling reason to work his offering into their deals.
The strategy worked fantastically.
Jon built a robust network of agency partners who introduced them to clients, resulting in revenue growth from $1k per month to a peak month of $12k in 16 months.
These partnerships not only brought in more business but also gave him the opportunity to create case studies and use the success of these new projects to build authority and secure even more clients.
1) Build strong partnerships from day one. This is an evergreen strategy that works with any business type, customer base, or industry.
2) Value driven outreach to targeted profiles fosters genuine connections and opens the door to strategic partnerships.
3) Offer a strong incentive. Give partners a reason to keep your offer in mind when talking to their clients, customers, or users.
Starting a business without proof of past success is challenging.
However, by partnering with others who serve the customers but do not overlap with your offering, you can create stronger value together, drive more revenue for your business, and establish more authority in your space.
If you’d like to follow Jon on his journey, and learn more about best practices across marketing automation, B2B SaaS, and consultancy life follow him on LinkedIn!
Or check out his consultancy, pblc.
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