Become the Hub Firm of a Power Team

Working in a power team of complementary businesses, all able to refer their clients to each other, is a powerful way to generate business referrals. Becoming a hub firm within such a team takes the concept one stage further and creates a powerful competitive advantage. Imagine the spokes of a wheel with one business—your own—at the centre surrounded by other businesses with strong, collaborative relationships.

Adopting a hub firm approach, the business in the centre is the organiser of the inter-related parties or power team. With yourself at the centre of a group of independent businesses, you can put together flexible teams and collaborative approaches, as needed for each project, and serve your clients in ways you cannot possibly do on your own. This flexibility and the extra resources at your disposal give you—the hub firm—a significant competitive jump over the competition.

To become a successful hub, you must base the selection of your power team on the quality of your relationships with them. You have to have a high level of trust, because you will be calling on their services to help your clients. If they fail to deliver, it rebounds directly on you and will sour your relationship with your client. But choose your power team well, and it can only enhance your client relationship.

For example, I want to work more with my preferred kind of client, biotech startup companies. Besides strategy, these companies need a host of other advisors and services: accountants, lawyers, patent attorneys, regulatory and other experts, IT services, HR, recruitment, marketing, web design, etc. If I have worked with a client to help them raise the funds to get started, these are the people they are going to spend those funds with. With a power team with all these skills, I make myself a most valuable resource for my client and I am in a position to make referrals, or joint proposals, for a lot of the “stuff” that has to happen to make the client a success.

Action this week! Design a power team with yourself as the hub. Identify projects or clients you could serve better with a power team strategy. Which businesses would you involve? Who do you know in those businesses? How well do you know them? If you know them well enough, start talking with them about possible collaboration.

This article is similar to an educational talk I gave at a BNI Premier networking breakfast. It is based on material in The 29% Solution by Ivan Misner.