The best strategic partnerships I’ve built started before there was a deal to chase.
I learned that in my 20s, selling on 100% commission for build-to-print companies. I needed deals, so my mentor’s advice didn’t make much sense to me at first.
“Call the CEO. Introduce yourself. Learn about their business. Use your network to help solve their problems.” Then he added the important part: Don’t do it for the sale.
I needed business. Why spend time helping someone if there wasn’t an opportunity?
His point was simple: Do the work first. Build the relationship. Be useful. Business may come later. Sometimes it won’t.
So I started cold-calling CEOs and walking into offices without a product pitch. I asked about their businesses. If I knew someone who could help, I made an introduction. If they had a problem I understood, I tried to help solve it.
It wasn’t the most efficient way to sell. But it became one of the most important lessons of my career.
Relationships Before Transactions
Most people start networking when they need something, a customer, introduction, or job or opportunity. That can make the relationship transactional from the start.
I learned to approach it differently. If I can make a useful introduction, share information that helps someone make a decision or help solve a problem, I do it. There doesn’t have to be an immediate commercial opportunity attached. Over time, people learn what you know and what you can do. More importantly, they learn whether you do what you say you’re going to do.
That kind of credibility isn’t built through a presentation, LinkedIn profile or sales pitch. It comes from experience with you.
How It Shaped My Career
I still use the same approach in business development, strategic partnerships and acquisitions.
There is always pressure to produce results. You need a pipeline, targets and accountability. I’ve spent most of my career being measured against those things. But I’ve also learned not to force every relationship into the pipeline.
Some of my best partnerships started without a commercial discussion. I’ve done research without being asked, made introductions unrelated to what I was selling and answered technical questions simply because I had the experience to help.
Some eventually created business while others didn’t.
That doesn’t mean relationship-building replaces sales discipline. It means recognizing that not every conversation needs to become an opportunity.
That distinction matters, particularly in industries like lighting, electronics and manufacturing, where relationships can span years and involve engineering, technology, distribution and multiple companies before an opportunity takes shape.
Building Better Strategic Partnerships
Companies often approach partnerships by starting with what they want to sell.
I prefer to start with the other company’s problem.
They may need access to a market, manufacturing capabilities, engineering expertise, technology, distribution or relationships they don’t have internally.
Understanding that first changes the conversation.
The best partnerships happen when each company brings something the other needs. But getting to that point requires enough trust to have an open conversation about the real problem.
Often, that trust was built long before anyone started talking about a deal.
What My Mentor Got Right
When I started my consulting practice in 2007, I began seeing the long-term impact of the advice I’d received years earlier.
Many of the most meaningful opportunities in my career have come through people who knew me, understood what I could do and thought of me when a business problem or opportunity emerged.
That network wasn’t built when I suddenly needed something from it. It developed over years of conversations, introductions, projects and problems solved.
That’s still how I operate. I don’t believe relationships should be treated as a sales tactic. People eventually figure out when they are.
Be useful. Do what you say you’ll do. Make the introduction when it can help. Solve the problem when you can. Stay connected when there’s nothing to sell.
My mentor was right.
The sale is not the point. The relationship is.
When the relationship and opportunity make sense, the business follows.