Winning Together: Adrian Sasine Of Nolodex On How Strategic Partnerships Can Unlock New Sales Opportunities
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
It starts with good communication and transparent goals. Then, you need to onboard a partner even more than you would a customer. They need to learn about the company, the customer and the brand. And that training is ongoing as you both learn and as goals shift.
Strategic partnerships have the potential to unlock growth and create new opportunities in ways that businesses can’t achieve alone. To explore this important topic, we had the pleasure of interviewing Adrian Sasine.
Adrian Sasine is the Cofounder and CEO of Nolodex, a market network driving a transformative shift by placing community at the heart of business development. A seasoned entrepreneur with a background in marketing, Adrian has successfully built, scaled, and exited multiple businesses. Prior to Nolodex, he held leadership roles at a Fortune 500 company, where he honed his expertise in strategic growth and relationship-driven sales. Throughout his career, Adrian has leveraged the power of networking and partnerships to fuel business success, fostering innovation and meaningful connections in every venture he undertakes.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I’ve been in really big companies and really small companies. I’ve managed big teams and just worked for myself. I’ve been in entrepreneurial environments and very regulated hierarchical ones. And most importantly I learned from all of them. I truly believe as long as you have a growth oriented mentality then there is no wrong path. Not until my early 40’s did I realize the wealth of what I learned along the way and I’m proud to say I’m finally in a position to use it all. If I could leave one thing with the younger generation it’s that there is no “one” path. Keep pushing, keep learning, keep growing and great things are ahead. If you are proud of your growth then you are “successful.”
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began working with partnerships or collaborations?
Partnerships are like a marriage. They aren’t going to be perfect all the time. You will have times you agree and times you don’t. Sometimes when you don’t you will resolve it and sometimes you won’t. So, you should have a good contract, a.k.a business prenup, in place for when things sour. In my last business I had several partners that ended up starting their own businesses after I taught them the ropes. I thought things were great and they wanted to go off on their own. It stung a little but I realized you can’t control everyone and it’s best to just move on.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
A good leader no matter what level has to balance their focus on short term needs and long term goals.
Process — you have to have a plan. It’s your guide.
Learn — you have to learn from your mistakes and be open to learn from others. Everyone makes mistakes, just make them fast, learn from them and move on. One of my favorite quotes is “it’s ok to fail, just fail forward.”
Action — better to make lots of decisions and fail at them than spend too much time overthinking one big decision.
Let’s now jump to the focus of our interview. What does a “strategic partnership” mean to you, and why do you think it’s such an essential part of sales growth today?
Let’s start by looking at the two words independently. Strategic is a long term vantage point to achieve goals and partnerships is the collaborative relationship to achieve mutual objectives. Together they encompass the best ROI of any marketing tactic. As the adage goes, “one plus one equals three” — The sum of each party is greater than their individual parts. In a strategic partnership you can leverage the strengths of each other to increase top of funnel lead flow and overall conversion rates since these warm introductions close better.
How do you go about identifying potential partners that align with your business goals? Are there specific qualities or traits you look for in a partnership?
We’ve all had those partners that show up and sound awesome but end up flaking and doing nothing. The only way to circumvent that is go slow. Build the relationship, outline the expectations and create incentives that support everyone. Even then, some people are just looking for the easy sale and move on if it doesn’t happen. It’s not just about “talking the talk, a good partner has to walk the walk.” Make them prove themselves before you put any real effort or resources into it. If you see they are really bought in, then give them what they need to succeed.
What steps do you take to build trust and ensure that a partnership will be mutually beneficial for both sides?
It starts with good communication and transparent goals. Then, you need to onboard a partner even more than you would a customer. They need to learn about the company, the customer and the brand. And that training is ongoing as you both learn and as goals shift.
Can you share a specific example of a strategic partnership you were involved in? How did it come about, and what impact did it have on your business?
Partnerships come in all shapes in sizes. Some are sales oriented and others are vendor partnerships. One of my companies hired a lot of people in the Philippines. What started as just using a vendor to help vet, hire and monitor those employees became more of a strategic partnership. Our future success weighed heavily on the effectiveness of our working together and we shared a common goal of long term success.
What role does communication play in maintaining a strong, long-lasting partnership? Are there particular practices or tools you use to keep everyone aligned and engaged?
I would venture to say it’s not a role; it’s the role. As I mentioned earlier it takes ongoing, clear and transparent communication. Relationships aren’t static, they continue to evolve and if you don’t take growth mentality to your partners you will have trouble. You need clear goals and expectations. Good data for measurement. Excellent onboarding and continued learning.
Let’s now focus on actionable strategies. Based on your experience, can you share “5 Steps to Create Strategic Partnerships That Drive Sales Growth”? If you can, please share examples or stories for each.
1. Build the relationship first.
2. Set clear expectations.
3. Use good data to analyze progress.
4. Treat them as part of the team. They must continue to learn and evolve as the company does.
5. Share the wins!
What advice would you give to smaller companies or startups that may not have the resources or networks of larger businesses but want to start building strategic partnerships?
That’s the great thing about partnerships is you don’t need to be a big company or need to have a huge budget. You just have to build the incentives so they align with your partner. I used to own a promotional product company and we split profit 50/50 with our partners. You don’t want all your business from that channel because the profitability is lower but if you can have a partner out selling on your behalf, why not take advantage of it. I didn’t need to pay a salesperson and the added revenue allowed us to negotiate better terms with suppliers. I run a networking group now doing the exact same thing. Every group owner earns exactly what we earn. They are in the field and we are behind the scenes and it works great.
How do you handle challenges or conflicts that may arise in a partnership to ensure that the relationship stays strong and productive?
A good legal document is a requirement. Things can get messy if you don’t think through the details in the beginning like who actually owns the data, the customers, etc. Partnerships are obviously super impactful but you can’t ever let their power outweigh yours. This is especially true for revenue generation, if you are working with a partner for sales, you can’t let that be your dominant channel.
Can you share a surprising or unexpected lesson you learned from a past partnership?
It took me years to realize that a true partnership is organic. No different than a personal relationship, things will change for both parties and it’s important to stay aligned. That takes constant feedback and open communication. Anyone who thinks they can sign a partner up and just let them run on their own will be sadly mistaken. It takes a lot of work to ensure they continue to reinforce your brand standards and company culture.
What trends or changes are you seeing in how businesses approach strategic partnerships, and how do you think this will evolve in the coming years?
Referrals and partnerships have been around forever. It’s probably the oldest marketing tactic known to man. In the last couple years, we’ve seen technology insert itself into that process and now we are obviously seeing AI do the same. In my opinion, AI will never totally replace people because at the end of the day people want to work with people.
In your opinion, how do strategic partnerships impact not just sales, but a company’s reputation, relationships, and long-term growth?
It comes from the top. Companies that are big on partnerships tend to have a WE not ME philosophy. Of course, they always put their revenue and profit first, but a partnership mentality thinks about the vendors, customers and employees as one cohesive system. You have to be careful though, your partners are an extension of your brand. If they do something wrong it will reflect poorly on you.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would inspire more companies to embrace collaboration and partnerships, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think I’m already doing it at Nolodex. Our goal is to create a world where people are helping other people more often. We live in a world where a select few people are always looking to help others. On the other end, there is another group of people who will never do it, and we won’t be able to change their behavior. But there is a huge group in the middle that through intentionality we can shift positively. We believe that monetization will create that intentionality.
How can our readers further follow you online?
I’m pretty active on LinkedIn and people are welcome to reach out to me at Nolodex.
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur and Thought Leader with over 25 years of business experience. He has founded, operated, and exited multiple companies and now builds into a handful of high impact CEOs. Chad has launched multiple online communities, including a recent leadership development platform, and also serves as a strategic advisor for Authority Magazine’s thought-leader incubator program. To learn more and connect with Chad visit: chadsilverstein.io
Winning Together: Adrian Sasine Of Nolodex On How Strategic Partnerships Can Unlock New Sales… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.