In the past 100 days, the , a blockchain-for-finance think tank, closed over 100 industry partnerships. Security Token Alliance : The Alliance is run by I, , a 19-Year-Old dropout out of Japan, a country where he does not speak the language. Disclosure Frederik Bussler In this article, we intend to bust the many myths around the difficulty of forming strategic partnerships. People are so often impressed by logos on a landing page and business deals that they forget that any partnership can be forged with a few simple steps. Here, we lay out those steps with what is known as the BUSSLER method — Bond, Unify, Sign, Serve, Lead, Empathize, Repeat. 1. Bond The first step to forming a B2B partnership is to with your potential partner. So many people get caught up in “your business” and “my business” thinking. Next level thinking is “you” and “me” — the actual people behind those phone calls and emails. bond Drop the jargon, drop the filler, and drop the formalities. Connect human-to-human instead of seeking out a signed contract, and your future partnership will be much better off for it. 2. Unify The next steps is to your business goals. Lay out the business needs and goals of your potential partner, and your own, and find points of intersection. Ask these kinds of questions: Where can you help them? Where can they help you? What weaknesses do you have that they are strong in? What weaknesses do they have that you are strong in? unify Once you map out this alignment, you’re ready to take the partnership forward. 3. Sign The next step is simple, but it’s not the last by a long shot — an agreement. This can be done with a simple Memorandum of Understanding. It’s not a legally binding contract, but more of a written handshake. It’s also a bit of a token of effort, where you’re asking your future partner to do a tiny amount of work, just to show that they’re interested. sign 4. Serve This is when your partnership starts — you their needs. Ask not what they can do for you, but ask what you can do for them. By giving before taking, you automatically win. In this step you generate surplus value in the partnership, and by the power of reciprocity, you’ll probably get something back down the line (but don’t expect it). really serve 5. Lead As you continue to serve your partner, remember to take the burden of responsibility in the partnership upon yourself. As you see more and more opportunities to collaborate, and take them. lead Successful partnerships are not a time to sit back or to follow. In order to create a powerful alliance, you need to lead the way. 6. Empathize Remember that nothing lasts and everything is constantly changing, so with these realities and the realities of your partner. empathize It may occur that your partner no longer has the resources to maintain the partnership. In that case, find ways to either reduce or shift the load, or smoothly cut the partnership. It occur that your partner’s needs change somewhere down the line, which is why it’s important to continuously seek feedback and question their needs, to improve your relations. will 7. Repeat Now you’ve created tight, lasting partnerships. And if you can do it once, you can do it many times. this process with as many partners as you need. As a think tank, we intend to create a massive, global network, so we repeated this process 100 times in 100 days. Repeat
