How Long Do Partnerships Take? The Real Timeline for Launch Success

How long does it really take to build partnerships that actually convert? In this episode, we break down the real timeline behind effective, relationship-driven partnerships and why rushing the process often leads to missed opportunities.

We dive into what it takes to build trust, align with the right partners, and plan for successful launches. From understanding why three to six months is the ideal window for partnership outreach to avoiding common mistakes like last-minute promotions or misaligned collaborations, this conversation gives you a clear, realistic perspective on what works.

We also share insights on how different partnership goals can impact timing, how to navigate busy launch seasons, and why intentional relationship-building is the key to long-term growth. If you want stronger collaborations, better results, and a more strategic approach to partnerships, this episode will help you plan with confidence.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Partnerships on Purpose. Uh, we are super excited today because we have some fun topics to go over. We get questions all of the time about this amazing topic. But for now, Anne-Marie, how is your day?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

My day is fabulous. I'm having such a great day. No, honestly, the sun the no, you know what? Honestly, I'm being honest. The sunshine is out. I think we're officially in spring, so I'm super excited.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Okay, yes. Well, for the Canadians out there, if you have sunshine and it's spring, it can't get much better than that. Well, same around here. I, you know, it's interesting. Uh, this is funny. I ask about the weather all the time, and it is such an easy way to get people to chat and to talk. We do this when we have calls with people, right? We are like, yeah, where are you from? What's the weather? It sounds so simple, but it's really easy to get people to be like, oh yeah, it's sunny or no, it's raining. I was, I figured out how many thunderstorms there were in California a couple years ago because I was having calls with people in California. They're like, it's it's thundering out here. Like, like they didn't have it in that area. It was hilarious, absolutely hilarious. Yeah. I get my people that have calls. Yeah, yeah. Conversation starters all the time. Anyway, well, spring is here for sure. And um, in that little uh vein, I guess, is like creating relationships and talking about relationships, and um the topic that we have for today is kind of fun, and it's something that comes up in almost all of our discussions along the way. Um, when we have members that come into the community, um, when we have worked with people one-on-one in the past, they always ask us, how long is this gonna take? How long is it gonna take? Now, I get it, right? We're all business owners, we need the ROI off of what we're doing. I get it. And at the end of the day, we're about creating relationships, right? Relationship-driven marketing. You'll hear us say it all of the time. And nobody wants a relationship that's hustled and bustled and like really, really super fast. And it does take time. So we're gonna talk about today how long does a partnership relationship take for people to start promoting you? Or how long should you start looking, or how far away from your event or your launch or your promotion? Like, how much time do you need to give yourself to be able to um have really good relationships convert into really amazing partners? So um just kind of opening up the stage there and thinking about it. Anything you would add, Henry?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Um, I think there's I think as you were saying that, I was just about to write some notes. I think the time could vary depending on what your goal is. And I think if we talk through what some of those different partnership goals are, um, you know, some of them could be, hey, it's a week or three months or six months, right? So it really depends on that. Um, so as we kind of unfold and talk more in this episode, let's kind of just dig deep into that because I think um it'll be interesting to see because I've had some conversations this week and I met somebody recently who I felt I've known all my life, and so many things have happened between me and her in the past two weeks. It's unbelievable. So I just think, yeah. So I think I just I want to share the different examples, but you're absolutely right. Like we we go through this all the time. So whether we're bringing on a new clientslash partner, um, that takes a lot more time, right? It depends on what your goal is, but I think it's really important to hang in there.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Yeah. So let's set a couple scenarios up. Stuff that we see all of the time. Now we work primarily with entrepreneurs who are working online. They want to use partnerships as a way to increase their visibility in their business, just to make sure we're all on the same page. Um, if you don't know us and you haven't heard about partnerships on purpose before, our first episode does give you kind of an outline of what that looks like, how we think about partnerships and how that might differ from whatever history you're coming in with today. So just take a look there. But what we're talking about is entrepreneurs who create a launch, right? They put a date on the calendar, they've got a course they're launching, they've got a membership they're launching, they have a book that they're launching, they have a summit that they're launching, they have a bazillion different things that happen. And what happens is they put that date on the calendar and they start to create and they start to build and they start to plan and they start to, you know, network a little bit. And what happens naturally is it gets closer and closer and closer, and they're like, yes, and we should have people promoting this for us. We should have our partners who are promoting this for us. And what we see happen over and over and over again is they wait too late, and they only give themselves maybe a couple weeks, and they're like, I'm gonna go find 20 partners and they're gonna promote me and it's gonna be amazing. Um, and what they've done is they've shortened their window to create really intentional relationships because that's what we're doing with partners. We're asking them to give us their biggest commodity. We're asking them to promote our work to their community, to their list, to their email, to whatever it is, and we're asking for that grace back to us, and we can't rush it. And so we've seen it over and over again. So, first thing is plan far enough ahead. Now, Ann Ray, I don't know if you have some ideas about how far out people should plan, because I know you've talked about this so many different times, and um, maybe we can just kind of open it up. Like, what's the suggestion? What, how long does it take to get a partnership deal up and running and somebody to promote your launch?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yeah, very good question. I am going to say for this specific example, you need a minimum of three to six months. And the reason I say that is because people book out their promotional calendar. If I look at our promotional calendar, if I look at some of our clients' promotional calendar, I am right now full until the month of July. And I have been full, like we have been full for the you know, for at least three to six months out. So I think it's important when you're planning an event, a launch, whatever the case may be, um, that you allow, give yourself the time um to number one, get on calls with people. And people make the assumptions that if you reach out to somebody, you're gonna get on a call with them tomorrow. Most of the people are booked. They're booked like a week, two weeks out. Um, so it takes time for you know, for someone to find, okay, when does this work in my class? So you have to get on a call with them. When you're getting on a call with them, hopefully you're getting all the details done in that one call. Doesn't always happen. Um, it does if you work with us, but anyways, that's a whole other we have a plan. Don't worry, come over. Um but if if you don't get it all done in that call, then it requires some email back and forth or it requires another call. So you're already, if you think about it, you're already three, four weeks in to that, you know, um time. Relationship building. The relationship building, right? Um, and that's on the assumption that you already have a relationship with that person, right? Because if you don't, it's gonna take a little bit more time at the beginning for you to build that relationship, build that no like trust factor, build, you know what I mean? So um right now, like if you if you look at that, we're already into a month. Then you're saying, okay, well, let's open up our calendars. Um, most of the time when people partner for the first time, they like to promote each other at the same time. There'll be like, you know, hey, you promote me in May, I'll promote you, and then let's get back on a debrief call and let's talk about what did this look like? Was it a success? What do we want to do? Where do we take the relationship or partnership from here? Right. So there's also that. Um, you know, you want to do that. You don't want to say to somebody, hey, promote me in May, and you know, I'll promote you in December, right? Because you'll lose the momentum there. So um, to answer your question, three to six months is what I would suggest for something like this.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Yeah, absolutely. I I love that timeline. Um, I think that if you are a person, and we're talking about launches specifically because it has a like a timeline, a definite timeline. We can talk a little bit about evergreen things, I think. That's important too. But three to six months allows you to develop really good strategic partnerships. Not everybody's going to be able to promote your work. Um, you might get on 50 calls to get 20 good partners. Now we're a huge proponent of partnerships. Just like that's why we're here. Partnerships on purpose. And that allows you, if you get 20 partners, that allows you maybe to get 20,000 visibility, right? So if you think about it, if people have communities and they've been nurturing, like it's worth getting on those calls. I don't want to say you don't get on those calls. You just have to plan long enough to have those calls and know you're working around all these different schedules. People have their own businesses, they've got their own um families that are happening. Anne Marie and I see all the time, like June, July, things start to get wonky. December, terrible time to try and get on like do it in December.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Don't you just January?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

You'll see us, you'll know because we do this July and December. We do almost nothing. Our whole, like that's just the ebb and flow of a lot of our businesses that we work with, and that's cool. We like that. We're a 10-month company. Not to say we don't work, but there's a lot going on. So give yourself plenty of time. Look and see what's happening in just the ebb and flow of uh the year, and know, like there are certain seasons where people do a lot of launches too. This is something else we need to talk about. Um, so I was let me we're on the same page. Let me close this up. So three to six months is a really healthy time. Give yourself plenty of time. If you're planning a launch, put a date on the calendar six months before that. And that's when you really need to start having conversations, start developing relationships, asking pure people. This is one thing we talk about all the time. You have to know what you're asking for. So when you get on those calls and you're developing conversations, know what you're asking for, know when your launch dates are. So huge thing. Okay, you want to open up that whole can of worms?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

I just no, absolutely. And the thing is, is you know, when you're deciding to do a launch, do your research. Um, you know, a lot of people will come to me and say, hey, I have a launch in March. September, September, no, September, October. October is more of the month. So March, I think it's March, June, and October, I believe. Um, do your research. You do not want to be doing launches during those times. And the thing is, is that a lot of the major players in the online business world are doing launches during that time. So a lot of people will support and promote those people because it's an opportunity for them to get some really great commissions, affiliate commissions. So people are all in during those periods. So it's going to be a lot more difficult for you to find partners to promote you during those times. So we always encourage our um clients to say, if you want to do something, let's look outside of those common typical months. So that way we're sure that we can get some partners to support us. So very, very, very important. Do your homework. The other thing I want to say, because we're talking about dates and timing, is if possible, try and plan out your year in advance. And when I say plan your year, don't wait till December. If you can start planning for the following year in October, like I'm gonna have two launches, and my the timing of my two launches is then start having your conversations in October because people are already filling their calendars in October for the next year, right? So that is really, really important. Um, and you don't you won't know it until you actually get on calls with people and say, hey, do you have, you know, can you promote me on the no, unfortunately not. And people will do that in December. They'll book calls and they're like, hey, I have a launch in March. Can you no, no, no, unfortunately not. So um it's really important to look at that.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Yep. And we work in the online space. We work with um experts, coaches, consultants, speakers, authors. So this is where our experience is coming from. If you are outside of that niche, um, take a look at your own typical launch. You know, I know health and wellness people, their huge month is January, right? People are pushing that. So just think about when does it work best for your niche? For us, it is. It's March, it's October. People are usually launching at that time. Wellness might be January. So just know it's true no matter what, there's going to be a busy time. I it just is that way. I know teachers, and I used to work in uh kid blogger space. August was huge, massive. Everybody's going back to school, it's big, they're doing back to school sales, all of these types of things. So um August, September was just a huge launch month there. And then the summer was really dead. So um just think about it wherever it is. And and what we're talking about more than anything is this is you do a launch plan, right? You're gonna put something on the calendar. This is that secondary layer that goes on top to think about how are you gonna get those leads and how are you gonna make that launch successful. And we have seen it over and over and over again that partnership promotions can make the difference. We had a client, they had 20% of their partners promoting. They started, you know, we helped them out, we put in some systems, we we talked to them a little bit about what they were doing, we tweaked some things with them, then they were getting 90% of their partners promoting. That's huge. It's huge for your business. It's all the way around, it's all about planning, planning and thinking ahead and not waiting until the last minute because you'll you'll get in this feast famine thing. Um, and it's the same with your partnership stuff, and it's just not something, it's not necessary, friends. Like, no, just plan ahead um and think about a little bit more to Anne-Marie's point. Like, what is happening 12 months from now? Things could shift, things can change, it's fine. But if you put something on, now you can have good conversations with people and you can find that support throughout.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

And it doesn't mean that the partnership will take three to six months. You can do other things with that person, you can build and nurture that partnership. Um, you know, and an example of that is it could be hey, you're promoting my launch in three to six months, but hey, why don't you come on my podcast next month? Right. There's some easy ways to um collaborate with people. So I think it's just, and what's really great about that is you're starting to build the relationship, you're starting to build that trust with the person, right? Um, and you're just building that momentum. So I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Yeah, absolutely. And to your point, like things can go faster and you can have different types of conversations. This is something um you and I are discussing before. Like, yes, three to six months if you you have a bunch of partners and you're working on a launch, but if you're uh dedicated to investing time and really putting together the details of what um supporting each other's businesses look like, you can do it in a couple weeks for sure. Um, I have an example. We have an amazing partner of ours. Uh they're they're definitely within our uh JB network. She's been wonderful. She's one of our referral partners. We send people to her all the time. Um, we wanted to create how we were working together. She and I were getting on calls. I think it was a couple times a week for two or three weeks. We invested the time up front to make sure we were both comfortable. We were talking about the details, we were discussing commissions. We like it, it took it time. It's still the investment of time. We just chose to front load it in two or three weeks. And now we have that entire partnership um outlined in how we work together. And they're a pivotal part of our business because they do things um that we don't do, and and I absolutely love it. So just know that if you're moving along in your launch process and you haven't thought about the timing that's in there, you're probably shorting yourself a little bit and you're gonna get frustrated. We had a member this week, um, absolutely love her. Uh, she was telling us that she wants to get her book launched in two weeks. She needs what was it, like 15 maybe more uh contributors to that book. Um, and we and Marie lovingly looks at her and be like, there's no way.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Because, and that's the reality is like you can't assume people are gonna make that fast of decisions for collaborating. And and that's okay because we want them to be intentional, we want them to be strong. You also don't need to be salesy, right? It's not about do this or else or holding something over somebody's head or I don't know what kind of crazy things people do. Um, we do partnerships on purpose. So we like to make it intentional, we like to make it feel peaceful for everybody. Um, and that in turn, uh it gives the people coming in, it gives our leads a really healthy and um good way of knowing who the other person is on the other side. That's that's the biggest thing. It's all about those referrals that are coming in and that they feel really good with everything.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

So anything else you want to add? I think it just just on that point, like when you rush it, um it's it's it doesn't work. It doesn't work. I'm just gonna just gonna say it in plain out give yourself the time. Um, you know, give yourself the time to do things properly and give yourself the time to connect with people and the right people and make the right decisions. When you're rushed for time, you're in a position where um you're just accepting anybody and it shouldn't be like that. So I just, you know, if you if you have if you're able to push your launch or push your initiative promotion, whatever the case may be out, then do it and um you know just make sure you're partnering with the right people because that's really, really important. Don't settle.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Yeah, don't settle for the we saw this too, right? When people are rushed, they'll settle for the wrong person. Yeah. And then they wonder why the partnership didn't work out. They wonder why the per the leads that came in fell flat or why, you know, maybe they sent, and I'm gonna give some things that we don't super believe in, but it's easy to kind of go like they sent a thousand clicks, but only, you know, 20 of them actually went to leads, like clicks and leads and stuff, like that's not super our jam, but it is easy to kind of say it's a really good metric to be like something wasn't working right. And every time we see stats like that, and we do track them, obviously, but every time we see stats like that, we don't look at the list to say the list is wrong. We look at the deal that we've created and see who didn't make the right conversations happen. Um, because that's the biggest part is if we're not aligned with the partner and how we're promoting each other, you'll see it in the stats on the back end. And yeah, obviously, we love to do a debrief, we love to have a conversation. Whether things went well or they didn't, you can learn from it and you can make your next promotion conversation better because you are having conversations that say, Why didn't this work? And we've done this I don't know how many years, forever. We just get on and we say, Why didn't this work? What I think that's another episode.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

So I don't think we should it's another episode. Wow. I do think it's another episode because there's so much to say on that. Um, and I've had interesting conversations in the past with people. Um, you know, so I think, yeah, let's let's take that one and all right, we'll take it to another episode.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

I love it. Well, anything else that you want to add on to this idea of just planning, think about your launch, give yourself plenty of time, um, and be intentional with who you're bringing into your list.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Absolutely. And so we're talking specifically about launches, but when we talk about partnerships, you know, overall, um, the timeline is different. Look at Marie and I. We've been, we've been working together for five years, six six years. Six years. I don't know. And you know, our partnership has blossomed and we've done amazing things over that journey. So um, once you have a connection with somebody, once they you feel like, oh my God, this is something you want to pursue, um, you know, and just nurture that and see where it goes. Um, I'm gonna give one last example. Um, you know, and that was I talked about it at the beginning of the episode was I met somebody two weeks ago. And I think I in in one of the past episodes, I talked about just like all of these things were just dropping. And it was like I got on another call with her yesterday, and it was just an amazing conversation every time we talk, and I've literally known this person for less than a month. And I'm like, this is a relationship that I want to invest my time in because I just think that you know, when you meet somebody that's real authentic. genuine and you just have a connection like everything you talk about you're like oh my god yes oh my god yes so we have we we have a full list of things that we want to do together and we've only been talking we've been talking for less than a month right so there are those instances where you're like oh my god this is this is great right and hang on to those those relationships and those partnerships because those are hopefully the ones that are gonna you know take off and and you'll be able to do amazing things with them but um you know there's a lot happening but in addition to that we also have a um you know a referral I'm gonna say partnership swap between this person and a client of ours right and that's something for you know I think it's happening in exactly a couple of months right so there's a lot of different elements but you're you know I really think that you have to evaluate all of those relationships and see where they go and that's all I wanted to share. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

All right everybody thank you so much for being here with us um see you on the next episode of Partnerships on purpose thanks everyone have a wonderful day