Lunch Logic: Building your Business Ecosystem, Part 3: Tools

You've sourced well.. check! You've trained like a well-oiled machine.. check! Now you need to provide (or create) tools to perform effectively. What kinds of tools? The answer to that depends on how you are going to interact independently of one another.

Flooding your partners with samples, brochures or trinkets is unlikely to be effective and certainly not efficient. Remember: the main point is not that your ecosystem members are going to sell FOR you; rather, the goal is to have them sell YOU. The objective is for the ecosystem to actively identify opportunities on behalf of the other parts while they are building themselves. The tools to achieve this will reflect and enhance this objective.

The best tools are triggers that help each of the parts listen with larger ears and see with broader eyes; what to listen for and look for to trigger a step. Your business and industry has phrases, terms, and observable conditions that signal a specific need. The respective members of the ecosystem already have their own response to these signals for their own development. With training and tools, the ecosystem will create autonomic responses for each other as well - sort of like noticing how many powder blue vehicles are on the road just after you bought one thinking it was unique.

Any other tools like brochures, samples, or even meeting with each other ought to be limited to and focused solely on reinforcing this response; all else with only pollute your ecosystem and ultimately cause it to whither.

Next time, part 4: Go forth and multiply