The Single Best Practice We’ve Learned From Our Affiliate Partnerships

& Why We Implement It

I’m no sports guy, but I know quarterbacks hardly score on their own.

If I had to boil down a single best practice that has shaped our entire biz model for partnerships- it would be the art of the handoff.

In the same way the QB transfers the ball to his running back, the ability of our partners to provide a proper handoff is the single difference between good and great.

So just like scouts or coaches, when we think about forming partnerships, we want to understand where our partner is at in their ability to play ball this way.

Let’s go beyond the analogy and dive into how we create real-time synergy with our affiliates.

The Art of the Introduction

First, I want to break down how our affiliate model works in plain English.

To launch our first pilot deal, we ask our affiliates to bring us a client that:

• they have a great relationship with
• they have helped them in the past or active client
• they have a need to lower electricity costs with commercial solar

The introduction turns into our number one best practice because based on how it is delivered will determine how smooth the rest of the process will be.

With the right client selected, and let’s even say it was a dream client- if the handoff is messy; the whole thing can fall apart. And.. it has.

Over the last half-decade of partnering, we’ve seen a lot of them fail because we didn’t have the art of the introduction down well:

→ We’ve had affiliates that have tried to sell OUR services (with no experience) instead of letting us handle delivery

→ We’ve had affiliates try to control the deal process and wedge into the middle of our systems because of their ego

→ We’ve had affiliates “need to do things their way” which directly conflicts with our proven & predictable way.

As we unearthed the root cause of all of these epic failures, we realized it was all down to the quality of the introduction we got to start the process.

Now, we’ve completely restructured our partnership model to where the ONLY opportunity to work together is leveraging our systems.

We teach our partners what to say, how to say it, and how to set us up for a high-quality handoff for our community solar rollouts.

We’re currently seeing big wins like:

→ We got a handoff to a multi-billion dollar org and are moving to close

→ We are fully integrating our bolt-on commercial solar arm into an energy company the streamline the process completely

→ We are partnering with ESCO’s & helping them integrate community solar with their largest clients in market.

We get to partner and install these wins into our partner's business, and the best practice of proper introductions has completely changed the effectiveness of our model too.

• It helps keep us operationally efficient
• It allows for turnkey delivery without effort
• We build a larger stream of income together

If you’re a potential affiliate and think you have what it takes to create these seamless handoffs in collaboration- my brand would love to explore a partnership.

You can visit communitysolarauthority.com to check out our work, book a call, and get started.