Risk Reduction--A Win-Win For Everyone!

Despite our best intentions, sometimes things don’t go as expected. Even when you do what you believe to be correct, results don’t always show up as you want. What can we do then to preserve our relationships for the future?

Actually, what I like to do is have the conversation ahead of time. It makes things so much easier. Even if it’s not the most fun conversation, when you set an expectation of what will happen if the results are not as desired, you avoid lots of difficulty later on. What I do is focus on the reduction of risk--a concept that we all share and appreciate.

I might say something like this, in a very polite tone: “Hey, we don’t know each other very well yet, and I never want to be tit-for-tat with you though I do think it’s important since we are new to each other that we figure out how to reduce our risk.” No one will have a problem with this as it just makes sense. Everything is above board and you open up the space to discuss what you can do under any circumstance, even if stressful. 

Once the other person agrees, you can then have the conversation about swapping traffic or multiple mailings or whatever needs to happen to create a win-win. Both parties know exactly where the relationship stands and it’s fair and clean for all. 

The reality is that odd things can happen during a launch or even a simple promotion. Maybe there’s a technical glitch. Maybe a server crashes or a program goes down for whatever reason. Things like this happen all the time. In those cases, an affiliate may not make anywhere near the money that they expected to make. This can lead to very uncomfortable situations though it is much worse if you don’t have an arrangement in place ahead of time. 

At the end of the day, the important thing is to make things right and fair for everyone. This applies regardless if it costs you time or money if the mistake is in fact on your end. Think about it the other way around. How would you want your partner to treat you if they made a mistake or something went wrong on their end? Would you want them to figure out a way to set things straight between you? I know I would and I always try to put myself in someone else’s shoes. 

One of my highest personal values is fairness. It’s a true core value for me. If we base our behavior on a spirit of fairness, we can always find a way to make things feel right for everyone and to preserve or even grow our relationships--regardless of what happens. If you’re in this business with a long-term perspective, being fair will serve you well. It’s also another great way to reduce your risk!