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Joint Ventures: The key to results.
Written by Aaron
Colman
info@ibasics.biz
http://www.ibasics.biz
Ever wanted to
form one of those nifty "Joint Venture"
things?
One of the most
powerful marketing techniques around is
to form an alliance with another
company.
A few types of joint ventures:
* Swapping space - Do you
have a place where I
could advertise in your store?
* Sponsored joint
products - Could you design a
product that sold both of your
products?
* Sharing referrals - Actively passing on
interested
clients.
* Passing out business cards - Passively
distributing
marketing material.
* Shared marketing campaign - Both
organizations
share in the cost and reap the benefits.
* Customer list
exchanges
(Being careful of CAN-SPAM provisions)
* A joint
newsletter
(A 2 page free newsletter can be very powerful)
One
of the trickiest things to do is find someone that
would benefit from an
alliance, but not be hurt by your
competition.
To find these people
ask yourself some of these questions:
* People that buy from us also buy
from whom?
* What other things do people that buy from us also
like to
buy?
* What kind of problems does my product or service
help to
solve?
* What kind of products or services tend to create
these
problems?
* Do the people that buy from me have anything else
in
common?
* Does my product help people accomplish things
that require
also might require another product or
serve?
* Can I slide up or down
the product chain?
Example:
Lets say you sold gardening tools. You
wouldn't want to
approach other gardening tool makers, as they're in
direct competition with you. Instead, you might want to
approach
landscapers, professional gardeners, sod
companies, fertilizer producers,
etc.
Also, realize that your product is just a chain in a
link of
products. Again, if you sold gardening tools...
the people that buy them
obviously need additional
things to get their garden up and running.
On the bottom of the product chain they need land to
garden on. They
need equipment to get the ground ready.
On the higher end of the product
chain, if they like to
garden then they probably read about gardening or
belong to a gardening group. Maybe they read about
gardening
online.
Sliding up even further up the chain, they're probably
going
to do something with the things they grow. Do
they like to grow herbs
vegetables? Do they like to
cook? What do they use to cook? Do they collect
recipes
about cooking with home-grown fruits or veggies?
** Now where?
**
Once you've found a list of potential companies, use a
service like
InfoSeek or Switchboard to find companies
in your area. Call them up and ask
for the owner. Don't
spend your time trying to force them, just make it
simple:
"I'm a local company that sells gardening supplies and
am
looking to ally with other local, related businesses
and am conducting a
quick survey."
* What kind of alliances have you formed with others
in
the past?
* How strong were those alliances?
* Have you ever been
in a joint venture?
* Given that (how your operations relate to theirs)
do
you think that you customers might be interested in
gardening
supplies?
* Would you object to me passing interested customers
your
way?
* If I could find a way to make this mutually
beneficial, would
there be any reason why you couldn't
work with me?
* What kind of
alliance would you like?
(Brainstorm on this)
Of course these lists
are far from complete. I just
hope I've provided enough thought fodder to
get your
cogs crankin'. Business partnerships can be an
extremely
profitable win-win situation for both of you.
You're helping others while
making money. And isn't
that what this is all about?
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Aaron Colman helps businesses make money online and specializes in web design and custom script work.
My eCourse - Learn Mastering Internet Lead Generation at http://www.ibasics.biz/leads
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