How to Get More Clients: Hire a Business Development Expert

If your business has been struggling to get more clients in the last few months or year then consider hiring a business development expert that can find the right joint venture marketing partners that can deliver hot leads to your sales team. Many businesses can find themselves in a rut where it’s really difficult to acquire new customers. A joint venture marketing partnership can be the right strategy to get moving forward again. A business development pro will understand the process of putting together a solid business deal that can grow your company. If you feel that building a network of business partners can help grow your business in ways that are unachievable by yourself then find the right consultant or individual that you can bring in-house and do the deals that will get your company more clients.

Hire the Right Person

Hiring a business development person is different than finding a sales person for your team. While a business development expert can always play the role as sales person the opposite is not always true. A person that specifically focuses on business development will understand how to communicate potential business deals to perspective businesses in the right manner. They will understand that it is critical that a strong relationship is forged between the individuals doing the business deal and the company employees that will be involved in implementing the partnership.

Hiring a consultant or consulting firm to act as a business development team for you company is a great route for many small businesses. Many business that do not have the internal man power and capabilities to identify, engage, and do the business deals necessary for growth can benefit from a consultant or consulting firm that has access to the business decision makers or the experience necessary to reach out to companies and develop the relationships required to put together a great business deal.

While a consultants hourly rate may be higher than you’re comfortable with a deal can be put together much faster by a professional than someone trying for the first time to structure a business partnership. Consultants often will require an hourly rate or fixed salary as well as some kind of bonus structure for placing deals together which may be a single payout for each business deal that is signed or a revenue share that is paid out over a period of time based on the amount of business that is ultimately generated from the relationships. Most consultants will not work for pure commission deals unless they believe that a deal can be put together extremely fast and will generate immediate revenue. Most will want a cash payment coupled with a bonus structure. Companies that want to execute business deals with larger fortune 500 type companies should always highly consider hiring an expert that has preexisting relationships with the company that you want to do a deal with. It’s common to hire a consultant for one specific business partnership.

Managing a Business Development Team

Managing a business development team member is similar to a sales team member in many respects. It is important that as a business owner you control and own the data that is developed by the team member by making them use the corporate customer relationship management system and uploading any data and reports on potential business partners to the corporate document server. Failing to do this a common problem with companies and their sales teams and even more so with business development professionals as the relationships they have and bringing to the table are often held tightly and not given up easily.

If you are hiring an outside consultant there may be specific clauses in the agreement about who owns what data. This is something to be aware of as it can be very frustrating to be a month or two in developing a new business partner and have a person leave and take the contact information and data with them leaving you in a tough place to continue. It’s critical to recognize that a business development team member is going to need to spend time out of the office meeting with companies, going to business events and other functions that may be fruitful in finding and meeting the right business partners, however if you are paying for someone to be at an event then make sure the business cards that are collected get scanned and retained by the company.

If you have decided that in order to get more clients your business needs to develop strategic business partners than consider outsourcing the work to a consultant or hiring a business development expert in order to speed up the process. Avoid taking team members off their existing duties or forcing yourself to forge the relationships by yourself and add more duties to your already exhausting schedule.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Attract New Clients with Regional Partners

If your business is looking to attract new clients through joint venture partnerships, identifying businesses that have significant market share in a specific region is an excellent way to tap new markets that otherwise are impenetrable. Leveraging partners in hot markets whether that it’s a city, state, or country is the fastest way to reach communities of potential new clients.

Developing a regional or locally focused strategy for joint venture marketing partnerships will generally mean working with smaller businesses versus large national or international corporations which require specific techniques to make successful. Small business owners may be less inclined to risk hurting their existing client base by introducing a partner’s products or services but due to their specific market intelligence and the close relationships with your target customers, once a partnership is crafted new business should close quickly.

Finding Regional Partners

If your company has made the decision to attempt to attract new clients with regional joint venture marketing partners than it’s important to create a database of potential partners. There are several sources that can be used including online and offline methods. A few of the best locations to find information about what companies exist in the markets you are seeking are:

Yelp - There is loads of business listed in Yelp. Search for the types of companies that are perfect fits for your business based on the industry and then by city for the regions that you are pursuing. Make sure and review the ratings and comments about the business.

 

Trades Shows – Finding regional partners by attending industry trade shows is an excellent way to not only find which small business exist in the space, but it’s also a great opportunity to meet and discuss potential partnerships with business development professionals that often attend trade shows for companies. Reviewing trade show websites and looking through the list of attending businesses can also help you identify which regional businesses are out there.

 

Outsource Business Development - Hire a local person to assist with the legwork of finding the right potential partners. By working with a person that resides in the location that you want to take your business into is an excellent way to tap local knowledge and get personal introductions and referrals to likely candidates.

 

Benefits for Small Business Partners

Make sure that you have fully thought out what the benefits are that a partnership with your business grants to a small business partner. Small businesses are likely to be extremely cost conscious concerning exploring a potential new partnership. Most small businesses will not have a person that is dedicated entirely to creating partnerships with other business and so you’ll be taking time away from a sales person or executive management right away when discussing a partnership strategy. Due to this fact it is vital that you have a carrot to offer to small business owners so they can see how a new relationship will generate revenue quickly. Partnerships not able to attack “low hanging fruit” which result in immediate ROI for a small business will be less likely to succeed or turn into a long lasting relationship.

Including marketing support resources will help a small business owner look favorably on your idea of developing a business relationship. While it is essential that you attract new clients for your own business, a partner will often be looking for opportunities to attract new business for themselves as well. That is of course unless the revenue share involved in the partnership is so good that it does not matter, however most small businesses will want to grow there number of clients as well. Marketing support can be as limited as just providing the basic marketing collateral already printed and prepared to be handed out to existing clients.

Finding the right local partners is a great way to build a roster of new clients in a specific region, but make sure that your small business partners are well taken care of and can see an ROI in a short time frame. If you can deliver to a small business partner it can be your greatest ally in a new market, however failing to be conscious of their specific interests and resources can see a partnership deteriorate before getting off the ground.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Attract New Business with a Monthly or Quarterly Partner Promotion

Attracting new business through a joint venture marketing partner can be achieved with a higher rate of success when a special price or unique product offering is available or exclusive offerings that are only available to clients of a joint venture marketing partner can be pitched by sales teams to their relationships. Discuss potential promotions with JV marketing partners and be open to their suggestions about potential promotions that will work well with planned marketing campaigns. Customers always appreciate a good deal, so use special promotions to acquire new business that is being serviced by a competitor or previously just not ready to make a buy decision.

Channels for Promotions

The following are excellent channels to use to promote a special product or service discount.

Email - Sending an email to a joint venture partner’s existing customer base should be part of any new promotion strategy. Collect emails from people that visit your website or read your companies blog and include them in your email blasts for deals.

Facebook / Twitter - Spread the news about monthly or quarterly special offerings through the social networks. Include specials or unique offerings that are only available to your online community at Facebook and Twitter.

Internal Contests - Reward sales team members of your company or from your JV partners based on their performance. Whether its cash or a nice gift, giving something special to the sales person that sells the most of a monthly or quarterly promotion can help drive more success from the team as a whole.

Online Deal Shopping Sites – If the products and services are consumer facing then consider listing any deals developed with a joint venture marketing partner on sites like SlickDeals.net or FatWallet.com. Both sites allow promotions and special coupons to be listed and shared with the public.

Attract New Business

While many business partnerships use promotions to market to an existing customer base and to extract more revenue from the customers that the business already has, promotions are always a good reason to contact customers to make sure that the business is at the forefront of their customer’s minds and to continue to build strong relationships with them. However; when using a promotion specifically to attract new business, it’s wise to include some of the following techniques in your offering in order to win over new potential customers. While existing customers are always looking for savings or a unique offer, new customers are seeking a major change from their existing providers or they are new to the market and need product education and additional hand holding that an established client may not need.

Free - Include something for free in your offer regardless if it ends up being a minor detail in the overall product or service. A complimentary assessment or small item can get the new customer relationship off to a good start.

Match or Beat Competition – Promising to match or beat the competition’s price on similar items or services is an excellent way to acquire customers that are currently dissatisfied with their existing solution and open for a change even if the savings or discount is only for a limited time frame.

Time Sensitive – Using timing in a promotion can be done in a couple of different ways. Place a specific trigger date that the offering is valid through. The other way to leverage time sensitivities when attracting new business is to provide a new customer with a special discount that only lasts for a certain period of time as a reward for becoming a new customer.

Incorporate the right strategies inside of your monthly and quarterly promotions and it will be much easier for you and your JV marketing partners to attract new business. By making sure the promotions are tailored to the needs of customers that are looking for new solutions or opening to changing what they currently have, your promotions will be more likely to resonate with people that will become new business. Make sure if you’re doing promotions with business partners to extract business from their existing customer base, saving time and energy to be focused on obtaining new clients.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Find New Clients with Strategic Marketing Plan

At the start of the year a priority for every business team that has a significant amount of joint venture marketing business should be to review all existing partners and develop strategic marketing plans to find and acquire new clients with there existing partners or identify new partners to replace dead weight. It’s important for business owners to keep track of specific metrics year over year in order to evaluate the business thoroughly to factor any new strengths or weaknesses into annual planning.

Set time aside to meet with all valuable channels in-person and explore new potential opportunities that exist now or will be available soon. Evaluate details about successful business transactions and review the finer details with your business partners in order to identify strategies that can attract similar new clients. Annual strategic planning can be a fun and exciting time as a business owner that is exploring new opportunities for growth as there is little more satisfying than identifying a new opportunity, building the marketing plans, and capturing the market.

Year End Review

As the year wraps up, it’s always a good idea to compile all of the relevant information about the activities of the business so that you’re prepared to analyze the company’s success and plan strategies for finding new clients. The following are a few questions that should always be at the top of the list for all business owners during their review. How is the financial situation of the business? Have employees achieved goals that were set? Were there any major partner successes or failures of the past year? What was the worst and best marketing campaign of the past year? Are there any visible opportunities with existing partners that can close business quickly if pursued?

Larger companies will have more formal quarterly and annual review meetings corresponding to financial reporting activities, however for most small business year end reviews and annual planning activities often are best around December / January time frame.

Partner Strategies

Based on the successes and failures of marketing activities with partners in the previous year, it is important to always focus on areas of strength to increase the number of new clients that can be reached going forward. Working closer with your business channels to identify the right marketing angles that work best to close business fast is necessary for solidifying strategies that work.

Many small businesses get in the habit of sitting back and not getting too involved with a partner. If it’s obvious that one partner is getting more deals closed in a specific region than another partner, identify what is being done and inform the less performing partner and make it mandatory that they adjust the marketing strategy. Otherwise find a new partner that will implement the plan.

Incorporate social media into your strategic marketing planning for the business as an additional way to approach new clients. Many small business owners have avoided using social media sites. If your company is in an industry that’s not a perfect fit for social media like a consumer facing brand or a business like a restaurant, then there’s a good chance that there is a less competition to be found by people interested in your industry.

Take the time to learn about Twitter and making Youtube videos. Start leveraging social media marketing as a cost effective part of your joint venture marketing activities. Working with a partner that is open to doing co-branded social media campaigns is a great way to reach a partners established online community.

New Market Trends

While preparing a strategic marketing plan for your business it is important to include any specific trends in the industry or market in general that impact the success or failure of your business. Continue to evaluate the market and competition to be able to really provide a product or service that meets the customer’s expectations at a competitive price.

Acquiring new clients is never an easy task, so make sure and review successes and failures with all of your joint venture marketing activities and be willing to change when needed. Work with your business partners and continue to evaluate the opportunities that are available to your business. Implementing a fully prepared strategic marketing plan is a great experience and well rewarded so do the research and analysis to find the best marketing approaches to continue growing the business.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Build Local Demographic Reports to Attract New Business

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

If your company is entering a new market with a joint venture partner, maximize the deal by doing your due diligence in building local demographic reports about the business and consumers so that when you attract new business they align with the focus of the company. It’s wise for companies that are selling products and services to a consumer as well as to businesses to know the market in detail and where the products will be offered. This data can be integrated into planning marketing efforts which will be required to reach and close the customers. Focus the joint venture partnership to seek out the most valuable demographics based on your report in order to see immediate returns on a new business relationship.

An important step to understanding a new geographic location is to understand the end customers for your business in the area. Regardless if your business services individuals or companies or a combination of both, the information that is required is similar and easy to acquire. First, ask your new business partner for any relevant business intelligence that they have on the local markets. It’s important to always double check partners work, gather additional details that are important for your decision making, and provide your analysis and ideas to your business partner. Sometimes you may encounter after the fact a business that doesn’t have much detailed information or it is outdated and needs to be done over.

There are many important factors to be gathered when creating a local demographic report. Each company will have to determine the items that are of most value to them and adjust according to the industry.

Basic Details

The basics should include the high level characteristics of the people and the business that are in the area. In the case of consumers, understanding details such as age, gender percentages, education levels, income levels, size of families and monthly spending budgets is very important. Creating a map of businesses located in a territory is essential to visualize the distribution of customers. Create maps of specific neighborhoods when approaching local consumers, as many neighborhoods will be different from one another despite being in the same city and relatively close.

Business reports may differ in the data collected. Identify prominent industries, specific companies by sector, such as transportation, construction, manufacturing, medical, education, etc.

Match With Existing Business Strategy

The purpose of conducting a basic market research study of the local area that you’re considering doing a business deal in to attract new business should be to execute a specific business strategy that includes forming joint venture marketing relationships to grow into new markets. During company planning, the target customer should be discussed on a regular basis. When conducting your assessments of an area, be sure you are confirming “yes” or “no” for the areas of interest to you.

It’s worth the time and resources if necessary to conduct surveys and contact potential customers in a specific area that you are considering doing a business deal for. Don’t always trust a potential partner’s interests in wanting to do a business deal, make sure the area will be a good fit for your products and services by researching yourself.

Business to Business Demographics

If your company does business directly with other business for a majority of the revenue made during the year than it’s important to take a slightly different angle on this task of reviewing new local markets. As a business owner that is negotiating a joint venture partnership with another company, it’s important to conduct your own in depth analysis. Call companies that you think might be potential clients for you and your JV partner in the area and see if they have any opinions about the company, positive or negative. Make sure that you take the time to review a company’s profile on Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, and other business review sites.

Companies with lots of negative issues that seem potentially harmful should be included in your decision making of whether to do the business deal or not. At the end of the day the point is to attract new business, so adjust and align with partners that have maintained strong brands in their local markets.

Review and understand the markets that you are doing business in. It may be necessary to create a binder of all the information on a specific location, but if it helps identify the right joint venture partner that attracts new business it’s worth the effort. Expand your business by doing deals with companies that have strong positions in their local markets that fit your criteria.

christian fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A joint venture marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more joint venture marketing Strategies join his free report on joint venture marketing.

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

Tips for Getting More Clients from Marketing Activities

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing

The new year is always a time to review last year’s execution and make plans for growing the business. The following tips and techniques can be used to maximize your existing marketing activities in getting more clients. If you have a product or service that is currently being marketed through your own activities or from your joint venture marketing partner then it’s necessary to close every lead and potential deal that is on the table. To acquire a customer it often takes several different attempts with layered marketing of the company and its offerings. By quickly following through with every marketing activity you can potentially hit a customer in multiple channels.

Blog Posting

A blog post may about a new product or new company information that is posted in order to educate customers and potential customers about the product or company. Blog posts are a great foundation to build on and leverage for improving the companies rankings in the search engines. It’s important to expand the reach of your company blog by using the following actions and services on websites to promote the blog post.

Email – Blast a company message with the title, link, and summary of the blog post to people in your newsletter lists.

Facebook - Post a link to your company’s blog post. These should be posted on both companies Facebook pages if it’s a joint venture.

Twitter - Post a link to your company’s blog post. The co-branded blog posts should be posted on both companies Twitter accounts.

Fiverr - Hire someone to submit blog pages to social sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon and other locations. Hiring additional people to also promote and engage with the content can help posts gain traction faster in the Search Engines.

While results may not be instantaneous, if you follow the steps above your blog posts will receive more value in search engine rankings for your target keywords from Google due to the links that will be created directing back to your specific blog posts. This will help create more traffic to your company’s main website through promoting your content.

Facebook

Facebook can be a unique place to advertise for many businesses. However; there are a few strategies that can work for companies and their joint venture partners that are looking to gain access into specific local markets and have a solid presence on the social network.

• Facebook ads can generate interests from a partner’s existing customer base that follow them. Create an advertisement special that customers of a partner can have access to if they post a message in there Facebook status about your brand. Getting more clients from Facebook requires them sharing your company with their friends.

• If you want to build a following of people, then as a company you have to be educational and have interesting content that makes people want to subscribe to your content. Create interesting videos that provide specific details about a topic in 2 – 3 minutes and post them to your Facebook page as well as on Youtube.

• Create an interesting ad that targets very specific demographics. The ad itself needs to be short and sweet and catch the attention of viewers for the target market your business is after. Purchase ads to the exact details of the market that you need to reach whether it’s regional or based on the individuals occupation, age or gender. Facebook allows for creating amazingly detailed ad campaigns. Make the campaign about clicking like to your Facebook page versus redirecting to your website or a sales landing page.

Brochures / Mailers

If part of the marketing activities is sending out a regular printed brochure, catalogue, or promotional newsletters / sale offerings then it is important to maximize each piece of mail, due to the cost of regular mail campaigns.

Email - Sending an email at the same time as a physical mailing is a good way to use the marketing material twice and help reinforce the physical papers that may get shuffled around for a few days before being reviewed. Invite them to a webinar that will be conducted concerning a topic related to the products or services that are being offered in the mailer. Include a form in any emails that can be filled out and sent in requesting more information as some people prefer to communicate through these channels rather than making a call.

Phone Call – Making a follow up phone call 5 – 8 days after sending a letter / package to a perspective client is always a wise idea. If you are conducting a massive mail campaign and neither you nor your business partner has a call center, it’s ok. There are people that can be hired for a fairly affordable rate that can quickly understand your company’s basic information and products to make lead generation calls to provide hot leads to your sales team. Train sales people making follow up phone calls to get email addresses during the conversation as it’s the easiest way to ping potential customers on a regular basis.

Have a great 2012; enjoy growing your business and maximizing all of your existing joint venture marketing activities to get more clients.

christian fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A joint venture marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more joint venture marketing Strategies join his free report on joint venture marketing.

joint venture marketing

joint venture marketing