Reach New Customers & Potential Partners Through Existing Business

Small business owners that develop relationships with their best customers can receive excellent referrals in the form of new business as well as partnerships with other companies within the industry. Marketing can be very expensive and with limited budgets many small businesses can gain an advantage by tapping into the rolodex of their customers whenever possible. Many people that you interact with on a regular basis during your daily business activities will be more than willing to make an introduction or referral, but you have to ask. I’ve found that most business relationships can lead to at least a few new opportunities and sometimes many more so it’s wise to take the time for lunches, dinners, sporting events, rounds of golf, and other casual activities that can help build your ecosystem of business professionals willing to make introductions and referrals.

Develop Individual Relationships with Key Customers

Taking the time to build individual relationships with your best customers can be advantages for many reasons including; finding new clients, creating introductions to new business opportunities and gaining referrals that close. Every customer interaction is a potential link to a new customer so make sure you take the time to educate consumers about opportunities to make referrals and the discounts or cash payments they may receive for making an introduction or referral. A typical activity that should be done on a regular basis is to send out emails about product updates and new services that also mention the opportunity for making referrals to new customers.

It’s important that you are close with your key customers and business partners that provide the bulk of your referral business and this is best done in a setting away from the office or in traditional meetings. Key clients and partners should be wined and dined and taken care of based on the importance of the role they play in the growth of your business. There are many ways to show appreciation to a key person in your professional ecosystem. Business referrals and revenue shares are always appreciated and a great way to solidify a business relationship with a customer that helps expand your business. Additional methods for rewarding contributing players include; a nice lunch on your tab or maybe tickets to a sporting event that show your appreciation without having to directly dole out cash. Other gestures that can be much appreciated are gift certificates for nice restaurants in your local area or a weekend getaway at a nearby resort. Again make sure to reward your business ecosystem, but do so according to the value they provide for the growth of your businesses.

Ask for the Business

Many small company owners are fearful to ask directly for someone’s business when it’s actually the best way to do it. If you don’t ask, people will often think that you’re busy, have plenty of deal flow or not actively seeking new clients. Consequently the people that have great connections for you will simply not offer even though they are willing to help. Small business owners need to routinely ask customers and business associates for client referrals. By keeping a log of your communications with different customers and business relationships in your CRM system you will not need to worry about feeling like you are asking the same person too frequently. It’s critical that you remain in the forefront of your business acquaintances’ minds in order for them to remember you and your company when they interact with someone that could use your product or service. Send birthday cards, make occasional calls and drop by to say “hello” to key customers and people your business interacts with in order to keep those relationships fresh and relevant.

Every small business owner needs to maximize their business and customer relations in order to reach the next customer or next hot lead. Make sure to reward your ecosystem for providing quality leads that close and don’t be afraid to ask for business or client referrals.

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.

Fix Small Business Joint Venture Marketing Problems Quickly

It can be impossible to stop unknown problems from occurring with a joint venture marketing relationship, but as a small business owner it’s critical to identify problems and either address them or take the appropriate actions to terminate the relationship and focus on more fertile ground. There are several critical areas of a business partnership to be conscious of at all times including: customer service and satisfaction, tracking referrals, accounting and revenue shares and promoting a positive brand image to the market in general. If an issue arises in any of these areas, it is absolutely necessary to spend the time to fix the root cause to eliminate it. Otherwise the right solution may be to simply identify new partners and move on.

Customers Satisfaction

At the end of the day it’s always about making sure that customers are happy and feel that they’re getting good value for what they are purchasing. Regardless, whichever side of the partnership your business is on it is critical to focus on providing great customer service. If you’re opening up your company’s rolodex of existing customers, you don’t want to jeopardize future business for yourself because the new JV marketing partner you’re introducing does not perform as expected. During the early stages of starting a new business relationship it is very important to test the waters early by referring a few loyal customers that will provide you with honest feedback about their experience with the new partner. Send over a couple of “new” leads as well and have a person within your organization act as the customer to get a real understanding of how the partner treats their clients. There is nothing worse than sending over a group of customers to a new partner only to receive emails and calls with negative experiences from those customers. This reflects on you as a business owner and can be avoided by properly implementing the new partnership.

Track Everything

Make sure that the partner is tracking referrals, new leads, products ordered, products delivered, products returned, marketing campaigns, ROI, brand reputation and any important data points related to your industry. It is very difficult to measure the true value of a joint venture marketing relationship without this information. You will have to rely on an open business partner to get many of those details and keep an open line of communication. By tracking everything related to each of your business partners it’s easier to accomplish the required accounting and to come to firm conclusions about which relationships are the most profitable and provide the greatest return. This will let you prioritize your time and resources for future activities and identify partners it may be better off to just walk away from. It is recommended that you monitor the market in general and understand what the market says about your business partners. As a business owner it can be very frustrating to have a partner do something unwise that creates a lot of negative press as this can reflect on your company, especially if you’re very active together with co-branded marketing.

Small business owners need to be prepared to spend the necessary time to monitor each business relationship and collect the required data during the month to accurately assess the success or failure of the partnership. When you identify a major issue related to servicing customers or accounting for the referrals that are being sent to a partner then set up a meeting to fix the issue as soon as possible or move away from doing business with the partner in the future. Allowing a negative partnership to linger just because you have already done all of the work to put the relationship together can be detrimental to the business and the brand for the long haul.

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 by Creating Personal Connections with Business Partners and Clients

When attracting new business it is wise to build personal relationships with the people you interact with the most, whether it’s a business partner or a potential long term client. While it is important to be focused on the core business issues at hand during a conversation with a business partner or a new client, spending a few minutes to gather some personal information and being conscious of building a personal relationship will ensure that special connections can be made.

While a personal relationship does not always immediately attract new business it can be the difference in closing a deal or getting a business referral later down the road. Leverage your personal relationship in marketing strategies to reach new clients, especially through social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Focus on the most important details for a person and make them feel special to attract new business through personal relationships.

Details To Capture

During a business meeting there is often personal information that is shared either in the first few minutes before the meeting gets going or during the meeting when used to discuss a specific issue. Be aware of these details and jot them down in your notepad to record later. It’s important when meeting with someone that could be a business partner or long term client to be focused on developing a personal connection. Personal connections not only help you with the business transaction that is on the table at the time, but can assist in attracting new business down the road as well as build your own network of contacts.

The following details are often openly discussed and can be used to make a personal connection:

• Name of spouse – If someone mentions they are planning a birthday or anniversary for their spouse, write that down, if you are still doing business with that person in a year sending a message to say happy anniversary or birthday will be a surprise to them and be something that will help solidify a personal relationship.

• Special Dates – Be aware of any special days that are mentioned as being important to the person and jot this down. Can be a birthday for themselves or the kids, anniversary, or special holidays etc.

• Family names – Write down the names of children and ages also note down any specific activities. If someone mentions one of their kids is playing sports and they will be at a game that weekend, make sure to ask how Jimmy or Sally did in there game that weekend when you talk next. Showing that you care about what is important to them outside of the work environment is really important to create a relationship that is distinguishable from a standard working relationship.

• Favorite Activities – Learning what a person does in their free time gives you a reason to start off the next conversation with a topic that the person enjoys. An example would be if someone mentions that they were out fishing the previous weekend and you are meeting a few weeks later, asking if they got a chance to get out on the water shows you care to understand about what they are passionate about. This is the same if someone mentions they like going to music shows or seeing sporting events, finding out what a person enjoys and bringing it up during the informal parts of a meeting can forge the personal connection that leads to more business later.

Leverage Personal Relationships

Leveraging personal relationships in business to attract new clients is important. Most people that are active in social media and a business professional will have a LinkedIn account. Getting access to someone’s LinkedIn account by allowing them to connect with you is important even if it’s a purely business relationship. However if you can become friends with someone on Facebook the likely hood you can generate more business from them increases as most people are more reserved in who they will friend on Facebook versus LinkedIn. Depending on your business marketing strategy Facebook can be effective, but only if you have the friends that are the right people that can actually either act on the business opportunity or have people as friends that would make a business referral.

Getting your personal relationships to help attract new business for your business is the ultimate goal of spending the time necessary to build real relationships with people versus superficial ones or business only connections.

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 by hosting seminars – Sample Agenda and Tips

joint venture marketing

Setting up a business seminar is an excellent way to find new clients, but it is important to make sure the event is well run and provides a lot of value to the attendees to increase the likelihood the event can be a catalyst for not only finding new clients but for closing deals. A business seminar should have a few core characteristics in order to be a success for all those participating as well as drive interest from others across social media websites. An informative topic that is related to the industry is critical as well as providing networking opportunities amongst the participants. Serving refreshments or a meal is always appreciated by business people that take time away to attend an event.

Luncheon seminars can work very well for business people as lunch is often a time for meeting with people or is a time that’s more flexible for most individuals. This can also be the case with morning events and dinners however many people have more obligations in the evening due to family commitments with kids in the evenings and should be considered depending on the target audience for the seminar.

A sample schedule of a short business luncheon seminar:

11:30 Registration / Name Badges

• Networking
• Lunch should be available
• Any handouts / presentation should be placed at the tables

12:00 Noon start the seminar

• First 5 minutes should be for introduction / speaker background
• Mention ways to learn more about speakers company

15 – 25 minutes Presentation about the topic

• The presentation can go longer if the topic is less likely to have a need for interaction with the audience, but no longer than 45 minutes.

5-15 minutes for questions and answers

End by 1PM

• Reserve the space with the location for at least up to 30 minutes of post seminar networking and interactions with the speaker and attendees.
• An additional 30 minutes should also be planned for breaking down equipment, marketing collateral, etc. Do not do this until at least a majority of the guests have left the facility.

While this is a sample short seminar it fits with many busy business peoples schedules and a lot of information can be delivered and connections created. It is recommended to always have additional team members on site for networking with the attendees so the speaker does not feel required to try and meet everyone if the group is a larger one.

Of course seminars can be developed that take up an entire morning or afternoon or even a whole day depending on the topic and frequency of the seminars but short luncheon seminars are a great way to put a face to a name and begin developing relationships with potential clients.

Good items to serve

• Sandwiches
• Pizza
• Fruit / Cheese / Cracker platter
• Breakfast items like Bagels, Muffins, etc.
• Always have a vegetarian option available.

Bad items to serve

• Soup
• Pasta with sauce
• Foods that can potential spill or not easily eaten by holding in a single hand.

Always serve bottled water regardless the time of the event and then adjust other beverages accordingly. Some sodas are usually desired at a luncheon seminar, but also have an alternative such as a juice. If all that is served is bottled water it will still be fine and can be easier to plan and execute if you are setting up the seminar without utilizing outside catering.

Use an online website like Meetup.com or Eventful.com to assist in marketing the event as well as tracking the number of attendees and potential attendees. This is very helpful when deciding on how much food and drink to order. If attendees will be paying to attend the meeting then setting up a payment process through PayPal generally is the easiest method.

Have fun hosting a group of business people for a seminar and if it goes well you will develop relationships with new clients. A regular schedule of seminars can really help establish a new company in an industry and is an awesome platform to use to separate oneself from the existing market.

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

Personal Introductions Attracts New Business

Joint venture marketing relationships are designed to attract new business and one of the best methods for reaching customers and closing deals is through personal introductions from a joint venture partner. These introductions can come in many different forms, but are based on the trust that exists between a company / individual and the customers. It should be the goal of every partner to leverage this trust as much as possible without crossing the line that damages the relationship to maximize a marketing partner. Depending on the partnership and the products / services that are being offered to the customers, the following three types of personal introductions will work, but one may be more effective than another based on the situation. It’s best to discuss the types of introductions that will be made while setting up a relationship with a new partner to ensure everyone is on board and committed to leveraging their trusted relationships to drive success for the partnership.

Personal Introductions – Face to Face

While a face to face meeting can be the most time consuming type of personal introduction and recommendation it is also the most likely to attract new business and result in a quick sale or at least end with the potential customer understanding the offering with any immediate questions answered. Meeting in person allows both parties to work closely to ensure that customers are satisfied and take an active role in creating a successful joint venture marketing campaign. Try and keep a face to face meeting to 30 minutes in length. Have marketing collateral that the customer can review at a later time if they have any questions. Always send an email after the meeting and CC the partner that assisted in setting up the meeting so that they are confident in the way that their customers are being handled and taken care of properly.

Personal Introductions – Sales Call

Setting up a sales team within a joint venture that will make personal introductions to an existing customer base will not only attract new business, but is an effective method of reaching many customers quickly and saving time for meetings with only the hot leads that come through the partners sales channel. Review the script that will be used for all outbound calls concerning the product or service, even if this is only a few lines for an introduction that is added into a sales person’s routine call for either new business or maintaining relationships with existing customers. If the message concerning the partnership opportunities is lacking the right hook then it will not be as successful in attracting new business so dedicate time to assisting a partner to craft the right pitch about a product or service.

Personal Introductions – Video Recommendation

While the two options above tend to be a much better solution for an introduction from a partner, sometimes a short video recommendation akin to a product testimonial from a joint venture marketing partner can be very successful at least as a supporting marketing tool to reinforce other marketing avenues. While having a person face to face or on a phone call to answer specific questions is valuable, a strong message of support from a CEO or other executive depending on the size of company can carry a lot of weight in customer’s eyes. These can be utilized as a type of validation and can be used in many different ways, even pointing non partner related customers to the video.

Attract new business utilizing a joint venture marketing partner’s ability to reach their customer base and capture their attention. Sometimes it will take many different methods to reach a customer or finally convince someone to make a call or request a meeting. It is best to have clearly defined the processes for implementing at least these three basic ways of gaining a personal introduction from a joint venture marketing partner.

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 More Clients Being Active in Local Business Communities

Small business owners can find more clients by becoming active members in the local business community, whether by joining a local business chamber of commerce or through industry groups, or just attending business social events and local trade shows. By interacting with local businesses a small business owner has the best chance at locating companies that can be excellent joint venture partners that are currently servicing their exact demographic. The following, highlights a few of the most important aspects of developing joint ventures through participation at local business community events.

Find Industry Groups / Business Owner Gatherings

Determining the type of companies and people that are required to develop the relationships needed to create successful joint ventures is the first thing required before identifying where to meet them. There are lots of places to find information about local business groups and trade shows for industry groups. A few Google searches for trade shows and a specific location will result in lists of venues and upcoming events. Attend relevant events that would be interesting for pursuing companies and individuals of interest to your business. One good source for finding local events is Meetup.com where there are plenty of business / entrepreneur focused groups where business owners get together to talk about business topics as well as industry groups that are interested in a specific niche, like software developers that get together to talk about industry topics.

Develop Relationships with Business Decision Makers

When at business functions and events as a small business owner it is best to focus energies on meeting and spending time talking with individuals that are decision makers. At business events and trade shows time can be wasted interacting with a sales rep that is just looking for sales opportunities. This can be good if there is an existing customer base for your business that aligns with their product or service, but if the desire is to locate new existing customers for a business through joint ventures, spending time with executive management is key and it’s best to avoid the typical sales rep just pitching products and services.

Establish Joint Venture Partnerships with Local Businesses

Reaching out to local businesses to become joint venture partners is a proven way to find more clients in a specific region. For most small business owners the focus is on servicing the local community with a product or service and so developing partners with other local businesses can quickly expand brand awareness to the right demographic of customers. Local business owners will be easier to develop relationships with regardless if a business is planning on only servicing a local region or planning an eventual national or global launch. It’s important that each joint venture is successful to build momentum in the market and maintaining strong communication between partners is more easily done when decision makers for each business are close enough to meet in person.

Don’t Sell – Find Champions Who Sell

When meeting business executives and business decision makers it is important to not spend lots of time selling a product or service, instead develop relationships with others that can become a champion for your product or service to their existing customer base which will lead to your business finding more clients. Build a personal relationship first even though attending business related functions, the business part will always come, but learn the kids and spouse’s names and other details through the conversation to be used in later conversations to develop a personal relationship with a potential business partner. By the time a partnership agreement is on the table and discussions about how to implement the marketing strategies for promoting the joint venture the terms will always be more favorable than if approaching joint venture partnerships from a strictly business perspective when dealing with local business owners.

Find more clients locally by becoming engaged with local business activities such as small business owner events, chambers of commerce, and other business related activities such as industry trade shows. These venues provide the capability to meet with local business decision makers and find individuals that can help really drive a successful joint venture marketing partnership for the long term.

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.

Reasons for Joint Ventures During Uncertain Economic Times

When the economy is in a downturn there are several really good reasons for joint ventures as a way for a struggling company to get the little extra business required to stay afloat and live to do business another day. Joint ventures provide many opportunities for companies to grow into new markets, extract additional revenue from their existing client base, and develop a strong network of other businesses that can be relied upon for supporting their customers to ensure a high level of customer retention. During tough times people do not spend as quickly or freely as during good times and so it’s very important to do everything possible to service existing customers and make it as comfortable as possible for new customers to try a product or service for the first time.

Develop New Customer Acquisition Strategies

One of the best reasons for a joint venture during a time of economic uncertainty is the potential to acquire new customers. Acquiring a customer is expensive and time consuming and the beauty of joint venture marketing partnerships is the potential to market to a partners existing customer base a product or service. Gaining access to customer lists or the capability to have a logo and company description sent out from a V.P. of Sales to existing customers can be a make it or break it opportunity for a small business in a tough economy. If a product or service your company is selling fits well with a partners existing offering you might receive new sales and never have to touch the customer because the partner is handling all of the customer facing activities and delivering your product or service to them directly.

Earn Additional Revenue

Earning additional revenue from an existing client base is an excellent reason for joint venture marketing relationships to be established with companies seeking to market to the demographic of existing customers. During tough economic times companies might be willing to negotiate better referral fees and percentages of revenue for each closed sales lead increasing the value of the partnership. Most small businesses are not servicing their customer’s entire needs and so it’s easy to identify at least 3 or 4 great potential partnerships that could support customers’ needs and put money in the company’s pockets simply for making products and services available to the company’s customers.

Create a Strong Web of Support

It is vital to create strong network of partners during a tough economy. It’s important to remain active pursuing the best and most attractive joint venture opportunities. Companies do fail during bad economies and so it is imperative that if a business has an important joint venture partner that is supporting its clients and putting money in its bank account that there is a backup plan in case a partner goes out of business. While it may not be the number one reason to continue to pursuing joint ventures during tough times, if a company that your business has a relationship with fails, it’s important to be able to quickly replace them with a new partner and promptly provide customers the confidence needed to not jump ship. Failing to not have a backup plan in place for servicing client requirements that are supported by joint venture partners is a big problem, but can be resolved by creating a strong network of associates and even partners that are in place, but not yet fully active.

There are many good reasons for joint venture marketing in a tough economy as well as during good times. Focus on developing strong JV partners to limit potential risks that may occur during a down economy and make sure to continue to track down new opportunities. Every joint venture partner is a new potential channel to acquire fresh customers and at the same time is an opportunity to gain additional revenue from an existing customer base.

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.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

How To Increase Your Wealth Through Joint Ventures

How to increase your wealth is probably one of the most asked questions in the world. The challenge is there are no guaranteed answers for success. Progress depends on your capabilities, education, efforts and opportunities. The potential to increase your wealth on your own is one thing, finding a partner for a joint venture agreement opens up an entirely different pathway.

A joint venture is a business agreement, and the parties are all about contributed equity. In other words what do you bring to the table? So, where do you start when asking how to increase your wealth through joint ventures? Here are a few steps to consider:

Choose the right partner

This is often the hardest part, as the first step is generally the biggest challenge. Everybody will guarantee you the best deal and easy money, but do not fall for it. Carefully consider what your future partner is offering that balances out your areas of weakness. Choose wrong and you can fall further behind the curve because of wasted time and other resources.

Before you even approach someone or respond to a joint venture partnership offer, learn all you can about the individual or organization. Try to discover:

• How well is their business performing?
• What is their motivation for the partnership?
• Are they open to the idea of collaboration?
• Do you have the same business goals?
• What is their reputation in the marketplace?
• What does their financial background look like?

Sharing information and technology

If you want this to work, both sides must act as one. The joint venture partners need full access to technology and financial reports essential for the endeavor. While you need to have a strong working relationship, do not let your guard down as it relates to financial reporting. It is especially relevant to keep track of any business moves, no matter how insignificant they may seem. You should share all relevant information with your joint venture partner, and demand they do the same to avoid surprises down the road.

Take advantage of your partnership

Of course, in a good way! In today’s economy, it’s a challenge for small businesses to survive alone. Withholding key business information can hinder the success of the endeavor. Share market insights, marketing tools and customer contacts where relevant to the success of your joint venture. A partnership can also save you money by eliminating new employee hiring costs. If you attempted to expand on your own when creating new products or services, new staff is often a significant part of the investment costs. Reducing your expenses is an effective answer to the dilemma of how to increase your wealth.

The capacity

Let’s face it some businesses never reach the top on their own. It doesn’t always mean they’re not smart enough but having the right resources could have made the difference. A joint venture partner can help your business grow efficiently and cost effectively. Otherwise you may be full of exciting ideas, but with limited resources, those ideas will never come to life.

Entering a joint venture may be a tough decision, but it is worth taking a chance. Thousands of companies have found JV partnerships are an effective way to answer the question of “how to increase your wealth”. However, in order to achieve success and avoid risky situations, it’s necessary to define the process and take it one step at a time.

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.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

How to Start Your First Partnership Brokering Deal in the Next 24 Hours

Even if you’ve never done a partnership deal before and you’re currently working for a company and you don’t have a product or service of your own, you can start the process to making a profit in less then 24 hours using partnership brokering techniques. If you do have your own product or service you can apply the same partnership brokering strategies.

You can start brokering deals for quick cash and turn that into residual, passive income, repeat the process and compound them into $1000’s a month. This is not a difficult process once you understand the core ideology behind partnership deals. I’ve used the technique many times to generate income to the tune of $500 to $2000 per hour when the deal has run its course.

Let me give you a real-life example that identifies this partnership brokering strategy.

I’ll give one of the easiest partnership strategies that I used back in 1999 to generate $700 for 1 hour of work. When I was working in an insurance company developing a quoting system for a large online insurance application I got the opportunity to work with with the IT Director, Ron, directly. I had been consulting on a technology project for about a year when the need for a particular project came up that was outside my scope of knowledge. It was a new technology that I knew about but was not able to directly deliver what was needed to complete the project. However, I did know of several people through my Asset Network (these are people that I know that have other skills, resources and knowledge outside of my own) that could deliver the needed skills for this upcoming project. One guy in particular who does this type of work full time who’s name was John.

Since I already had built a trusting relationship through the value I provided to the Insurance Company over the last year and I had positioned myself as a “Value Provider”, I made the suggestion to the IT Director that I had access to the needed skill set he was looking for. Now keep in mind I had set myself up from the beginning as a “Value Provider” and not just a single source consultant that could only provide value for the skills I was hired for.  At the time I positioned myself as a “Technology Value Provider” so when other projects would come up and a need for other skill sets would arise, I could be in the position to solve the problem. I told Ron I had a qualified person that specializes in the skill set he needed. He told me to setup a discovery meeting where all of us could meet and discuss the project. We had the meeting, Ron was satisfied with what John could provide so we setup a time line on the project, discussed the rates and decided to move forward.

Total time on this project was about an hour and my commission for recommending John, as a solution to Ron’s current problem, setting up and managing the process was $700. Not bad for thinking out of the box by recommending a solution that I couldn’t provide, but knew of someone who could. How could you apply this example to a person or company where you can position yourself as problem solver and earn a commission for your efforts?

So what are the take away points that you can use immediately to start creating partnership brokering income? Regardless of what your skill sets are, you should always position yourself as a “Value Provider” and not just pigeon hole yourself into thinking that you only have skills in X, Y and Z. Instead, position yourself as a business development consultant as every company is in search of new clients and someone who can solve business related problems. Once a company or person sees you as a problem solver and you can deliver on what you say you can do, you could have a client for life. That client will gladly pay you a commission; a one time payment or even an ongoing residual income for solving their business related problems through your combining, recommending and advising them with resources you have access to.

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.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Talking Points You Need to Know Before Forming a Joint Venture

There are many situations in the diverse world of business today that justify the need to enter into a joint venture marketing partnership. After hearing about joint venture marketing, someone might be excited about having their business transformed by creating an alliance with another successful and related business. However, the business world is full of rough-and-tumble personalities which will require you to tread cautiously in order to function efficiently and avoid getting the short end of the stick so to speak when it comes to a JV agreement. Here are several key points you cannot afford to ignore before entering a joint venture partnership.

Do the companies complement each other?

First of all, the potential partners should deliver a product and/or service that complements or at the very least is related to both companies. Obviously you’ll want to avoid partnering with a business that competes directly with your company’s products or services. Offering complimentary products or services in your new joint venture will go a long way to make the partnership a successful one. For example, home décor products would go well with a company that provides consumer electronics.

Does your potential JV partner have a compatible strategy?

The scope of the other partner’s strategy should not clash with yours. If you have a long-term plan in mind, it wouldn’t make sense to partner with a company that’s only in the market for the summer. Keep in mind the scope of your combined strategy will also influence things such as marketing plans, employee recruitment and training, and other short-term goals you may have for your business. Additionally, the combined strategy, whether it’s capital intensive or labor intensive will depend on the size of the businesses involved.

Another factor to take into consideration when reviewing whether or not you and your potential partner’s strategies are compatible is each company’s timeline. Know how soon the other partner plans to do some crucial tasks. Know how often they borrow or pay off loans. Without time lines, a business is just drifting with the current, lunging at any piece of business that drifts downstream. This is clearly not how a profitable business should operate. It’s also wise to crosscheck what customer base the other business already boasts. What quality is there and what room for improvement exists?

Is your potential JV partner financially sound?

Finally, the capital base that exists should be given top priority at the outset. Can you picture entering into a joint venture marketing agreement with a company that is going to declare bankruptcy tomorrow? Often, the integrity of both partners to the businesses will take a beating if one of the two declares that he cannot meet financial obligations. It’s highly recommended to have an attorney draft up an agreement to clearly outline which obligations, whether financial or otherwise, will be handled by which partner. That way, it’s not one person holding the reins of the agreement. The golden rule is being willing to treat the other partner’s business as if it were your own.

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.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

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