What Should Be In Your Business Partner Training Binder?

When forming a new joint venture marketing partnership it’s always a good idea to put together a training binder that has information about your company, the products and services the business provides and key details that are relevant to the business partnership. Training a business partner to execute the partnership in the right manner is critical to successfully finding new clients. Here’s a short overview of the standard documents that should be included in a binder that is provided to your business partner.

A binder that is provided to key executives and the one that is handed off to a person that is just involved in one element of a business partnership should be adjusted accordingly, however it is important that key individuals have a clear understanding of your business and the details of the relationship.

Binder Documents

• Executives should have a copy of the partnership agreement included in the binder.

• List of contacts based on role within partnership. It is always good to have at least two contacts for each vital link inside of a business partnership in order to resolve critical problems when needed.

• Current and future co-marketing campaign budgets should be included depending upon recipient.

• Flow charts for exchange of data, client information, client referrals, sales information, customer service requests and any other specific part of business transactions that occur based on the joint venture. Only include what each party requires.

• Company information, basic overview of company.

• Product and Services information. In depth information about the company’s product and services, pricing, etc.

• Incentives. Depending on the role within the company each joint venture partnership should include bonus incentives for employees that perform and excel in their roles of executing a successful partnership. For sales organizations this may already be included however; other positions that require additional work to perform the new duties should experience rewards of a successful business venture as well.

• Additional document. Depending on the businesses involved there may be additional information that companies wish to share with each other including demographic data, client information, and many more details.

Be sure to use a cloud based document storage service and keep a copy of your training binder available for all parties that require it.

The training binder is intended to serve the purpose of reinforcing the partnership agreement and act as an implementation tool for kick starting the business relationship. When distributing the binder to the appropriate people there should also be a timeline of when activities will begin and the flow charts will be followed. Create a visually appealing template that can be used for that specific partnership and any new clients or businesses that join the partnership in the future. Take the time necessary to clearly write out the details needed in the training binder and the chances for success will increase.

A well trained business partner will understand your business thoroughly and be able to sell your company and its products or services to new clients, which is ultimately the point in creating a joint venture marketing relationship in the first place. A well trained sales team that has been provided the right information will always deliver better results than the sales team that is given minimal or incomplete information and asked to educate themselves concerning the company’s products and services. By training your partners in a consistent manner, even when personnel change occurs during the course of the partnership and it will continue to remain productive and profitable due to the core training you have in place.

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.

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

Equip a Sales Team with iPads and Close New Clients Faster

joint venture marketing

If you’re seeking a way to improve your sales team that’s servicing referrals from a joint venture marketing partner and want to increase their productivity while meeting with new clients than consider equipping them with an Apple Pad. The iPad will allow your sales team members to have access to more information as well as be able to actively input customer information and requirements into your companies database while away from their desks.

This will not only help increase their efficiency, it will allow your company to represent a business that is serious about providing customers with top level service. By embracing new technology a business is able to portray an image of being with the times and maximizing tools that can improve their business which conveys an image in the mind of the customers that you are very professional and serious about securing their business.

iPad Improves Your Sales Team

The iPad is similar to a laptop however, it is easily usable in a meeting as it does not take up a large footprint on the table or block the view of the person you’re meeting with. Yet it can access the web, email, and have materials ready to easily share with a new client prospect such as marketing collateral, videos of the product in the field or testimonials from happy clients.

Apps a Sales Team Should Have When Meeting With New Clients

Quickoffice Pro HD – This app gives you access to the Microsoft suite of office tools like word, excel, and power point including the ability to open PDF’s. It’s important to have an app like this so that the sales team can read file attachments they receive in their email. The app also has a great drag and drop feature for sending files. Rather than telling a new client that they will receive an email later with additional details to review, they can send a copy right then in a meeting. If a customer is intent on moving forward right now, the sales representative can make a few adjustments to a purchase order and have the contract in the new customers email inbox before they leave the premises.

Penultimate - A note taking app that allows a sales representative to take handwritten notes using a stylus on the iPad to then save and send if needed to other team members to stay up to speed regarding the meeting with a new client. These notes can also be attached to a customer relationship management database for keeping a very current file on the new client.

Dropbox - The Dropbox solution allows your team members to have files easily available. This is great for companies that have many products and accompanying product spec sheets and marketing collateral. It may be difficult to know exactly which products and solutions a new client from a joint venture partner is actually seeking so by having all of the marketing files at a swipe of a finger, can be impressive and deliver what the customer needs to make a buy decision. This is great for product demo videos and other marketing information.

ListMonger - Is an easy to use task management app that can be shared amongst sales team when a new client comes on board everyone on the team can be up to date with the status of the project. This can help manage traveling sales member’s daily schedule and make sure that they do not forget to also update the business tracking system after a meeting and to send emails and whatever else is required post meeting.

Office Time – This app is a simple and effective time tracker app. The sales member can record the time on the road and time in meetings for the day with new clients. While your pay structure may not require a sales member to report the exact time worked each day this data can be very helpful to determine the overall ROI of a joint venture partner by tracking the amount of time that is spent on each referred customer. This is valuable information that can be shared with a partner if required to show the customer care and time that is being devoted to the partnership.

There are dozens more apps that will help your sales team close new clients faster if they are carrying an iPad when they are out on the road meeting business leads. Of course the staples like Maps, email, and Facetime which allows for a video conference with another iPhone or iPad owner is worth it for increasing productivity, it’s the full package of business apps that can make a sales team drastically more efficient. If you have been looking for something to motivate as well as reward your sales team to increase performance consider getting them iPads, it will not only make their daily routine more efficient and allow them to close deals faster, but they can also enjoy the iPad during non-business hours and is a great way to show appreciation for your team.

joint venture marketing

The Players in a Joint Venture Marketing Team

The amount of people who will participate in a joint venture project depends on both the size of the companies and the size of the project that is being attempted. For two very small businesses it might be as simple as two company owners meeting together to discuss their plans. Usually, however, the team structure is more complex.

The governing body

It is common practice for both companies to have an equal number of representatives participating on the project. This way neither company feels as though it’s at a disadvantage. This governing body will protect the interests of all involved in the project. While they will have loyalties to their own company, their primary goal is to see that the project is completed fairly and successfully. The greater the size of the company, the larger the team can be. It is important that there are enough people who are part of the governing body to get the project done according to the projected time line, but it’s also important that the companies do not pull too many people away from their regular responsibilities. While the joint venture marketing project is important, it’s also important that the rest of the business continues to function effectively. It is not uncommon for companies to hire new people just to make sure that the business does not suffer.

The management team

It is also customary for there to be a management team. These people will be given the task of overseeing individual aspects of the project. Dividing the work load up allows for more personal attention to be paid to every aspect. These people are often supervisors or managers from their respective companies. They work hand-in-hand with the governing body; overseeing tasks that have been divided up and assigned for completion. It’s important that the company be able to keep the people in their group on task at all times while being able to add creative insight to the project. Oftentimes their jobs are more difficult because in addition to being part of the management team for the project, they are also still required to effectively do their job as supervisor or manager for the rest of the business.

The financial team

There is usually a financial team as well. As the investment of most joint venture marketing projects can be quite high, the job of the financial team is to keep all of the finances in order and try to keep the cost of the project within the projected budget. They research the best deals on anything that needs to be purchased and calculate the projected revenue for each aspect of the project. The more ways they can find to make and save money, the more successful the project will be. They also have the task of making sure the cost of the project is divided up between the two companies in the way initially agreed upon. Because of this it is very important that there are an equal number of people from both companies represented on the financial team. Neither company wants to feel that it is at a financial disadvantage for any reason.

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.

Preparing Your Staff for a Joint Venture

You might think your upcoming joint venture will be a boon to your business, but your staff may not be so sure. Most employees tremble at the thought of any sort of change to their current business status, especially a change that encompasses bringing an entire company onboard to increase your customer base and profits.

To ensure your joint venture is a success for everyone involved, it is a good idea to properly prepare your staff for the potential changes that are ahead. We have tips to help you help your staff transition into your new joint venture with ease.

Know Your Plan

Before you communicate your joint venture plans to the rest of your staff, know what those plans specifically entail. It may be best to approach your staff with the idea after you and your JV partner have put your strategies in writing. This includes knowing the precise reasons you entered into the agreement in the first place, so you can easily articulate the potential benefits to your staff.

It is also good to know what your overall objectives are and how the anatomy of the partnership will look to reassure your employees of their role in the process.

Adjust Your HR Philosophies

If the joint venture will affect your staff’s responsibilities or training, adjust your human resources procedures to match those changes. For example, train staff to properly manage customers that might come from your JV partner, give them the necessary resources to handle a larger customer load and communicate a change in corporate culture if one is to be expected.

It is also a good idea to develop incentive programs that reward current employees based on the success of the joint venture to help get them onboard with the partnership.

Acknowledge Your Staff’s Value

Changes in a business can always leave some employees feeling less than secure, so offer reassurances to your staff by recognizing their value and rewarding it accordingly. If you have an employee with specific skills that would be beneficial to the joint venture, talk to that individual about how he can become an intricate part of the process. Take the time to talk to your staff about their feelings towards the upcoming change and address their concerns as they arise.

Open communication will go a long way in showing your employees they are valued and that their positions will be secure throughout the endeavor.

The most important way to get your staff enthused about your upcoming venture is with communication. Let your employees know what is coming, so they don’t feel blindsided during the process. Appoint a leadership person to communicate the details regularly if you don’t have time to do so yourself. Exude a positive attitude toward your new partnership and your staff will be more likely to do so as well. An accepting staff is an important component to a successful joint venture, both now and well into the future.

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.