The JV University

OK, so many people still don’t understand this LUCRATIVE marketing strategy (which may be an advantage to those that do), so here it is again.

A Joint Venture (also known as jv’s or strategic alliances) is an arrangement that will be of mutual benefit between two (or more) people, businesses or companies who have complimentary resources. What do I mean by resources? I mean products, services and a customer list (or mailing list) that has a relationship with the list owner.

Joint Ventures are a very powerful but underutilised marketing strategy. Yet, according to the legendary Jay Abraham less than 5% of all business owners use joint ventures properly and most don’t know how to use them at all. Joint Ventures are successful because of the old business rule that says: “People like to buy from someone they know and trust”.

The best JV is when one company endorses (recommends) someone else’s product or services to their customer list that they have a relationship with and both share the additional profits. This is a win/win arrangement!

More…

There are many advantages joint venturing with offline businesses. You could increase your target market by reaching audiences you couldn’t advertise to before. You could get referrals from the offline businesses you joint venture with.

The key to joint venturing with offline businesses is to find ones that have the same target audience. If you’re selling business software, you wouldn’t want to joint venture with a store that sells candy. You won’t be very successful. You would want to joint venture with an office supply or computer store.

Below are three possible joint venture deals you could set up:

1. Write a tip booklet that is related to your business. Make a deal with an offline store where they giveaway your tip booklet to their shoppers with each purchase. The store you pick should attract your target audience. The store could have something free to giveaway to attract shoppers and you could have your web site ad in the tip booklet.

2. Design a printed flyer for your online business. The flyer should include a description of your web site, e-mail address, web address and any other important information. Make a deal with an offline store to have them include the flyer in each bag of products they sell in exchange for free advertising on your web site.

3. Make a deal with a computer store to have them display your web site on the computers they display in their store in exchange for free advertising on your web site or in your e-mail newsletter.

More…

Are you overlooking  strategic alliances because you call them “competitors”? It is amazing how many business owners and corporate employees view similar businesses strictly as “competitors”. And its sad that these same business professionals throw away some of the best opportunities they face, if only they could see the opportunity.

What do I mean by that? If I own an Italian restaurant isn’t every other restaurant in the city or town my competitor, my archrival? Well, maybe, but not necessarily; but for sure they are just a rival if that’s how you choose to look upon their business and treat them.

A wiser approach would be to look upon these other businesses and think, “OK, so we compete for some of the same clientele or market. But, what can that business and mine offer each other that is mutually beneficial? In what ways can we work together without being at risk?”

My first thoughts in the Italian restaurant example are these: If I need a part-time employee, perhaps another restaurant has a good solid employee that could use more work. Perhaps the other restaurant doesn’t have that many hours to offer. But, if I have contacts within the other restaurant’s management, then we can save one of us an employee turnover and the other would get good help to fill a part-time position.

If I am having problems with a vendor and their supplies, I could call up the another restaurant manager and “compare notes”. I could get and/or share very valuable information that doesn’t hurt either business, but helps both of us in many ways. If you think about this scenario for just a few minutes, I bet you can come up with some other examples quite easily.

More…

What makes 5% of solopreneurs successful is this: they’re using the one simple, yet highly effective, marketing strategy that always gets you more clients and appointments.

As you read on, you’ll learn what this is and how you, too, can start using it today to…

* Get more clients and appointments,
* Increase your income, and
* Build a successful, thriving practice.

More…

One of the fastest growing trends during this recession for business today is the increasing number of strategic alliances. According to Booz-Allen & Hamilton, strategic alliances are sweeping through nearly every industry and are becoming an essential driver of superior growth. Alliances range in scope from an informal business relationship based on a simple contract to a joint venture agreement in which for legal and tax purposes either a corporation or partnership is set up to manage the alliance.

For small businesses, strategic alliances are a way to work together with others towards a common goal while not losing their individuality. Alliances are a way of reaping the rewards of team effort – and the gains from forming strategic alliances appear to be substantial. Companies participating in alliances report that at much as 18 percent of their revenues comes from their alliances.

But it isn’t just profit that is motivating this increase in alliances. Other factors include an increasing intensity of competition, a growing need to operate on a global scale, a fast changing marketplace, and industry convergence in many markets (for example, in the financial services industry, banks, investment firms, and insurance companies are overlapping more and more in the products they supply).

Especially in a time when growing international marketing is becoming the norm, these partnerships can leverage your growth through alliances with international partners. Rather than take on the risk and expense that international expansion can demand, one can enter international markets by finding an appropriate alliance with a business operating in the marketplace you desire to enter.

More…

I’m a big fan of networking to build your business.

So here I want to go over an opportunity that people are missing big time when trying to build their networks and make friends with people, especially when they’re at a business networking event.

Firstly “work the room” and collect as many cards as you possibly can, take a real interest in them, and certainly make friends. If you can meet 4 people and have a genuine conversation with each of them, then you’ve had a successful event.

Networking is about making relationships, so try to figure out what that person needs and wants – this will make you more comfortable to deal with and trusted.

When someone offers you their card, please don’t refuse to take it, as I saw someone do to a friend of mine recently. This guy thought he was doing my pal a favour, as he didn’t want to take a card unnecessarily, but he ended up being ridiculed by me, and upsetting my friend.

You can always throw it away later (although you never know if that person might be useful, so I wouldn’t) but there’s really no need to be rude. Think about how you might feel if someone did that to you – it wouldn’t feel good.

One thing that I see too often is the phrase, ‘Call me or I will call you’ which rarely happens…

Instead become a matchmaker for people in the room (each person will be worth something to someone) talk to people, understand them and seek out hidden opportunities or hidden assets that particular person is not leveraging.

More…

Below are the key steps in writing a killer JV proposal:

1.     Use a captivating headline or opening sentence that offers your JV partner a great benefit, picques their curiosity and compels them to read your whole letter. If the headline and/or opening sentence is targeted and good enough, they will read the next one etc. If any part of your offer is not compelling enough, they won’t read the rest and you will lose them.

2.    Introduce and present yourself in such a way as to show them that you are serious, professional and trustworthy.

3.    Make sure you are very clear as to what you want to do. Specify all the ideas and plans that you have in mind. Being vague will not work in your favour as people are busy.

4.    Make your prospects feel unique and special.

5.    Make your offer hard to resist. Remember that you have to sell your joint venture to your potential partner. Write it like a sales letter and do not hard-sell them. Pull them into your offer, incite them to accept your offer.

6.    Explain who you are, how long you have been in business, what your product or service is like, how many people you have in your customer list, how responsive they are, your website URL, your conversion rate and any other info that you believe would be of interest to the other party for them to make an educated decision.

7.    Make it look simple. Keep it organized and logical.

More…

Please find the link below to details on our new 12 Week ‘International Joint Venture Broker Certification Program’ with me, Gina Gaudio-Graves, Willie Crawford and David Preston – we only have a few slots available now for the next few days, so you need to hurry!

For more details and to enroll please click the link below:

http://www.milliondollarjvbroker.com 

Please find what you will learn in the 12 week curriculum below:

Week 1 – Introduction to Joint Ventures
What is a Joint Venture?
Creating the WIN-WIN-WIN Scenario
Finding Prospective Joint Venture Partners
The Right Mindset for Joint Venture Success
The Biggest Mistakes
Q & A

Week 2 – Relationship Building 101
Serving vs. Selling
The RIGHT Way and the WRONG Way to Approach Prospective JV Partners
Stealth Tactics for Getting Noticed by JV Partners
Strategic Relationship Building
Q & A

Week 3 – Finding and Working With Your Clients
Finding Clients ONline
Finding Clients OFFline
Evaluating Opportunities to Locate Potential Clients (i.e. “The Million Dollar JV Formula”)
Value Added Propositions and Easy to Set-Up JV’s
Q & A

Week 4 – What Kind of JV Should You Use?
Building the WIN-WIN-WIN Proposition
Examples of Successful Joint Ventures
LIVE Intake Assessment and Evaluation
Q & A

More…

What if there was a way for you to not only help your current clients make money quickly in the current economy but also for you to profit from it without ‘any work’ on your part?

You see ALL your clients have under-utilized resources that can be leveraged. These resources could include employees, inventory, office space, advertising space, expertise, money, distribution, databases, customers… the list goes on and on.

So as a Joint Venture Broker you need to understand your client’s business (which you do) and the business owner’s real needs (which you already know).

Once you know what they really want, what their customer acquisition costs are and you have a good idea of the potential lifetime value of each of their customers, you are in a very good position to put together deals between your existing clients.

And of course, you just take a cut of the resulting business! EASY!

More…

JV Brokering is such a lucrative and exclusive field. Knowing all the advantages you can derive in a career as a JV broker will develop within you a love for this job like I have. Loving your work is essential to your success, of course.

JV brokering, you see, is a highly creative business. It may not seem apparent right now, but trust me, there is more creativity involved in JV brokering than in any other field of marketing.

JV brokering, being the highly creative avenue that it is, will require a passion for the business. This is why you should love what you’re doing.

Let’s take a look at the benefits that can be brought about by becoming a JV broker:

• More…