How To Generate Fantastic, Profitable JV Deals …. From People You Already Know !
What every JVer wants to know, of course, is how to find great JV partners. Well, they’re literally everywhere. But offering your JV deal to complete strangers is not the best (or easiest) way. Actually, the people you already know could be the source of the very best JV opportunities.
I’m not talking about your family and friends here. I’m talking about those individuals and businesses with whom you already have a working relationship. These people already know and trust you, so it is relatively easy to leverage off that relationship to get them to either do a deal directly ….. or maybe introduce you to someone who will.
To make this method really effective, you need to think of possible partners in one of three groups:
HOT: Individuals and businesses you already have a business relationship with.
WARM: Individuals and businesses you already know about, but who don’t yet know you.
COLD: Individuals and businesses you don’t yet know at all!
In this article I will explain how to find and target your HOT prospects. Another time I’ll tell you about finding and exploiting WARM and COLD prospects.
Finding Your Hot Prospects
Before you get started on this process you must know who your hot prospects actually are. Knowing your hottest markets will save you weeks of time (and frustration) and help you find the very best prospective JV partners to approach.
Let’s imagine, for example, you’re selling healthy eating and nutrition DVD’s. You could try offering your deal to any and every health products company on a ‘cold’ basis. But chances are that, because the market is so large, it would be jolly hard work to approach them all …. and hard to get your message over because most of them will never have heard of you either.
So try homing in on your hot market instead. Start by thinking about all the businesses YOU are a customer of – and about THEIR customers – and consider offering them your JV deal first of all.
Using Naturally Existing Economic Relationships
The idea of targeting individuals and businesses you already know is called NEER – using Naturally Existing Economic Relationships. NEER was first devised by Walter Hailey a one time small-town America insurance salesman. Walter used NEER to build a multi-billion dollar business, and shares his methods in a best selling book‘The Billion Dollar Battle Plan for Getting to Yes’.
Naturally Existing Economic Relationships are present in every business. Some of the people you have a NEER with include: Your bank, lawyer, accountant, doctor, web host, merchant account provider, Internet service provider etc. Basically anyone who buys from you or who you buy something from on a regular basis is someone with whom you have a NEER. The clever thing is to identify and leverage off these relationships to get the people you sell to and those you buy from to endorse your products and services to their customers.
In the case of a healthy eating and nutrition DVD, for example, you could do much worse than offering a JV deal to your gym (if you have one). Why? Because you already have an existing relationship with this company. Every year you probably pay them hundreds of pounds for their services. So, this gives you a foot in the door. It gives you an enormous amount of leverage because you’re not just some stranger pitching another offer to them. What smart business wouldn’t want to hear from one of their customers offering them a way to make even more money and improve their relationship with their other customers too? (And – most important of all – they could have thousands of other members who are eager to buy your DVD!)
When you do this just remember that, just because there is a NEER between you, does not guarantee you a JV partner. Bear in mind your product/service must be something that your potential partner’s customers actually want. In other words their customers must be in the target market for your product too.
Having said that, don’t give up if their customers AREN’T in your target market. Instead, ask them if they have a NEER with someone else who might be interested in a JV deal – then ask them if they would be willing to introduce you.
Five Simple Steps To Exploiting Hot Prospects
1. Make a list of all the people with whom you have an existing working relationship or NEER. Include everyone you buy from and everyone you sell to.
2. Decide if THEIR customers are likely buyers for YOUR product.
3. Divide these people into two categories: If the customers of those you have a NEER with are likely buyers for your product rank them ‘category A’. If their
customers are not likely buyers of your product rank them category ‘B’.
4. Call, e-mail, write to or personally visit every company ranked ‘A’. Remind them of your NEER. Then explain you have a product or service that would greatly benefit their customers – and you would like them to consider endorsing it to their list in exchange for a split of the profits.
5. Once you have exhausted all the opportunities in ‘A’ do the same thing with those in ‘B’. Even if it appears their customers will have absolutely no interest in your product. Ask if they know of anyone else who might be interested in recommending your products to their customers – and if so use your NEER with them to request an introduction.
Quite simply this is THE VERY BEST WAY to locate prospective JV partners. Because of the Naturally Existing Economic Relationship you have with these people you will find that the majority will be interested in either partnering with you or referring you on.
Lastly, here’s another idea to try once you’ve exploited all your NEER possibilities – or in the very rare event you don’t have any. It’s simplicity itself: Just go out and start using the products/services of companies who you think might have customers who will be interested in yours. Once you become their customer you’re well on the way to creating a new hot prospect. Very clever!
I’ll tell you all about exploiting warm and cold prospects in another article shortly.