Use Joint Ventures in Your Small Business to Create Sales

Today I'm going to share with you one of the quickest, most powerful ways to drive new customers to your small business with no money upfront.

I will give you the technique and also give you multiple ways that you can utilize them.

I'm sure if you've been reading, or you know from your own experience, attracting people of interest and that are qualified is the biggest and can be most expensive task we have as business owners. Now the key to really growing your business and to really dominate your target market is to create a system to attract qualified customers "relatively cheap".

So how do you go about setting up these lead generating systems? Well, the first thing you need to understand is who is your ideal customer? What are they like? Where do they live? Where do they shop? What other services do they already purchase?

Once you are able to answer these questions, make a list of businesses, or other services providers that are already servicing your ideal customer.

Next step... approach the other business and then ask them if they would be interested in a "joint venture". For those of you who don't know what that is...its just a partnership where you help each other get more customers (like a referral system between two businesses).

The type of system you create will depend on the type of business you are dealing with, your goals of the partnership and how much you are willing to spend.

There are pretty much endless possibilities but I will give you two examples here to get your mind running.

If you are dealing with a place that makes transactions at the cash register like a restaurant, hair/nail salon, car wash, etc., you can create a business size card that offers a free or discounted service.

Just approach the business owner and tell them that you would like to give them an opportunity to reward their customers with a FREE gift. Explain to them what your free or discounted offer is and let them know that all they need to do is place a stack of cards next to their register. As their customers are paying, they will notice the card, see that it's a 'gift for being a valued customer', and take one.

When I had my restaurant, I printed hundreds of these business cards on my printer, the other side was a regular business card with address, phone, website, etc...

Notice this contains the elements of a direct response ad.  It has a bold capitivating headline, an offer, a deadline.

Many people thought I was crazy for giving away a FREE meal but when looking at the "life time value" (LTV) of a customer.  We were making out great.  The cost of one meal was about $4.00 but the average customers were spending $23.50 after the discount.  That $23.50 I wouldn't have had without giving something away.

But the best part was I gained a new customer.  If they liked us, they dined say once a month (conservative estimate) with an average ticket of $28.00.  That's $336 per year and many customers stuck with us for 2 or more years!

What a ROI!

The card shown above was one of my earlier cards because it had the restrictions.  When I changed it to read FREE Meal (up to $10) No Strings Attached!  That raised the response rates but the funny thing is people ended up spending more!  

You definitely have to test and track when doing these types of promotions.  Track where they are coming fom, how much are they spending from each place, tweak the offer at different places.  If your  LTV is really high, you can afford to "reward" your new customers more.  

Well, what if your ideal customers aren't at those fast transaction places?  If you find your best clients frequent nicer businesses like chiropractors' offices, spas, or live at a particular apartment complex you can use a similar tactic with a twist.  Create a flyer, but make it look like it is a gift from the business.

Here's an example of what I did for an apartment complex.  This flye made the apartments look good so they wanted to hand these out to everyone that came in and it worked great for us because we got qualified customers and the customers loved it cause they got Great food and an awesome price.  Win/Win/Win . 

With offers like this, if you make the other business look good and make their customers happy, they will be begging you to keep allowing them to promote for you.  In the future I will show you how I was able to make money from businesses who wanted these so badly.

As I said the possibilities are endless to this.  In the future I will give many more examples.

Now, as the name Joint Venture suggests, this is a two way street.  In the 1st example, most businesses will  want you to do something for them as well.  So figure out how you can help them get more customers as well.  Most likely "reward" your customers with their services.  Your customers will be appreciative and make your new partner happy as well.

Finally, the hardest part of this whole "joint venture" is finding businesses who will actually agree to participate.   Well, in reality...it only takes one.  Once you are able to establish at least one of these relationships and things are going well, ask the business owner to write a testimonial explaining the relationship and how beneficial it's been for them.  Then bring that around to other businesses you have on your list.  

The way I got started was just by asking loyal customers of my restaurant that owned businesses to participate.  

Well I could really go on and on with these examples but for many, this could already be a lot to swallow.  The key here is to take immediate action.  Make your lists up and get going.  The cards or flyers don't have to be fancy at first, just test and modify if needed.

If you have any questions or comments leave them below.

Until next time,

Crush it,

John Barry

The Marketing Guy

Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/realjohnbarry