HOW TO REALLY BOOST YOUR BUSINESS WITH JOINT VENTURE MARKETING

Imagine you were on a TV quiz programme and the million pound question was “If two horses can pull a total load of 9,000 pounds, how many pounds can FOUR horses pull?If you were like me, your initial answer would be to say that four horses could pull a total load of 18,000 pounds. Sounds reasonable — but it’s wrong and you have lost your million pound prize!!Four horses combined efforts can actually pull a total load of over 30,000 pounds. This amazing achievement is possible because of something called synergy (synergy is the scientific term for combined power that is greater than the sum of it’s components).

Synergy is also a good description of the real power behind a very successful promotional strategy called Joint Venture Marketing (JVM). In brief JVM involves two or more companies conducting joint marketing campaigns on a co-operative basis, to promote each other’s company, products or services. When done properly, this form of marketing is very powerful and will result in greater success when conducted in a combined team effort between several companies.

The potential benefits of JVM for your own company could be many, on the operational side this would include; huge savings on marketing costs (from 50%), greater ROI, sharing of skills, technology, resources etc.

Actual marketing benefits from JVM would include; wider exposure, higher promotional response, greater sales results, new business contacts, extended client base, higher company profile and greater credibility for your business.

Companies of all sizes continually conduct JVM campaigns; some multi-nationals such as Coca Cola, Mattel, McDonalds etc. use JVM very successfully.

JVM methods are many and varied and can be used in ALL forms of marketing strategies including; advertising, mail-shots, PR, exhibitions, networking and especially the Internet. All types and sizes of businesses can conduct JVM strategies and normally all partners in a JVM group are non-competitive and their services and products compliment and promote each other.

Try and form marketing partnerships with people and companies you already know and can work with, these can also include your own clients and suppliers. Choose potential partners on how their products and services could compliment your own business and how you could do the same for them.

Well-established businesses with an excellent background, reputation and integrity, large client bases, with good client relationships etc. would obviously make the best JVM partners. Having an association with top quality, highly respected companies would greater increase your own company’s profile and credibility.

Choose your marketing partners carefully, only form associations with companies who have a referral mindset, a positive attitude, are very customer focused and have excellent business and professional ethics, background, reputation and financial status.

First develop a basic marketing strategy plan to present to potential partners (can be done with the help of a specialised JVM consultant). When the JVM group has been formed, developed the strategy plan further, finalised and agreed (in writing) by all partners.

Most ideas for JVM strategies are quite simple, but there is always plenty of scope for new innovated ideas, which maximises the power of joint promotions i.e.

Advertising – Following a proven format, partners can combine their advertising budgets and strategies to get bigger and better coverage from running joint adverts.

Public Relations – Conduct a long-term PR campaign submitting any interesting story, or information article you can provide on any member of the group or the group itself.

Endorsement Marketing - Endorsement is very powerful promotional strategy for members of a JVM group and can be done directly when networking or by sending personal letters of recommendation directly to a client base. A well-written endorsement letter can easily achieve a high response of around 30% - 50% if certain rules are followed.

Newsletters are an excellent JVM promotional medium, which can be used to promote all partners in a JVM group.

Vouchers are a really exceptional promotional incentive to use in a long-term JVM strategy programme. When all JVM members proactively operate a voucher incentive scheme, it will offer one of the best and most cost effective ways of getting free promotion and potential new long-term clients.

Competitions – Promote like a voucher scheme. All partners collectively help fund a central attractive competition prize(s) to clients, making this form of incentive marketing very cost effective.

Internet – all partner’s websites can be reciprocally linked to each other, providing opportunities for a lot of additional free traffic, greater profile, affiliated income, higher ratings with search engines etc.

Forming a JVM group can initially be a bit involved, but the effort will be well rewarded with the huge savings on marketing costs, greater sales results and lots of new business.

In cases of small JVM projects involving just 2 – 3 companies, with zero or very little marketing investment, management of the project should be easily conducted between all partners. For larger, long-term and more extensive JVM projects, it would be wise to commission an experienced JVM marketing consultant to help develop and project manage the whole strategy programme.

If all members in a JVM group worked in a positive, proactive and determined matter, promoting each other extensively and the group as a whole, then the driving force and results will far exceed the effort placed by all members. This “synergy” is a major contribution to the success behind a professional run joint venture marketing programme.

If you are looking for a sound approach to expand your company, increase sales and profile at minimum cost and with best results, then seriously consider joint venture marketing as part, or all of your future marketing strategy.

Appreciate Your Customers and They Will Appreciate You with More Referrals

It’s mid October and only a few weeks to Christmas, a good time of year to show appreciation to your customers for their business. But why do your ask? After all you give your customers the usual good service, annual hospitality and Christmas cards, that’s enough isn’t it?

Here’s a good question, how many times do your suppliers show you their “personal” and sincere appreciation of your business?

Not many I think, how would you feel if they wrote to you stating “Thanks for your business for 2007” etc, no doubt you would think much better of them for showing their appreciation and would certainly wish to continue your relationship with them and refer them extensively. So what is to stop you doing the same with your own customers?

There are several benefits for you and your business in conducting a simple annual “Thank You for Your Business Letter” NOT AN EMAIL, a personal letter is best. They are simply and easy to do, low cost, takes little time, gains high appreciation, satisfaction and loyalty from customers and also offers the potential to obtain customer feed back data.

I generally send such a letter annually, preferably just prior to the Christmas season or just after the New Year. Either is good and you can do it on both occasions using different message formats i.e. “Thank You” format for thanking for pass business and a “Appreciated Format” for anticipated business for the forthcoming year.

Such a letter could be based on the following template;

“Dear John

Thank you for being A valued client and for your business in 2007

I hope this letter finds you well and that business is good.

I am writing to thank you for your business in 2007. We appreciate you using our company and we hope you are pleased with the results of our services and any benefits and value we provide to JS Industries.

We wish to maximise the standards of our services to all our clients and we would greatly appreciate your feedback, ideas and input on how we achieve this aim. We have enclosed a simple customer survey form for this purpose.

To further show our appreciation we have enclosed some high value special offer vouchers from top quality alliance partners and Christmas suppliers who include; jewellers, restaurants, gift, clothes, shoe shops, travel agents etc.

We hope you have a really great festive season and a prosperous New Year.

Best regards",

Etc…..

Note adding the high quality vouchers (which will not cost you anything) gives greater value to your letter.

I guarantee if you send out a letter of appreciation it would be well received by your customers who would like it and rate you highly. This small gesture will help to increase referrals, sales, profits, satisfaction, loyalty and business growth.

When you focus on your customers your customers will focus on you

Setting Up a Successful Referral Marketing Programme in Your Business

Many companies make the mistake of concentrating all their marketing activities, commitment and budget promoting “cold” to prospects who do not know them, when potentially all the business they could possibly want is much easier available and at a great deal lower cost through their own customers.

It makes a great deal of sense to focus more on people who have already bought off you, possibly trust you and are happy with you, your company and your product and service, then to try and sell to a total stranger with all the challenges that represents.

Most customers only know approx. 40% about the products and services their suppliers provide, so there is a great of potential for up-sales, before you seek any new business. The most powerful and low cost marketing concept that still works successfully is “word of mouth”, with approx. 80% of companies getting 70% of their business through referrals from satisfied customers and other contacts.

But these factors are based on you TOTALLY FOCUSING on your customers, and not taking them for granted and ignoring them as most companies do. What efforts you put into focusing on your own customers, you will reap back many times over in referred business, sales, profits, customer satisfaction and loyalty and continuous business growth.

It is not enough to think you just have to give a customary "good service" and your customers will love you and give you all you referrals you want, you have to first "Qualify" for their "Investment" in your business and for the privilege of receiving their referrals. The only way you can do this is to totally focus on your customers in a systamic and structured way.

The challenge with word of mouth is that it is generally spontaneous and unpredictable and companies only get a fraction of the referrals they should be getting. There are many reasons for this; the main one is that companies do not have a planned strategy to maximise their word of mouth referrals.

There is a new innovative, powerful and proven approach to word of mouth, called referral marketing. In brief, referral marketing is a very proactive, structured and systematic process (focusing on your customers) to encourage your customers to think and talk a great more about your company, your products and services (to get them to focus on you). This generates more testimonials, endorsements and referrals which is definitely the best type of business to have.

With referral marketing you go from the “spontaneous” situation to “proactive and highly productive” solution, which is based on a simple programme you set up in your business to greatly increase your customer’s appreciation, knowledge, satisfaction and loyalty of your company and your products and services.

A referral marketing programme is a powerful, structured and systematic process that will maximise your word of mouth referral business.

Such a programme is simple to develop and operate and It will quickly and continuously produce exceptional results and eventfully work “automatically” in your business.

Main elements of a referral marketing programme consist of:

1. Database / CRM Programme - to constantly build your contact base and manage your marketing programme.

2. A “Referral Marketing” Plan - developed with ALL staff, customers and suppliers.

3. A Strategic Customer Care Programme – the absolute core of your referral programme. Developed as per Referral Marketing Plan.

4. Referral Marketing Strategies (Over 105 strategies to consider)

5. Customer Incentive Policies – How you intend to reward your customers

6. Constantly ask “Why should people do business with us?” and “Why should our customers refer us?” and provide maximum solutions to these questions.

The Benefits of Referral Marketing

Compared to traditional marketing strategies, there are many benefits available from referral marketing and these include;

INCREASING: your credibility, leads, sales, customers, profits, referrals, customer satisfaction and loyalty, continuous business growth and market leadership.

You also greatly REDUCE: your traditional marketing costs and threats from competition

In conclusion

There are only a small percentage of companies who can TRULY state they are “Customer Focused” and use a professionally referral marketing programme in their business. The few I have come across, or have I helped in my professional capacity to become “Customer Focused”, enjoy an incredible advantage over other companies. This advantage is mostly based on having a “True Partnership” with their customers, where both parties totally focus and invest their time and money to gain maximum benefit and value from each other.

Referral Marketing Calculator: To see how much potential referral business you can gain through having a referral marketing programme go to

http://www.goldnetreferralmarketing.co.uk/calculator.php

How to Get Great Credibility and Contacts at Networking Meetings

I attended a new networking meeting before last Christmas with a good friend of mine Mike Preston. Before going into the meeting we agreed try out an experimental networking idea of mine as follows;

# Work the room separately, but keep each other in sight

# At the end of our conversation with people we meet, state;

"I'm enjoying the event and there are some great people here worth knowing. One chap really worth getting to know is Mike Preston, he is that chap over there (pointing to Mike).

Mike is one of the most successful sales and marketing trainers in the UK, a top networker and well connected with a contact base to die for". If there's one chap worth meeting today its Mike".

Make your excuses and then move on leaving the person you were talking too free to consider going to your "Referral Buddy". In turn Mike worked the room making referrals for me using a similar approach.

When Mike and I tried this idea very loosely on just the one occasion, we found it worked extremely well for both of us. We both received some great contacts, some of whom were very keen to introduce themselves to us (wonder why!!).

At one point at this event I was speaking to a lady when I noticed her glancing behind me, I looked around to see a queue of 4 people standing patiently waiting to speak to me, Mike had obviously been very busy "promoting" me. I did panic at first on who to talk too, thinking the rest will go away if I ignored them, but I got around this by handing out business cards to all of them and promising to come back to them in turn over the next 20 minutes.

I will consider and refine this idea more for future use; you should try this as well as it can be very powerful, but be careful you don't come across as too well rehearsed or "pushy".

Referral Marketing Calculator: To see how much potential referral business you can gain through having a referral marketing programme go to

http://www.goldnetreferralmarketing.co.uk/calculator.php

How to Successfully Ask For Referrals

Don't like asking for referrals, Vince Golder shares some powerful ideas on how you can "Invite" customers to give you referrals, rather than asking direct

Many business owners and sellers find they have a natural resistance to asking customers for referrals. Why? The simple answer is FEAR. Many sellers are afraid of turning off current customers by asking them for the names and contact information of their friends and acquaintances.

When I ask business owners if they ask for referrals, many quickly reply “Oh no we never ask for referrals, that is so unprofessional and sounds desperate!!”. I know in reality they are afraid to do so and asking for referrals is not “unprofessional and desperate, in fact it is very much the reverse when done properly.

Such fears are unfounded and most companies are missing out on a potential massive amount of business just by not asking for referrals. Most companies only receive 40% of the referrals they should be getting and there are many reasons why?

The main reasons are due to a lack of a structured referral marketing programme, customers are busy people and refer spontaneously and what I call “referral apathy” i.e. some customers consider they pay good money for your products or services, which they know they can easily get from other companies, so why should they go to the trouble to refer your business?

Any company can literately double their business annually by having a structured referral marketing programme which includes a sound “referral policy” in their business.

The good news is that you do not have to ask for referrals DIRECTLY, you can “invite” customers to voluntarily give you referrals using various professional approaches.

The fact is you’ll never harm your relationships with your customers by simply asking them for referrals. If you have an excellent relationship with your customers and they fully appreciate and understand the benefits and value you give them, then you will definitely have no problem in getting referrals on request. All customers know that you are interested in making more sales. They won’t blame you for that.

If they don’t give you a referral when you ask for one, their lack of response only means they have other things on their mind at the moment, or that they may have an issue with you, which you must seek to resolve ASAP. The very worst that can happen is that they’ll say no and if they do then just say “thanks anyway” and move on to the next customer. It is very unlikely people will say no directly, they will probably say OK and then do nothing.

You will probably find that fully 50% of customers and contacts you ask for a referral will gladly comply. So think of it this way: If you ask 200 people for a referral, you'll get an average of 100 new WARM leads. That’s 100 more new warm prospects than you would have if you never asked at all! So it’s easy to see that you have everything to gain, and absolutely nothing to lose by just asking!

You can bolster the percentage of positive responses from requesting referrals from 50% to 75% by simply using many professional, proven referral methods which include.

Having an Official “Referral Policy”

How many businesses do you know that have a referral policy? Not many I bet so why not beat them to it and have your own. Maintain an official referral policy within your customer charter (if you have one) and display in on your Web site, your written proposals and bids, on your statements and invoices, even on the back of your business cards.

A referral policy tells your customers UP FRONT that you both GIVE referrals and would like to receive them. This briefs customers on the way you work and consciously encourages them into referring you more.

One of the best ways to GET referrals is to GIVE referrals

Reciprocal Referrals

When you offer referrals to customers first (B2B), you’ll be in an excellent position to ask for referrals in return.

Project Evaluation Meetings

One of the best responses I get to asking for referrals is after I have conducted a “project evaluation” meeting, where you meet regularly with your customer during and after a project, to assess the work you have done. If the customer is pleased with any positive results achieved, then that is a great time to “invite” referrals, suggested script as follows;

“So John, you will see that the project has exceeded your agreed targets within specified time and well within budget, sales are up and costs are down, making for a much higher profit, are you pleased with these results?”

Your customer replies and confirms that they are indeed extremely pleased.

You can continue with saying;

“That’s excellent John, I’m glad you are really pleased with the benefits of my work. John I wonder if you could help me?

I’m looking to work with some good companies who would be interested in gaining the same benefits as you have done. Do you know of any other companies who you could help by introducing me and my services?”

Another way to make this approach could be based on saying

“Do you know of anyone else who would like to receive the same benefits?”

You can adapt and use the same line on any consumer or business product or service.

Project evaluation meetings are also an excellent opportunity to obtain testimonials and case studies from customers.

Letter of Appreciation

How many times do you receive a “Thank You for Your Business Letter” from your suppliers? Do you send such a letter to your own customers?

In addition to any hospitality you give your customers, you also send them a formal simple letter annually (prior to end of year) thanking them for their business for that year, sincerely stating that your and your staff’ appreciate their business and look forward to a continuing business relationship or “partnership”. Within this letter you can incorporate a simple customer survey and referral request.

The Letter of Appreciation idea is such a powerful and simple strategy, which has gained me and my own customers many referrals over the years.

Important, ALWAYS Remember to thank your referrers no matter results, better both verbally and in writing and especially inform them of any progress with their referrals.

In conclusion there are many more ways you can successfully and “professionally” ask for referrals, what you have to do is work out an official structured programme on how you and your staff can best first “qualify” for referrals, how and when you intend to ask for referrals, how you follow-up on them etc.

Get this right and I’m confident you see quickly see a huge dramatic increase in your referrals and business at zero / min. cost.

Referral Marketing Calculator: To see how much potential referral business you can gain through having a referral marketing programme go to http://www.goldnetreferralmarketing.co.uk/calculator.php

Customers, The Best “Sales Force” in Your Business

You have a powerful “Sales Team” in your business and they are your customers. All you have to do is earn their respect, develop best relationship, show them you appreciate their business, regularly communicate with them, educate them on the benefits and value you give, “train” them how to refer you and reward them for doing so and they will bring you all the business you can handle.

If you develop and operate a professional referral marketing programme in your company, there is no reason why you should not at least increase your business dramatically.

In brief a referral marketing programme is a structured and systematic process which you apply in a programme, which encourages, educates and rewards your customers and contacts to think and enthusiastically talk about you a great deal more.

For example on how much referral business you can gain, and have possibly lost, try the “Referral Calculator” at:

http://www.goldnetreferralmarketing.co.uk/calculator.php