Dr. Mani
Ezine Marketing Center
The key to the popularity and success in joint venture deal making lies in a powerful principle called "leverage".
In simple terms, leverage is the concept of getting incrementally higher value out of everything you say, do, or even think. In practical terms, it means putting whatever you do to use in several different ways, or tapping into multiple avenues of utilization, so that whatever you invest into a project pays off many times more.
In marketing terms, leverage can come from tweaking your own efforts to be effective in many different ways. Or it can mean tapping into other people's assets, acquiring access to them ethically and in a mutually beneficial manner, to attain leverage of your own efforts.
This kind of leverage can speed up, simplify and vastly increase the impact of your marketing - because it feeds on the trust, relationships and strengths of your joint venture partner. It is what used to be called using "OPT-OPM-OPR" - other people's time, other people's money and other people's resources.
Think about it for a minute. Let's say you set out to dominate a niche. You can do it two ways. You may work hard, spend money and take your time to establish your 'beach-head' in the market. You may then do more to grow your reputation, establish trust with your prospects, sell them something of high value, delight your customers, and hope that enough of them tell their friends about you and your business.
Or you may choose the other way, which employs marketing leverage. You could approach the top players in that niche, make them a 'hard to resist' offer which will benefit both sides, and short-circuit the entire process - by getting introduced in a positive way to their hard-earned audience. In one fell sweep, you cut through all the clutter of competition, avoid all the difficult work of building and nurturing your own brand by yourself, and speed up the lengthy process of trust development.
But of course doing these deals is not simple, easy, or even quick. Just worthwhile.
It also requires that you have some unique insight into the real assets you are setting out to tap. For many beginners, and even some relatively experienced marketers, this is often limited to just one thing - their JV partners' email list of subscribers. How many times have you heard this (or thought it yourself): "If only I could JV with ______ - he's got a list of 100,000+, with just 1% conversion, I could make 1,000 sales..."
That's tunnel-vision. And ignores the big picture. We'll explore that.
Let's start with one element - "other people's network". These are connections, contacts, friends and clients that your ideal JV partner has access to - and can share with you. Over fifteen years in my online business, I have built up relationships with literally hundreds of people, many of whom trust me.
Now, if you contact me for a promotion to my list and I accept, I might deliver a few hundred sales - or none. Nothing's guaranteed about that either. But when you shoot me an email saying, in effect, "Hey, Dr.Mani. I've got this hot-selling product you can make a cool 75% on. It's converting at 6.3%, want to mail out and make bank?" - you're telling me something about you. That it's all about that quick sale, the front-end profit, the 'Operation Money Su.ck'. I'm not going to talk about you and your product to anyone - even if I do a straight promotion for you.
On the other hand, look at what Chris Jones did recently. He approached me with an offer that was broader based. It appealed to me. We created a product and offered it as a special on the Warrior Forum. Made nearly 100 sales. But it didn't end there. We're working on another project - a membership style one. Other ideas are on the back-burner. Plus I'm telling you today about Chris.
Are you seeing what happened?
Not only did this 'right' JV approach lead to a deal, it tapped into something bigger - my network. A month ago, I didn't even know the guy. Today, I'm telling you about him! Isn't that cool?
Now you, or one of the thousands of people reading this, may contact Chris Jones about something else. New opportunities open up for him. Some may well be far more lucrative, fulfilling and rewarding than the experience of working with me on a $20 ebook promotion.
That's marketing leverage.
It takes one marketing action, and levers it into something that reaches further, has many times more power and impact, and multiplies its value - by seeing what so many others fail to see. It's these "invisible money connections" that are all around us which make the big difference in the results different people experience - from what is essentially the same action or effort.
Mark Victor Hansen's book, "Cracking the Millionaire Code" is an excellent guide to study on the subject. And in a short report about our joint project, Chris and I shared our perspectives about the JV that kicked it off. You can pick up "Lightning Fast JV" here - http://bit.ly/lightningjv - and learn the nuances.
But what really matters is understanding - REALLY understanding - marketing leverage... and then consciously applying it in every action you take with your JV deal making.
Learn to see beyond the obvious. Realize that everyone matters, in ways you cannot even imagine. Just one casual contact, a word to the right person, even a random tweet or Facebook page update, can magically turn around your brand, sales, and level of success... if you understand what's happening around you - and leverage it!
By Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian
... the Internet Infopreneur!