In the past I made the mistake you mention of not doing enough research before making contact with someone, and it burned the relationship. Since then I've made sure to be a lot more careful about doing my research, and it makes a huge difference.
I'd like to also add a tip for folks who are not making the basic mistakes noted above, but who might still be having problems gaining traction with JVs. In particular, I know it can be super challenging to get people to follow through, and taking some guidance from Brian Tracey's sales training has helped me a lot.
So, here's the suggestion...
As soon as you gain interest from someone, get them on to a voice call. I've found that it is really challenging to keep someone's attention through a series of back and forth email messages about setting up a JV. On the other hand, once you get someone on a phone call, you have their full attention, at least for the time that you are on the call. This makes doing research in advance of the call even more important, because you want to make sure you know what you are doing before you have your hot JV project on the phone.
Finally, before you get off the phone with your hot JV prospect, you should make sure that you have a follow up call scheduled to review your progress on the JV you are setting up to keep things moving. Just because you got someone on the phone once, doesn't mean you'll keep their attention when you have future email conversations with them. Also, scheduling a follow up call helps keep everyone accountable to moving things forward because there is a deadline to meet.
So, in summary:
`As soon as you gain interest from a JV prospect, get them on a voice call
`Whenever you are getting off a call with a JV prospect, make sure you book a follow up call to check in on your progress and to keep things moving forward.
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