One of the best ways to increase your reach to potential clients quickly is by creating a joint venture: forming partnerships with other successful people can skyrocket your exposure to your ideal clients, build your list and help fill your practice.
The first step is to determine who would be a good joint venture partner. Here are a few things to consider about your JV prospects:
- Do you feel good about the material they share?
- Do they have a good reputation in the industry?
- Do they have the same ideal clients you want?
Obviously, what would work great for your business is to connect with someone who has a bigger list than you. (Owners with similar size lists can also work.) So how do you appeal to these bigger business people? What do you say to start the conversation?
When approaching potential partners, start by offering to help. “How can I help you? What value can I add to your network in a way that you are not offering now? I respect what you do.”
When you approach a joint venture in this way, you aren’t asking for anything and are offering to help. So, you soften the potential partner to the idea of working with you and break down barriers to get involved.
People come to me all the time and say, “Will you promote my dog sitting book to your list of 75,000 people?” Many just expect I’ve got a large list and want to promote their stuff, but the truth is, this wouldn’t be a true partnership and it wouldn’t serve the people on my list. Sometimes the potential JV will offer me a cut from each sale, but that won’t help me build my business. We have to look at JV’s carefully, especially when they are somewhat disproportionate.
On the other hand, when I reach out to someone who’s got two million people on their list of women business owners, I don’t say, “What can you do for me?” That just doesn’t work. No, I show up saying, “What can I do for you?” This is how I’ve successfully created joint venture partnerships, even when my list was the smaller of the two. I will offer to do something free for these partners and as a result, work with organizations that have thousands and thousands of my ideal clients. I ask if I can speak for free or offer something for free. The exposure, publicity and goodwill that comes from it produces a lot of benefit for me as I attract new clients and build my list.
Your Client Attraction Assignment
Looking for joint venture partners? Spend time carefully selecting who you want to approach and look for people who also work with the same ideal clients. Approach a potential JV by offering to help and find out what they need. If your ideas don’t fit, they might have ideas that will work for you both.
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