The ultimate form of leverage is the joint venture. There are many definitions and types of joint ventures. One of the most powerful for your business is a host beneficiary joint venture.
This is when another company, the host, will promote you to their clients at no cost to you! In other words, the host may have invested millions over the year to develop their list of clients and now they are willing and happily wanting to endorse you to their list! That makes you the beneficiary in the relationship!
You are adding tremendous value to the host because you may be doing a webinar or teleseminar and providing a great level of education to the host’s clients.
Strategies to Determine if Someone is a Fit for a Joint Venture:
In our case, we do a webinar to educate business owners how to access $ 150,000 of business credit (both vendor and trade lines of credit).
Now, if you have a list of business owners who are struggling in today’s economy you may be more than happy to have me provide an education webinar on this subject to your list because it adds value!
It makes you look good because you are doing webinars to educate your clients. It still amazes me how many business owners do not educate their clients through teleseminars and webinars.
There is a major bank in Las Vegas that now does monthly webinars to their clients (after I trained them on the marketing value).
You may get to the point that you have offers every week (like we do-a good problem to have) for a host beneficiary relationship.
The key is to have criteria to determine if someone is a good fit for you to be the host or the beneficiary. It is temping to always be willing to be the beneficiary (heck, at least the host has to email his list to announce your webinar)!
Caution…even being the beneficiary takes time to prepare, especially for a webinar, to adjust your offer, update slides…and if you have 10 people on the webinar, it may not be worthwhile.
There are many other factors involved. Let me address a few:
Your business as the beneficiary (items you will want to find out):
* How many people will be on the webinar or teleseminar?
* Does the host have webinars or teleseminar regularly?
* Is the host a reputable company? Check them out with the Better Business Bureau, on the internet with Dun and Bradstreet(R)…Keep in mind especially on the internet, any company of any size or length of time in business, is going to have a couple of negative comments online, the key is to find mostly positive items.
* Are you expected to make an offer at the end of your webinar or teleseminar? Or are you presenting to the host’s membership group and perhaps they only want a soft offer like a free report or consultation to get a hold of you.
* If you are expected to sell, find out what the affiliate split may be. What is the price point their group is used to offering. If you are selling, will the host be providing a link to their shopping cart for the transaction? Are they collecting the money? If so, when do you get paid? Is there a guarantee supposed to be offered? How long is the offer good for?
* Do you have to promote the webinar to your own list? Many times a host will require this because then your list will have to opt into the webinar or teleseminar which will help build the host’s list! This is not always the case, but it does come up.
Your Business as a Host:
* What is the product or service the beneficiary wants to offer to your list? Does it add value and it is a fit?
* Check out the host on the internet, Better Business Bureau and look for testimonials on their site for their product or service.
* Does the host often conduct teleseminars or webinars to their list? Do they often communicate to their list? If they do not, odds are the results will not be good.
* What price point is their list used too? What success have they had recently with offerings to their list?
* If you do a teleseminar or webinar, does the host want you to make a soft offer for a bonus report or actually a hard offer and make a one-time offer to close on the teleseminar or webinar?
* Find out if they have membership groups you are presenting to vs. their clients or prospects. Many times there is a very different approach.
Strategies to Determine if Someone is a Fit for a Joint Venture with your Business!
* Make sure you make money for the host if sales are required. Make sure you follow up.
* Find out the financial arrangement. If the host is processing the money, is there a financial agreement you sign that clearly lays out when you will get paid, the refund policy and expectation on delivery.
* Who is doing the follow up? Is there a system in place for follow up to help the sales process?
As you can see there are many components to a successful joint venture or host beneficiary relationship. The more you can automate this process and make it turnkey, the more leverage you will receive and profits to your business.
Scott Letourneau, CEO of Nevada Corporate Planners, Inc. Since 1997, NCP has helped more than 5,500 clients get their businesses off to a fast start!
Go to http://www.TheUltimateJointVentureBootCamp.com to find out how you can master this ultimate form of leverage in Las Vegas January 28-30, 2011!