The Beginner’s Guide to Getting Joint Ventures – Part 1 Approaching Potential JV Partners

Joint ventures are a marvelous way to get your product in front of a lot  of people quickly. Better yet, getting your joint venture partner’s recommendation can significantly increase both sales and sign ups onto your own list. But that’s the good news – the bad news is anyone with a list gets approached day in and day out by numerous JV seekers, and the vast majority of those requests are either ignored or rejected.
So how can you be the one who receives the coveted “yes” answer next time you approach someone for a joint venture?

Here are 4 techniques that I’ve found work especially well…

First, make your initial contact all about the joint venture partner and NOT about you. Instead of telling them what’s in it for you, tell them what’s in it for them. I don’t know how many times I’ve received emails that go something like this: “I need you to promote my new product to your list because then I can make sales and add people to my own list. Oh yes, and I’ll pay you 50% commission.”

Whoopee. Can you imagine the excitement a list owner feels when receiving an email like this? There’s a reason this type of email doesn’t even get a response. Look, everyone is tuned into that same radio station you’ve heard so much about, WIIFM: What’s In It For Me? A list owner can get 50% in commissions anytime and anywhere without having to do a joint venture.

This is why it is imperative that you stand apart from the crowd and offer the list owner something far more valuable than 50% on sales. Think for a moment – what is it that you’re really good at? Is it writing articles? Building squeeze pages? Writing sales copy? Social Marketing? Whatever it is, offer your potential JV partner your service in exchange for promoting your product, along with a good commission.

For example, if you’re good at writing articles, offer to write a dozen or more  on the topics of their choice and pay them 50 -70% commission on sales. Now this is an offer that is likely to get their attention. Sure it’s going to take you some extra time, but so what? You’ll be making sales, building your list, and most importantly, forging a relationship with your new JV partner.

Second, consider giving away all of your commission on the front end product. If your product converts well and sells for a good price, this will get the attention of many list owners. You’ll capture their attention even faster if you also pay immediate commissions or set it up so that commissions are paid straight into their Paypal account.

Why would you give away all of your commissions? You’re not. First of all, you’re building your list with buyers, and buyers are wonderful indeed when it comes to promoting other products in the future. In fact, it’s been estimated that one buyer on your list is worth as many as 35 freebie seekers in terms of future revenue. Second, by placing a one time offer in the sales sequence you can also make money up front. You can either keep 100% of the commissions on the OTO, or split the commissions with your partner.

Third, treat your JV Partner like someone more important than an affiliate. Set up a deal in which several JV Partners and yourself contribute products into one big product package, and then launch the package just as you would a product. Divide the commissions accordingly (Delavo does this beautifully for you) and everyone wins because everyone promotes to their own lists, ensuring there is plenty of exposure to the offer. Plus, each participant grows their own list full of new purchasers of the event.

Another possibility – work together to create a new product. This doesn’t have to mean the two of you sit down in a room together and hammer out the product. Rather, each of you would complete certain portions of it on your own as a collaboration. For example, you might write the intro, they write the outline, you fill the outline in, you create the video and they write the sales letter (just an example, it will differ wildly for everyone.) You can even do a collaboration with 3 or more JV Partners. Just think – the more partners involved, the more lists you can promote your new product to.

Fourth, warm up your potential JV Partner before you pop the JV question. Instead of immediately asking them for a JV, ask them for an interview instead. Or ask if you can promote their latest product, or ask if you can write an article about them for your blog, etc. In other words, see what you can do to help them first. If you are sincere about this, the law of reciprocity will kick in, and sooner or later they’ll want to repay the favor. That’s why when you ask them down the road to promote your high quality product, they probably won’t even hesitate to say yes.

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