Day 26: The Benefits of Joint Ventures

Wow, just two days to go before the end of the Customer Love Challenge! Please welcome our final guest poster for #customerlove, Tim Morris from Intentional Influence:

We have seen an awesome example this past month with LaVonne Ellis of The Complete Flake and David Crandall of Heroic Destiny setting up this challenge for Customer Love. We all see it from the finished end and love it, we benefit from not one, but two great people.

I think we would all agree that there is value in doing a Joint Venture but for some reason we do not see them on every site. Below I would like to provide some reasons that they are highly beneficial and then give you a few simple steps that will help you start and launch a Joint Venture in the next month.

Why do Joint Ventures?

• To love on your customers. When you jump into a Joint Venture (JV) you create more value for your customers. They now have the opportunity to gain from multiple people. While you are directing some traffic to your partner, your customers will stay with you because you are offering them more. At least the customers that matter.
• To double your impact. One of the benefits that you immediately gain from a JV is a larger pool of customers. When you launch your product you can do so on every site represented in the JV. This allows for multiple audiences. Just as you will offer clicks to your JV partners they will do the same. Your exposure multiples by the number of sites it can launch on. This equates to more traffic on your site. No matter how you break it down that is a good thing!
• To build relationships. There is great value in the time and energy it takes to run a JV. During that time you will get to know your partners quite well. If these are people you already know well then you will be able to learn more and take your relationship deeper. If you do not know them well, and maybe have only interacted with them online, then a JV gives you the opportunity to build that relationship quickly. I have found that one month on a JV is equivalent to 6 months the normal way when building relationships online.

I’m in – What do I need to do first?

If you have interacted with people through a JV in the past you hopefully have experienced some of these benefits. If you want to really get the most out of it then you need to interact with it in a way that makes your partners love you. As you begin the process, regardless of who you work with and what you do, remember these few tips.

1. Be yourself. No one wants to work with a fake. Though it might in tempting to speak highly of yourself, just speak accurately so that you know what you can put together as a team. Be honest about your weaknesses as well. Time management and time you have available can really discourage the team if they are not discussed up front. Odds are if people want to pursue a project with you they will not mind your weaknesses, they probably already know about them.
2. Be respectful. The tempting thing is to do a JV where it launches only on your site and you do not share links with your partners. Do not do this. If it is a product for sale, split the income evenly, depending on the work done that may not be 50/50 but do not cheat your partner. This also means that you can’t host the finished product all alone, unless otherwise discussed. As a team you need to allow all parties to reap the benefits of the collective work.
3. Be on time. If you say that you are going to provide something for the team by a certain time make sure you do it. You need to be dependable, this will really make your team love you. Josh Crocker of Taking Fun Seriously is the man with this. I have worked with him often and he is always on time. It makes me want to send you to his site, as well as find new projects to do with him. I know he will be there.

Getting started and making it happen.

Make no mistake about it, there are a few hurdles to get over and it is a bit stressful, but the rewards are worth it. There are two ways, I have found, to go after a JV.

• Person Driven. When you have a person in mind that you want to work with, you can seek out your strengths and what you have to offer together and then go from there. This is highly effective with building relationships with people.
• Project Driven. This happens when you know what you want to create and have decided you want to do it as a JV. Now you need to find the people to help you make it happen.

Once you decide what you want to do and who you want to do it with. You need to take the next few steps to make it become a reality.

• Outline the process. Make a short outline of everything that needs to happen to launch. Whether you need to start from the finished product and work backwards into the details or the other way around make sure you put it on paper (Word Doc or something).
• Set a date. You need to see all the steps so you can accurately set a launch date. This is the date that must be kept. For guidelines for how to make the date read Linchpin by Seth Godin.
• Dish out responsibilities. Once you have a date you can decide who is doing what and when each piece needs to be done by. Make sure you give yourselves enough time to make refinements.

As you move forward use all the tools available to you on the internet. Use Skype, doc sharing sites, outsourcing opportunities and instant message tools.

As you move ahead from here know that the hardest part of all of this is nailing down your product and your team. Once you have those two things figured out you can move forward with confidence.

Take Away Thought.

Your efforts are always worth it anytime you do something to show your customers that you appreciate them. That being said one way you can offer them something great is, like Lavonne and Crandall, do a JV that they will be able to gain from you as well as others.

Let me know of any JV’s that are happening and I will mention them on my site. All you have to do is let us know of your projects in the comments. We want to know what you are going to do in the coming months for your customers. We can not wait to hear what you are going to do to continue loving your customers.

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